High Plains hideout

Sept. 27, Dodge City-Meade, 46 miles, NE wind, 75/40—Today's crisp air makes it feel like I'm on the High Plains—just a mild day, actually—and the look of the land says the same: less irrigated crops, mostly cattle and oil wells. If people insist on calling the Plains flat (which contradicts the experience of my legs), at least they're tilted. I'm now at 2,500 feet and from here the ramp of the Plains continues west all the way to the Front Range, base of the Rocky Mountains. Denver, at the edge of the Plains, is over 5,000 ft, Cheyenne, Wyo. over 6,000 ft., and neither is in the mountains.

Halfway to Meade I had a classic bike trip moment. I happened to be sitting on a bench in front of Minneola's senior center right at noon. Ted was on his way inside and invited me to join the rest of the local seniors for lunch. Fortunately I washed up before entering the dining room. When I walked in about 30 people applauded, and I was directed to the podium to give a short talk about my trip. After a few questions from the audience I enjoyed a taco salad, said my goodbyes, and set out for Meade. It's too bad it took me so long to discover this lunchtime strategy.

Meade is known for the Dalton gang's hideout at their sister's house. Marc, who manages the museum for the county, was steeped in Wild West history, especially buffalo hunters and outlaws. I'd heard in Dodge City that he does a mean Doc Holliday and places high in national living-history competitions. In fact, he was in Doc's clothes when I arrived; he'd just returned from a Dodge City function playing Doc. He loved to talk about frontier history and told me stories of the Dalton gang, Wyatt Earp-Doc Holliday-Tombstone-OK Corral, gunfighters, and good Hollywood westerns.

Marc had also developed an overly romantic streak about outlaws, I think. Most "weren't such bad guys," he said, though he admitted some like Billy the Kid were psychopaths. He did make a good case for Emmet Dalton, who—after the rest of the gang was gunned down at a simultaneous double bank robbery in Coffeyville, Kan.—was released early for good behavior, went to Hollywood, and got on famously consulting and acting in early westerns.

Meade County was at the epicenter of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. We're now in another prolonged drought, the length of which varies by place and person I talk to, but it's around 4-8 years long. The peak of Plains settlement in the 1870s and 1880s came during an unusually wet period—giving rise to the saying "rain follows the plow"—and made everyone think this was typical. Ever since people have been finding out it's not.