Alternate Arrangements

We are nearing the end of our 9 day vacation to Western Colorado.  We have left Fort Collins after a pleasant overnight stay at a motel there and a peek at NIST radio station WWV.  Heading out on Highway 34 through Greeley, we got into the Eastern plains of Colorado…countryside that we both are much more familiar with.

We stopped at a small park in Otis to use the restroom.  Normally, those kinds of facilities are notoriously unclean, so I went into my side first.  Finding it pleasantly serviceable, I told the wife, and we took advantage of the facilities there.  Otis, by the way, is a small town of about 600 folks…they evidently do a good job of keeping that little park clean.

We went on to Wray and found a restaurant on the west side.  It was a typical place like one would find in a small town.  We ate our lunch and the waitress asked us about dessert.  She said they had homemade strawberry ice cream, which I ordered.  More strawberries than ice cream, it was the perfect topper to the decent meal.

As we went on down the road, it became more and more apparent that we would run into some rain somewhere along the way.  We did…at Haigler, or rather, just south of Haigler as we entered into Kansas.  The showers were heavy at times, and lasted for about 20 miles or so until we got almost to St Francis.

Now the territory was more familiar to us.  We have both driven this road before, and some of the landmarks were still there from years ago.  Long stretches of wheat fields were ready to be cut.  They looked great, and I’m sure resulted in a lot of bushels per acre.  They got rains at just the right time for a bumper crop.

We entered Goodland, and rather quickly turned East on the old highway toward Edson.  Our motel for the night was the Kuhrt Ranch 9 miles north of Edson, owned and operated by the Flanders family.  Brent Flanders is the preacher at the Goodland Church of Christ, and invited us to stay there.

Turning north just west of Edson, we made our way to the ranch on the west side of the road.  We knew we would room in the bunkhouse, so we first went there.  Going in, it looked like someone was staying there.  We went to the house to see if Paul Flanders or his wife were home.  No one was there but a couple of outdoor dogs.  Not having Brent’s phone number or knowing where he lived, we went around the back to see if the patriarch, Jim Flanders was home.  No luck there either.

We were about to leave when I decided to follow another road path farther onto the section.  Sure enough, a newer house was back there.  I pulled up and got out.  I heard some people talking in the back yard.  Going back, I found them and as non-threateningly as I could (one never knows in this country who shoots first and asks questions later), told of our plight and asked if they knew Brent and Diana Flanders.

They did.  Turns out that the people who live there are Paul Flander’s wife’s parents.  And Paul is Brent and Diana’s son who lives in the house next to the bunkhouse.  She called Brent for me, and we got things straightened out.

It seems Paul and Brent weren’t together on the bunkhouse, and Paul had rented it to someone else for that weekend.  Brent graciously had gotten us a room at a motel in Goodland, and paid for it as well.  He also told us that they lived in Edson, and to come on in.  We said good-bye, went on in to Edson, and had a great conversation with Brent and Diana in their newer home on the edge (actually, all of Edson is kind of on the edge of town…) of town.  Then we went into Goodland where Brent put us up in the motel for the night.  They couldn’t put us in their home because they had relatives (sister Fawn and her family) staying with them that evening.