“… I find holy redemption
When I put this car in drive
Roll the windows down and turn up the dial” -Maren Morris
Can I get a Hallelujah, an Amen? Today deserves one of each. Even though it was eight and a half hours of driving, today started actually feeling like RTXVIII. Maybe my Kansas City bashing yesterday was a little over the top and more a result of making the transition from home to road. I think it may have been the absurdity of waking up to a marching band race going on in the parking lot of the movie theater next to our hotel that helped me turn the corner. I’ll cut you a break KC, if we ever pass through that area I’ll give you one more chance. I wouldn’t want to miss the BBQ there anyway.
After puzzling over the meaning of whatever was going on in the parking lot we grabbed some breakfast, reloaded Fred, and hit the road. Our first destination was a quick 30 minute hop to Topeka and the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site. We toured the first floor of Monroe Elementary School and took in the many well-done exhibits on the history of that particular location as well as the larger civil rights movement. One of the most interesting things I learned that was in the five years between when the original court case was filed and the final supreme court ruling Topeka had already begun desegregating. A local paper from the day the decision was handed down quoted the school board president and superintendent who explained how three schools had been desegregated the previous year with five more scheduled for the upcoming year. They also hoped to serve as a model for other school systems as they began their desegregation efforts.
Outside the school a nearby building is currently being painted with a mural that I think can only be done justice with the photo I’ve attached below.
Molly took the first big driving shift of the day and I pretty quickly got to work catching up with writing some ZAKFacts. Since I strive for absolute accuracy I was doing some research on the Bandelier NM website where I stumbled across the worst news we’ve heard today. Due to the high threat of wildfire throughout the entire Southwest Bandelier has closed its backcountry indefinitely. One of the down sides of planning this trip was that this part of the country is hot and dry in the summer which largely rules out backpacking. In fact, Bandelier was the only place in Arizona or New Mexico with reliable water and potentially nonoppressive temperatures. We had been planning on hiking in along the Frijoles River, spending a night, and returning along the canyon rim the next day.
Fortunately, we happen to still have a hotel reservation for that night since we weren’t completely sure which day we’d be leaving. Although we’re all a bit bummed we won’t get to see the Bandelier backcountry we will have to opportunity to see a bit more of Los Alamos and Santa Fe.
Our second NPS site of the day was Fort Larned NHS. Fort Larned was established to protect travelers and cargo travelling west on the Santa Fe Trail and played a large role in the conflicts between Native Americans and white settlers. The fort itself was amazingly well preserved which at first surprised us all a bit. As we discussed it more we realized that the structures were only about 150 years old and that a 150 year old building in the Eastern part of the country wouldn’t be surprising to see at all. We toured the officer’s quarters, barracks, commissary, blacksmith shop, and much more. We were also lucky enough to have a knowledgeable and enthusiastic volunteer explain a lot of the history and day-to-day life of the people who lived there.
After absorbing all the knowledge of Fort Larned we could in the little time we had we completed the last part of the day’s drive through the rest of Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas, and New Mexico. I’d been hoping we’d get our first authentic New Mexican taco tonight, but the local taco truck that supposedly has the best food in town was mysteriously closed. We settled for tacos at the 87 restaurant, an easy choice since the only open competitors seemed to be Subway and Dairy Queen. It was passable, but I have high hopes there’ll be many better tacos still to come.
