Deer close-call!!

I was driving back to Garden City after spending Saturday with friends in Hays and I saw a buck heading towards the highway and if I hadn't slowed down I probably would have hit it! The buck actually stopped on the side of the road and looked at me before crossing the road. I got a close enough look to see that it was missing an antler. This was a good reminder to be careful and watch for deer this time of year. I had my camera sitting on the seat so I snapped a couple pictures!

Arkansas River pictures

Here are pictures of the Arkansas River in Kansas. Below is a picture of the river at Kendall, which is a tiny town 40 miles west of Garden City. Note all the salt cedar lining the banks of the river. Salt cedar is a non-native plant that uses about 2x the amount of water compared to native plants like willow and cottonwood.






















Below is a picture of the Amazon Ditch headgates where water is taken from the river and put in the Amazon Ditch to carry surface water to farmers. The headgate is located between Kendall and Lakin and is about 35 miles from Garden City.





















Below is a picture of the Arkansas River at Ingalls, which is a tiny town 28 miles east of Garden City. The river looks like this currently from about 20 miles west of Garden City, but sometimes it gets within a couple miles of Garden City during a wet year.

Interesting info...

I had a curious moment this morning and found myself looking up the population for towns I am familiar with in KS and CO. How bored am I? Actually, this weekend someone told me that Liberal KS was a big as Garden City and I just couldn't believe it so I hit the internet this morning and found that Garden City is about 10,000 more people than Liberal. Ha!

South & west KS:
Garden City ~30,000 people
Dodge City ~26,000
Liberal ~20,000
Hays ~20,000
Scott City ~3,900
Lakin ~2,100
Syracuse ~1,900

Central & East KS:
Salina ~46,000
Manhattan ~50,000
Topeka ~122,000
Wichita ~360,000

Colorado cities I frequent:
Lamar ~8,900
La Junta ~7,500
Pueblo ~102,000

My hometown of Crete, Nebr. ~6,100
My college town of Kearney, Nebr. ~27,500
Lincoln, Nebr. ~226,000
My grad school town of Fargo, North Dakota ~93,000
My western North Dakota job town of Dickinson ~16,000