From Perryton, TX to Centennial, CO in 7 Hours

I woke shortly after 0500hrs CST, this was after the daylight savings time change so my watch read 0600hrs. The hotel's automated "wake up call" machine must have been thrown off by the DST change since it never called me. No matter, luckily I woke on my own.

Sunrise in Perryton, TX

Two quick cups of coffee later, I packed up Maria, checked out of the hotel and was heading North towards the town of Liberal, KS.

I got to the Kansas border around 0800 I believe, sun was fully up and the weather was in the high 40s and low 50s.

An unfortunate confluence of Town Names?

the above sign, with "Dorothy's House", caught my eye and I ended up below

Maria with Dorothy's House in the background

Dorothy's House is located in the "Land of Oz"

I kept riding and making my way through Kansas in a northwesterly direction, through the towns of Liberal, Ulysses and Syracuse.

Along US50 aka the Santa Fe Trail, I spotted signs for Camp Amache. I was not going to stop till I saw a sign that state the camp was one of many Japanese relocation camps setup during WWII.

Being a history major, I had to stop and take a look. I short ride down a dirt trail I came to the remains of a barbed wire fence and a solitary sign depicting a map drawn by one of the ex-residents.


There was not much else to see as I did a quick ride around the camp, all that remains is the cement floors of the buildings which are long gone. LINK to Camp Amache information.

Update: 17may09: found another site for Amache info: LINK

Photo from above site

The rest of the day was just ride and fuel up, then ride some more. No stopping for food, just fuel for Maria. Sunny weather and windy conditions greeted me as I closed on Denver on the I-70 slab. The wind was pretty tough but only for a few miles, then things settled down. I really can't complain about the weather, it was damn near perfect the whole weekend.

Total miles today: 428 miles, total for the trip: 1024 miles.