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LA or Bust - 2009 Trip - Day 5

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Start Location: Dodge City, KS
Ending Location: Gainesville, TX
Miles Today: 416
Trip Miles: 2225
States Visited: 8
National Parks Visited: 1
Low Temp: 68.3° F
High Temp: 96.3° F
Min Elevation: 613'
Max Elevation: 2640'

Route Map:




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As we were getting suited up this morning Linda said it was time to "get out of Dodge" - so we did.  Yesterday worked out so well that we decided to stay on secondary roads again today.  We took US 283 out of Dodge all the way to Vernon, Texas, and then took US 287 through Wichita Falls and finally US 82 to Gainesville.  Like yesterday, and the rest of the trip, there was no traffic on these secondary roads.  In fact, this morning I think we passed one vehicle and two vehicles passed us.

The scenery wasn't as spectacular as it had been through Utah and Colorado but it wouldn't have been any better on the Interstates and it is much less stressful traveling.  When you take these secondary roads it's always interesting to find things that you never planned on.  One example was the Shattuck Windmill Museum in Shattuck, OK.  It was interesting and Linda got a couple of good shots for posterity.  We saw some longhorn cattle in Oklahoma but decided to wait and get shots in Texas becasue there had to be longhorn cattle in Texas but haven't seen any yet.  We did however see several fields of camels - no idea what they were doing in Texas.

The skies were cloudy and threatening most of the day but we managed to dodge any rain until about 4:00 this afternoon just outside of Wichita Falls.  It started to rain gently and felt pretty good so we decided not to put on rain gear.  Unfortunately just as we left Wichita Falls and after we had gone under the last underpass where we could have stopped to add rain gear, it rained hard.  The temperature dropped almost 20 degrees in just a few minutes and it rained pretty much on and off the rest of the day.  We were somewhat wet when we got in tonight but we have had it much worse and I'm sure we will be all dried out by the morning.

We plan to continue on US 82 tomorrow to Texarkana, AR, and then head south and cross into Lousisana and finally get our 48th state.  After coming this far, that's one picture we can't miss.

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