The major point of my hiatus was to see the start of the cattle drive leaving from Caldwell, KS. Like so many small towns, there's a festival of some sort near the end of summer beginning of fall. Caldwell was also celebrating it's 140th anniversary and, being only 2 miles from the Oklahoma border and located along the Chisholm Trail, got to take part of a cattle drive that was in celebration of Kansas's 150th anniversary.
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| These two stayed in town for awhile. Caldwell and.... something. They participated in a similar even in Oklahoma in 2007 and were named after the cities that event started and ended in. |
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| The drive started with the chuck wagons. We'd already had several meals prepared by them earlier in the weekend. |
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| If you want to get picky, there were cops leading the chuck wagons. And there were dance hall girls before them. |
There were four wagons. The first two shook the earth as they passed. So I switched to video in the hopes of giving you a sense of what it was like.
Then came the horses and longhorns.
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| A wall of horses keeps the cattle from getting spooked and running ahead. |
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| Then come cattle. With huge friggin' horns. Guys on horses rode on either side of the line of cattle acting as a mobile cattle chute and protecting all of us morons lining the street and the cars parked behind us. |
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| This one decided I was interesting. Immediately following this picture it turned and got right in my face. From the reaction it got I was the least freaked out about this. |
The rest of the cattle.
If you're interested in checking it out, this cattle drive will continue north across the state for three weeks. More information and photos from the drive is available at http://www.kansascattledrive2011.com/.
You can catch up with up them in Kingman, Ellinwood, or at then end of the line at Ellsworth. Or read the blog from the trail.
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