Kansas

Today, we drove about 410 miles, from Kansas City, Missouri to Goodland, Kansas.  Goodland is close to the Kansas-Colorado border, so we basically drove across the state.



I thought it was a beautiful drive.  The sky was mainly blue, and in every direction, you either saw green cornfields, recently plowed golden wheat fields, or grazing cattle.  Once, when I looked out Henry's window, there were about 25 cows - mothers and babies - walking in a line down a dusty path through grazing fields.  We also saw cattle cooling themselves off in a pond.

We also saw a huge wind farm along the highway, with corn planted among the windmills.



If you eat beef, bread, or corn products, you owe Kansas a great deal.  It's not called America's Breadbasket for nothing.  There was a sign on the side of the highway that said "Every farmer in Kansas feeds 128 people." - and I believe it.  They also raise hogs and chickens, and grow sorghum and sunflowers - for both seeds and sunflower oil.  For more Kansas fun facts, click here.



While I'm used to seeing farmland in New Jerser and Virginia, the huge grain elevators and other storage facilities, many serviced by railroads, were interesting to look at. 

And you might not think oil when you think of Kansas, but there were lots of oil drilling sites dotted through farmland.



Flour Mill in Abilene

While I thought the drive was very scenic, Jeff had some challenges.  Because the summer is the only warm time on the Plains, that's when they tend to do road construction.  So for good stretches of road, the two lane road was down to one.  And there were Kansas State Police out everywhere - we even saw an RV get pulled over in a 70mph zone.  Take it from us, it's not easy to get a RV to go 70 mph, never mind faster than that.  We also seemed to be going uphill for long periods, not noticeable to me, but Jeff could feel the Jeep pulling on the RV and it made the engine run hotter.

After crossing into Kansas, we first passed Kansas City, Kansas - which is home to the Kansas Speedway.  It was too early to stop at Arthur Bryant's Barbecue, so I'll have to go without this time.  Next, we came upon Topeka, the state capitol.  As soon as I saw the first sigh, I had "the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe" song in my head for a couple miles. 

Kansas has so much historical stuff going on.  The Santa Fe and Oregon trails go through Kansas, there were the battles that gave the state the nickname of "Bloody Kansas" before the Civil War, and then there's the history of the early settlers, the ranchers and the Indians.  The are forts in the state going back to the early 1800's.  Fort Riley is still in operation - it's the home of "The Big Red One."  



D-Day Map at Eisenhower Museum

We were driving along I-70, nicknamed "The Main Street of Kansas."  The next city we came to was Abilene, hometown of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.  We decided to go check out his Presidential museum and really enjoyed it.  It's a large complex, with Eisenhower's Presidential Library, museum, family home, and the shrine where he's buried.  We only bought museum tickets.

The museum covered Eisenhower's life during World War II and his presidency.  There was lots of WWII memorabilia there, including the table that Eisenhower planned D-Day operations at with his team.  There was also some NASA memorabilia there, since NASA was created during Eisehower's Administration. The kids enjoyed looking at an officer's jeep, an anti-tank rocket launcher, and the "I like Ike" campaign materials. After the museum, we walked past the Eisenhower house and over to the shrine to pay our respects.  Then it was time to hit the road again.



Horses and Corn

We gassed up in Salina, KS and then headed west on I-70 on our way to Goodland.  We passed Russell, Kansas, hometown of Senator Bob Dole. (As a trivia point, the sign said it's also the boyhood hometown of Senator Arlen Specter.) 

If I had done my research better, we might have stopped for the night in Hays, Kansas, which is home to Fort Hays, which was in operation from the 1850's to the 1880's.  Today, it's a museum that covers frontier life and the role of the fort during western expansion.  We'll have to save that for another trip. 

About 90 minutes later - around 7:00 p.m. Mountain time zone - we pulled into the campground in Goodland.  It was a long driving day, but everyone did well.  It's a small campground, but the kids were thrilled to see a swimming pool and mini-golf course.  Jeff took Ruth to the pool and I took Henry to play golf.  It was hot during the day, but it cooled off at night and was pleasant.

I noticed the sun setting behind the RV, and walked to the edge of the campground to take some pictures.

This will be a short stop.  Tomorrow morning, we'll head to the outskirts of Denver, where we'll spend four days.  It's about 2 hours away.

Well, that's enough for tonight.  I'll be updating the main slide show and adding a Kansas slideshow to the blog tomorrow.