Oct 25--Pueblo, CO to Dodge City, KS

Today was a travel day, coming across eastern Colorado and western Kansas.  It was really interesting watching the landscape change as the miles went by.  To begin with, the land looked dry, unused even for pasture, not very productive.  Then you move into an area where there is some irrigation, and the fields look good.  The farther east you go, the flatter the land becomes, and the more productive.  There are LOTS of center pivot irrigation systems, enabling the land to produce corn, sorghum and hay and wheat. 

The majority of the corn that we saw was not harvested, although the mounds of corn on the ground in a few places showed that harvest was taking place.

We also drove past a number of feedlots of various sizes.  The interesting thing is that in western Kansas, the feedlots were full of Holstein critters.  When we got farther west, there were more beef breeds in the feedlots.  

And yes, they did smell like feedlots! :-)

We drove past one place that had an elevator and several piles of grain on the ground.  There were about 3 piles that were covered and 3 that were "in process".  From the dark red color of the grain, I believe that the uncovered piles were sorghum. We have no way of knowing what the covered piles contained.

Probably Sorghum

 

As we came past Garden City, we saw a many-acre fenced area that was full of rows upon rows of parts for wind generators.  There were hundreds of blades in one area, pedestals in another area, and parts that I could not identify.  In looking on the internet, it appears that it is a company that brings in the parts & pieces by rail, then ships them out to where they are needed by semi truck.  The article said that they have 50 acres--I think the company has grown since the article was written.  It was a truly amazing sight, and I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of it.

As we approached Dodge City, we noticed a cloud of what appeared to be smoke just hanging in that area.  Ted asked someone, and they said that it is grain dust produced by a large feed lot outside of town.  We pulled into Dodge City about supper time and spent the night in the Walmart parking lot.  When I exited the camper the next morning, I detected the odor of grain dust in the still morning air.  Brought back memories!