Wild West day 2

We got away from Fall River Lake right at 11 am, the precise time I plugged into my trip planner. We went straight through Wichita instead of taking the bypass around it. Wasn't bad at all. Of course, it was after lunch but before rush hour. From there it was pretty much Kansas, feed lot after feed lot and rolling hills gradually flattening out as we approached Dodge City. Made a brief stop at Walmart in Pratt to get a new road atlas. Our old one soaked up a bit of water some weeks back and was a little unruly. When I returned to the RV, I decided to rest a bit. An hour later, after I woke up, we continued on west to Dodge City. Dodge City was somewhat a disappointment back in the eighties when we were there last and it has not improved a bit. Just another tourist trap like so many other used to be historical sites. We continued on to Garden City and just the other side is Deerfield where we have stopped for the night. We're in a private campground, Deerfield Beach Campground. It's a Passport America campground where we get 1/2 off and that part was good. The campground itself, not so much. Seems this part of Kansas has had only about 1 inch of rain since last year. Consequently, the local wheat crop has failed and the usual crop harvest followers aren't following. It's just all dried up, including the campground's pride, their fishing lake (thus "Deerfield Beach") and campers, too. The comparison with last night's campground just ain't fair...apples to oranges.  Or maybe apples to prunes. If you look waaay back to the back of the park you can see several dead trees.  This green one here in the foreground and one up by the entrance are all that have survived. Our next door neighbor came riding in on his motorcycle.  Another younger fellow (turned out to be the motorcyclist son) came putting in on an ATV. He began working on it, revving up, shutting it down and then starting it up and revving some more.  Oh boy, this could be a pleasant night.  But, in a while, the older man came dragging up with a trailer behind his pickup.  They loaded the 4-wheeler and were gone. Then came the poor little pooch.  He was so hungry but so timid. I was busy washing the bugs off the front of the RV and filling the water tank and he would come up fairly close, but would not come any closer. If I made a move toward him he'd go scooting off, only to circle back around and re-approach. I finally set out a bowl of water and he came to that...still not very close. Then I poured him a little pile of dog food on an old board lying on the ground. When I backed away he pounced. He was a cutie and if we had been heading home instead of the other direction, I would have been tempted to try to gain his confidence and take him home. But alas, we left him there.