Research!

We started the day in Goodland, KS, and I was really excited to see the town where part of my new book will be taking place. One of the first things we noticed when we came in the night before was a huge easel with a print of one of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings. So that was our first stop to see it during the day. We read the guest book and checked out the electronic kiosk they had which offered information on restaurants, shops, churches and other points of interest. And right near it were some other local shops that I thought were exactly the kind of thing I would see in Goodland.

As we drove into the downtown area, we noticed a number of fun things. They had a sign that said “America’s 1^st Patented Helicopter”, and the marquee on the First Christian Church read, “TGIF: Thank God I’m Forgiven.” Their Main Street was a brick road, and we took a picture of a mural on the side of the On the Bricks Café. Many of the businesses had “NWKS District Free Fair Aug. 2-9” painted on their windows, and we discovered we missed their annual fair by one day. Doh! We also didn’t think about the possibility that on a Sunday in Kansas most of the businesses would be closed. We found a couple places open, like Casey’s General Store, the Goodland Activities Center (GAC), and the L & T Family Restaurant. When we went into the GAC they asked if they could help us. I said we were just wandering around town and she replied, “Well, you won’t find much open on a Sunday.” That confirmed it. J

We decided to check out the main drag anyway, and came across the Dr. A. C. Gulick Park (which Grant noticed sounded close to Dracula). We also found the office for their newspaper, The Goodland Star News, and picked up a copy at the general store. We saw the Goodland Churches Thrift Shop that had a lovely mural on the side. Murray’s Custom Body & Paint had over a dozen classic cars sitting in their lot. There was one section of town with a large factory called Iron Mueller Inc. And S & T Cable Channel 13 is their 

local station.

We also noticed their streets were set up in a different way. When you came to a 4-way intersection, two sides would have a stop sign and the other two sides simply had a dip in the road. I didn’t notice until the first time I drove through one going the regular speed limit and almost bottomed out the car! Thankfully they weren’t too deep! And we noticed it was perpetually windy, which carried the loud clicking sound of the cicadas all over town.

The homes and neighborhoods in the downtown area were pretty small, with box-like yards and plenty of kids’ toys and junkyard pieces in the front. We came across one house that had a mailbox and a weather vane made of car parts on the roof. The town didn’t look as small as Adams, MA (where I grew up) but a lot of the homes and buildings had a similar appearance.

We decided to get lunch at the S & T because I wanted to talk to some people in town before we left. We got there 15 minutes before they closed but they didn’t seem to mind. The waitress made sure to tell us what was “real” and what was from a can (there was only one thing, the red chilis, from a can). Grant noticed they had honey on the table, and that seemed to be a thing at a couple different places. And the accent from the handful of people we heard talk was only a slight drawl, nothing really heavy. We did have the pleasure of listening to our waitress chat with her husband, who came in from church. She asked him what the good word was, and he told her about the sermon. He also told her the pastor asked about her 5 times and why she wasn’t in church. When he said she was working the pastor said she needed to find a different job. She then told her husband, “Unfortunately I need this job, so that’s not realistic.” I liked that about her- she seemed religiously realistic.

After spending a couple hours in town it was time to depart and head off to our next destination, Frisco, CO. I felt good about all the little details we acquired from Goodland. So we left the farms behind and eventually entered “Colorful Colorado” at 3:40 p.m. At 4:20 p.m. we crossed the “Republican River” (we thought the time stamp was pretty funny) and shortly after that saw signs for the Little England Motel and Loaf ‘N’ Jug. It was around this area I was able to drive on cruise control for an hour with no problem. We later saw signs for Limon, Arriba, and Bouina, and other signs such as Hogbacks Parking, Colorado School of Mines, Rocky Mountain Arsenal near the National Wildlife Refuge, and those signs warning truckers- “Don’t be fooled. 4 more miles of steep grades.” We also saw a sign that said, “Correctional facility, do not stop for hitchhikers.” Then I caught the back of a car with a familiar logo on it. :)

The roads were clear but windy and steep, and I had to be careful not to gawk at the mountains too much or risk driving off them. We finally got to Frisco, and it was a charming mountain town. The wood buildings looked fairly new, and I felt as if we were on a movie set. We ate at a German place called Prost, which was connected to a mountain kitch shop. It was huge! Afterward we wandered around for a bit, enjoying the cooler temperatures, and then left at 8:30 p.m.

On the highway we saw signs for Copper Mountain right next to Leadville, River Dance (a campground), Silt, Rifle, Parachute, Mack, Cameo, the Trail through Time, and No Name. Yes, that’s right. At Exit 119 was a sign for No Name! We figured by that point the townspeople just got sick of coming up with names! Even funnier than that, though, was when we took the exit for Aspen for a bathroom break. The place we stopped at was called Kum & Go. No lie. And right next to it we saw the one thing we had been waiting for since entering the state- a group of guys smoking weed in public.

We finally found our way out of the mountains and left “colorful” Colorado behind to enter “Utah: Life Elevated.” We saw signs for places like Sulphur and Yellowcat, and knew it was going to be just as fun reading the signs in UT as it was in CO! They also had a sign that read, “Eagles on highway,” and Grant said he didn’t realize the band was playing random shows on highways (ha ha!). Our GPS signal agreed with us that there wasn’t much to see in UT, and we ended up stopping at a different hotel to ask how to get to ours! Oh well. We made it into Price, UT, and although the owner was really annoyed that we were so late (1:30 a.m.) he gave me the keys and we crashed.

The next update will be tomorrow, once we reach the new house. I can’t wait! Until then…

License plate we saw: (this was the slowest day yet for sightings!)
3:30- Wyoming