August 1, 2014 – Scott City, KS – population 3,816

Post date: Aug 1, 2014 8:01:34 PM

I am here in Scott City, KS, which is very appropriate because my kids have 3 uncle Scotts! – my brother, Doug’s brother and Hiedi’s husband. I pulled in at a gas station. Right behind it are 3 huge black oil tanks and the first one has a white outline of a beaver standing up with his arms crossed. It says ‘Go Beavers!’ Guess I’m in Kansas Beaver country. I’ve put all my pictures on Facebook. If you want to see those, send me a friend request. It’s easier that dealing with the blog picture process.

As far as wildlife goes, we camped at the city park in Ness, KS. It was also by the city swimming pool and we could swim for $1. Doug was the only one to take advantage of that this time. The showers at this city pool were cold – so I’m holding out for a warm one. The bathrooms were open all night. Doug and I walked over in the evening and discovered that the lights did not work. I stepped in the little tiny bathroom and started to close the door and something hopped behind the toilet. So I made Doug go in and help a frog out of the bathroom. The frogs here are different than what I’m used to. That’s why it was hard to tell what they were on the road the other day. The one in the bathroom was round and flat and blended in perfectly with the dirt/grass. They don’t hop very high and they are more of a blob than a defined green frog like Kermit. When we got back to the tent I found 2 spiders inside that I made Doug get for me. He is so patient. He hardly complained at all. There are a lot of big black beetles here. I was walking around the outside of the pool area and there were all these black pieces of something on the ground. They were beetle pieces. They looked like sunflower seed shells, but some were big enough to identify. The live ones are about an inch in length and have long legs, so they walk up off the ground a bit.

When the guys are riding and I drive ahead, I have to note the time we leave (which I forget to do most of the time), note how many miles we are traveling, and perform a series of complex math operations, which involve their rate of speed compared to local trains in the area, to determine how long it will take them to get to our destination. Every time I ask Doug when I should expect them, he says, ‘We ride 12 mph’. And he expects me to figure it out. So yesterday, we had decided to stay in Ness City at the park, but the guys were going to ride ahead 10 miles, to get in the numbers of miles they wanted for the day. I stayed back in my shady spot with my book at the park (‘The Fault In Our Stars’ – which I couldn’t put down and finished last night). I usually drive ahead and can find a good place to wait, but I knew they weren’t headed to a town, it would just be the side of the road, so I held back and tried to estimate when I should leave. They rode off at 2:00 and I figured it would take about 50 minutes for them to go 10 miles, so I left about 2:40. I didn’t take into consideration that, with the flat road, they are making really good time AND they have been having these little burst of speed contests while they are riding and they got up to 19 mph for a ways. I had turned off my phone because my battery was low so it would charge faster in the car. They got their 10 miles in at 2:35 and wondered where I was. So Doug was a little worried about me and called and texted. I was driving and didn’t have my phone on. Luckily, we have only had 2 times so far of not meeting up easily.

This after noon I am sitting in the library at Leoti, Kansas -population 1,534 (nice dog name- Leo). A lady came up and thought I looked familiar. I assured her it could not have been me, but she was very friendly and not afraid to ask. We were hoping to stay at the one and only motel in town, but they are full. That probably means another night in the city park (with 'bathrooms next door at the hospital'- according to our map). I drove and found the city park, but I did not see the adjacent hospital. I hope it hasn’t closed down!