Our 45th State Visited

Our stay at the Wahlmeier Farms Vineyard in Kansas on Friday night, May 17th, completed the 45th state since beginning our travel adventures back in May 2022. Karen and I find it hard to believe we've been on the road for a little over two years! We are still totally enjoying the "nomad lifestyle" glamping along the way as we explore our beautiful nation and it's wonderful people.

With our goal of visiting all 50 states, only five states remain to visit with our rig called Trinity: North Dakota, Utah, Nevada, Alaska and Hawaii. And we all know that we won't make Hawaii in the RV.

While we were visiting the Wahlmeier Farm Vineyard we tasted a flight of five different local wines and enjoyed some local cheese and crackers. The owner, Cary was our host and poured us some of the establishment's dry and sweet wines. We wrapped up our tasting with a purchase of two bottles of their wine and some Blueberry jam. The experience and the evening was complete with a glorious Kansas sunset as seen from the property.

After a quiet night on a Kansas farm, we departed at 10 AM Saturday morning to drive to our next Harvest Host overnight stay at the Prairie Ridge Buffalo Ranch in Limon, Colorado. As we traveled this morning I thought the conditions were ideal for Karen to take the wheel and get used to driving the truck and RV together. After some gentle coaxing she agreed to give it a go.. This would be big! It's the first time for Karen to drive the truck/trailer combo ever! She was apprehensive but ultimately did a great job driving the rural back roads and county highways of Kansas. Traffic was relatively light but she still had to deal with cars passing us on a two lane road. We stopped for lunch and we traded the driving duties before we got on Interstate 70. It wasn't long before "we weren't in Kansas anymore, Toto".

Prairie Ridge Buffalo Ranch was started by Ray and Debbie Thieman in 1999 as a small hobby ranch. The ranch grew and developed into a sustainable buffalo ranch with nearly 800 buffalo of various ages. Since then they have involved their daughter and son-in-law as well as all 12 of their grandchildren to achieve their goal of having a truly multi-generation ranching operation. They have developed an outstanding breeding program that provides for a consistently improving herd through selection and purchase of superior bulls.

When we arrived at our overnight destination, Ray, our host was at a local baseball game, but he told us during our check-in call to make ourselves at home. There we met another Harvest Host guest couple who arrived about thirty minutes prior to us. James and Kathleen Horniman are from Bend, Oregon and we hung out together during the late afternoon before dinner. As Karen was preparing some pasta for our evening meal, Ray stopped by to get aquainted and ask if we would like to come to their store during the evening or the next morning. We opted for 9 AM the next morning before our planned departure.

We purchased some incredible looking bison meat, including two of the following; New York steaks, a Canadian steak cut called "Bavette", Top Sirloin steaks and a Chuck Roast. We had a great visit with James and Kathleen while we enjoyed the Prairie Ridge Buffalo Ranch. A definite do-over in my book and a great place to bring family for a future tour and cook out.

Our drive to Colorado Springs took less than two hours and we arrived at the FamCamp at the Air Force Academy right around 12:30 PM. Got checked-in and assigned a beautiful spot in a drive-through site surrounded by Ponderosa Pines. After disconnecting the truck from the rig we set-up for our three day stay. Dinner that night was New York Bison steaks on the gas grill, with roasted potatoes and grilled zucchini.

Located just north of Colorado Springs, at the base of the Front Range, the United States Air Force Academy campus sits on 18,500 acres of breathtaking mountain panoramas. The youngest of five military service academies, it boasts stunning mid-century modern architecture, state-of-the-art Division I athletic facilities, and unparalleled academic research centers. Here 4,000 exceptional young men and women from across the United States become future leaders in service to our nation.

The cadets are particularly fond of their Academy ‘altimeter check’: “Sir/ma'am, my altitude is 7,250’ above sea level, far, far above that of West Point or Annapolis.” In fact, their terrain can go as high as 9,000 feet in elevation at the Farish Recreation Area. Basic cadets spend several weeks acclimating to this altitude during the first part of Basic Cadet Training.

This was our first time in Colorado Springs, Colorado and we are looking forward to seeing many of the regional sights at the foot of Pike's Peak.