Snow, Santa Fe Trail, and Wind!

Well, we woke up to two inches of powdery snow on Tuesday, in Woodland Park. Thank goodness, we unhooked everything except the power the night before! The snow really defined the mountains, and looked so pretty in the pine boughs. Corgi kids love snow, and they had a ball romping up and down the hills in it before a long day in the motor home. We filled up the RV with diesel for $3.12, so we felt very fortunate, as prices got higher as the day went on.
The wind was something else all day. Tumbleweeds blew, as the high winds persisted as the mountains changed into foothills, and then into the plains. We saw fields of pot-bellied prairie dogs, sunning from their holes. Later, we stopped at a rest area and the corgi kids, got up close and personal by putting their heads down into an abandoned prairie hole. There is no grass anywhere, it's all sand burrs and cedar trees and sage bush, which becomes tumbleweed, when dried. They're caught in all the fences.
We tend to stay off the interstate, and roam the unbeaten path when we have the time. We were on the Santa Fe Trail, most of yesterday and today into Kansas. We like the scenic byways, going through small towns, and seeing the real America. We belong to a Winnebago group called the Meanderers, and that's the perfect name for us!
We've seen fields of sunflowers, ready for harvest. Pheasants, tufted eared Abert's squirrels, which have long upright ears. Gray, with white bellies, they have black tips on their ears, and a bushy tail. Southeast Colorado is full of canyons and plains.
We slept at the John Martin Reservoir last night, close to the Kansas line, but still in CO. It was a state park, wide open, nothing but cedar or black locust trees, and empty, except for us. It was eerie with the howling wind, and believe me, I had visions of Halloween, and every horror movie ever watched in my youth, but eventually, fell asleep. The dogs loved it, and ran around like banshees.
Hey...we were alone, totally, and left our fee in an envelope and put it in a slot. The dam, and Hasty lake was right in front of us, so we had a pretty sunset.
Today, in Kansas, we found a wildlife refuge for bison, outside of Garden City. We saw the herd...from a distance. They shared their hilly range, full of sand and sage bush, with oil wells.
We stopped in Cimarron, at Clark's Pharmacy, where they still have a soda fountain. It was a cool drugstore, and the teen soda jerk girls were funny. We both had a black and white; which is a sundae, with chocolate sauce smeared on the inside of the glass, then vanilla ice cream, topped with chocolate sauce and marshmallow cream!
The girls didn't realize that their little town was so historic, and had a website full of info, and that their place of employment did as well! This is cattle country. The only hi-rises in this area, are the grain elevators and the cell towers.
Tonight, we're camped in Dodge City, Kansas. We plan to visit the Boot Hill Museum tomorrow. Cows rule here. We had supper at Casey's Cowtown Club, before coming out to the Gunsmoke Campground
To combat the wind, many homes are built into the side of a hill, facing south. These are called berm houses, and they're everywhere. Isn't it amazing, that this is ONE country, yet each state, is so different with their customs, speech, food, terrain. Cool beans....traveling is such an education. People are nice everywhere, if you're nice to them. There are poopheads everywhere too, but overall, it's grand out here on the road!