December 17, 2012

December 17, 2012

It is December. That means it is time for us to travel to colder climes to make us remember why we live in Tucson. It is not snowing yet, so after spending the night in Tucumcari, NM we decide to take the northern route, heading northeast along back roads across the panhandle of Oklahoma. This area, once known as "No Mans" land, because it wasn’t part of any state or territory, was the subject of a recent PBS show on the Dust bowl of the 1930’s. The panhandle was the epicenter of that southern plains disaster. Caused by drought and poor agricultural practices it added greatly to the distress of the Great Depression. Many “Okies” migrated to California in search of relief. Fortunately the ones who stayed learned to quit growing wheat in a semi-desert.

Crossing the border into Kansas we take a short break in the town of Liberal to see Kansas’ most famous residents, Dorothy and Toto. We see her house but it is not the one that landed on the wicked witch of Oz. Besides several statues of Dorothy, Liberal also has a statue of the Spaniard Francisco Coronado. What is he doing here? He seems out of place 1000 miles from Arizona. In his search for gold in the American Southwest, Coronado traveled all the way here before he realized he was being conned by his Indian guides.