To Hutchinson

There are still around 40,000 miles of "post rock" fencing in Kansas:

In the 1880s and 1890s, when the early settlers in Kansas wanted to fence their parcels of land and there were no trees to serve as fence posts, they substituted quarried limestone. The average fence post was 5-6 feet long, weighed 250-450 pounds, and cost 25 cents each delivered to the site.

Along the road today:

Fort Larned was an important military post along the Santa Fe Trail:

Quivira National Wildlife Refuge is quite dry due to a prolonged drought:

Since it was quite hot and getting late by the time Dick had ridden 50 miles, we drove the last bit to Hutchison. The possible camping opportunities in this city of 40,000 didn't exist, so we found a very nice and inexpensive motel in the downtown. It's so hot! Air conditioning will be nice tonight.

Miles = 2038