Last night I woke to noise outside the camper. It sounded like the cooler lid opening and closing. When we checked in, Nancy was told that there are determined raccoons in this park. We never leave food or trash lying around our sites. The cooler had one bottle of beer and a sealed new container of milk sitting in the ice water. Our small refrigerator didn’t have room for these two items. I shone a flashlight out the window, but the cooler being tight against the camper was out of eyesight. The rattling continued. I opened the door to see a large, bigger than Moe, raccoon at the cooler. I chased it away, but it stayed within sight of me. Nancy is outside now. Moe is inside, hoping for his chance to battle with the intruder. We open the cooler to discover that the top plastic cap has been ripped off, and milk has colored the water white. Nancy goes back in to attempt quieting Moe. I dump the cooler, and Nancy empties what is left of the milk down the drain.
We go back to sleep until the dish drainer on the picnic table gets knocked to the ground. The menace runs off into the woods.
Morning comes. We dress and go outside to pick up the dishes and cook eggs and toast. After a slightly rushed coffee, we pack up to leave. Nancy cleans the dirty footprints out of the cooler.
The route to Colorado and the next campground is easy: one road north, one road west. At this junction, we turn east toward Dodge City to view the Santa Fe Trail wagon ruts. The sun is high in the sky, so it was difficult to see them, but we could. Unfortunately, in the photo, the ruts do not show as clearly as seen by eye.
Driving back to the route we see a Sonic. We stop for lunch. Then another stop in Lamar for ice and groceries.
We make it to the Hasty State Park on John Martin Lake. Camp is set, and we relax in the shade.
We are in Mountain Time. It is eight o’clock. Nancy is taking Moe for his evening walk while I finish this blog.
