Beaver Dunes having been a disappointment, we left early for Lake Meade State Park in Kansas. This is MUCH nicer!

And much cooler! The park is notable for its diverse bird population; sadly, wildfires only three weeks ago destroyed large sections of the park and surrounding areas. Watching birds gathering nesting materials, I wondered how many nests, eggs, and young were destroyed in the fires.

Plenty of adult birds remain, though.

I suppose midwesterners become inured to the sight of red-headed woodpeckers (they are pretty common here), but I never fail to thrill to the sight of these birds with their Mondrian-like blocks of black, white, and red.

All of the park’s trails were closed because of fire damage, so we opted instead to see what was going on in the nearby town of Meade. Driving in, I spotted a sign for the “Dalton Gang Hideout.” Looked interesting, so we swung in. Our tour almost ended before it began, as the elderly man in charge started in on some story about how he wanted to retire, and a woman was going to take over, but her 14-year-old daughter “thinks she wants to be a boy,” he said with disgust. I have a beloved trans niece, Russ a trans grandson, so I took umbrage. As things threatened to get heated, I stopped myself and informed the gentleman that we were not going to have this conversation. Good thing, too, since Russ was already backing away looking for an escape route.

Things got more congenial after that, and the host turned out to have a great deal of knowledge about local history. We toured the house (owned by the sister of the Dalton ‘boys’) and the tunnel they dug from the house to the barn for an escape route. In the end, members of the gang were shot and killed as they attempted to rob two banks in broad daylight in a nearby town. Brother Emmett survived the melee, though he must have looked like a strainer with the number of bullets and shotgun pellets he received. He did some 15 years in jail and ‘was a model citizen’ after that, according to our host.

Interestingly, (to me, at least) also in the upstairs room with the sewing machine was a treadle-driven tatting machine, something I’ve never heard of before. The sister was a milliner, so perhaps she used it for trimmings. Unfortunately, the host could not give us any information. They had two ‘beautiful’ ones in another museum this fellow had worked for. “Did they know how it worked?” I asked. “They didn’t know nuthin’,” he said with scorn.

We asked for recommendations for a place to eat, were told Bob’s Burgers was the place to go, and we found really good sandwiches and onion rings there. Even better, there was a nice city park nearby, so we went there to enjoy our meal at a shady picnic table with Moe.

And that’s where Moe met Sweety, his sister from another mother:

Back at camp, the evening turned cool and we were able to open the windows to fresh air for the first time in days. Excellent sleeping weather!