Kansas seems a lot like Saskatchewan. Fields, wind,
open plains, and friendly people. We spent three days
in Kansas on our trip west across the states.
A nine hour drive from Chicago - our first destination
in the state was Wamego, KS. Topeka was near our
destination, and having never been to an IHOP before,
we stopped and ate pancakes in Topeka after the days’
drive. We also learned that Topeka, and not Kansas City,
is the capital of Kansas. The shortest route from Chicago
to Denver (and nearby ski resorts) would have been
through Nebraska, but we decided to go through Kansas
instead to visit two very different museums - the wizard of
Oz museum in Wamego, and the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson.
So after the longest travel day on this part of our
trip, we spent the morning biking and exploring
Wamego. The town had a beautiful park with
tulips, a pond, a miniature railroad, and a Dutch
style windmill. The tulip festival had just ended
three days earlier, and the park reminded us of
our train journey from Amsterdam to Keukenhoff
to see the tulips (on our college grad trip years
earlier). I also saw a beautiful bright red Cardinal
Bird.
After a short time in the park, we rode our bikes
on the yellow brick road (acutally) to the wizard of
Oz museum. The museum was fun and whimsical
with life-sized characters. Dorothy,, the
Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly
Lion were all there along with over 2000
Oz-related artifacts and memorabilia. The display
included props from the original 1939 movie, old
movie posters, Oz quilts, Oz stained glass,
Dorothy’s oringal slippers, green glasses for the
emerald city, and a first edition book signed by the
author, L Frank Baum. The museum gets over
50,000 visitors per year. It was probably even
more fun than I had hoped for.
Biking back to the RV park offered another Kansas
experience. The wind had come up while we were
in the museum and was blowing from the South at
50-80km/h. All of a sudden the Sever Storm
Warning Sirens were sounding iin the town center
and at the Caterpillar manufacturing plant. Was
there a Tornado? The sky was clear and we could
not see a tornado. Perhaps a wind gust activated
the warning system? The sirens stopped sounding,
but the wind continued at 50-80 km/h from the
South for about 14 hours.
After lunch we drove west (2 hours) and south (½
hour) to Sandhills State Park near Hutchinson.
We burned $30 of fuel driving south for 30
minutes. The campsite at Sandhills offered no
wind protection; the wind whistled in the
windows, and our camper has shaking and
rocking back and forth. It was so windy that
Meritt played catch by himself with a ball,
throwing it into the wind and having it blow back
to him. He also performed magic tricks with our
dinner plates, holding them vertically with his
hands against the wind.
The next morning it was much cooler.
The wind had calmed to a stiff breeze (30km/h).
Powered by our annual science museum reciprocal pass,
we went to the Cosmosphere Space Museum (for free.)
Originally just a few space artifacts housed in a lady’s chicken coop,
the museum has grown to become the second largest collection
of space artifacts in the USA. It is a Smithsonian museum. So many rockets!
The collection outlined the history of the great space race between
Russia and the USA in the cold war era. A serious affair in
contrast to the whimsical display at the wizard of Oz museum yesterday.
Our plan was to relax and stay another night near Hutchinson and the Sandhills State Park, but as we were buying groceries, we heard the cashiers talking about the arrival of a storm with the potential for tornadoes and large hail. We decided to drive west. By midafternoon, there were a number of large storms over Eastern Kansas. The radio stations were filled with emergency alerts and storm warnings. They would play half a song or an advertisement, and then the progrmaming would be interrupted by squawking noises and an emergency alert. By this time we were near Hays, KS. A large storm with rotating clouds and tennnis ball hail was north of I-70 W (and moving north). A smaller rainstorm cloud was just south of the highway. We experienced a few minutes of heavy rain but could always see clear blue sky ahead, so it seemed the safest thing to keep driving west. Shortly after, we stopped for fuel and celebrated our narrow escape with DQ ice cream. We met a storm chaser who was heading east, toward the storm which we had just passed. The radar in his hail-dented car was showing purple. The small storm cell to the south of I-70 had joined the much larger cell to the north of the highway. It was a genuine Kansas experience for sure.
The next morning it was much cooler.
The wind had calmed to a stiff breeze (30km/h).
Powered by our annual science museum reciprocal pass,
we went to the Cosmosphere Space Museum (for free.)
Originally just a few space artifacts housed in a lady’s chicken coop,
the museum has grown to become the second largest collection
of space artifacts in the USA. It is a Smithsonian museum. So many rockets!
The collection outlined the history of the great space race between
Russia and the USA in the cold war era. A serious affair in
contrast to the whimsical display at the wizard of Oz museum yesterday.
Our plan was to relax and stay another night near Hutchinson and the Sandhills State Park, but as we were buying groceries, we heard the cashiers talking about the arrival of a storm with the potential for tornadoes and large hail. We decided to drive west. By midafternoon, there were a number of large storms over Eastern Kansas. The radio stations were filled with emergency alerts and storm warnings. They would play half a song or an advertisement, and then the progrmaming would be interrupted by squawking noises and an emergency alert. By this time we were near Hays, KS. A large storm with rotating clouds and tennnis ball hail was north of I-70 W (and moving north). A smaller rainstorm cloud was just south of the highway. We experienced a few minutes of heavy rain but could always see clear blue sky ahead, so it seemed the safest thing to keep driving west. Shortly after, we stopped for fuel and celebrated our narrow escape with DQ ice cream. We met a storm chaser who was heading east, toward the storm which we had just passed. The radar in his hail-dented car was showing purple. The small storm cell to the south of I-70 had joined the much larger cell to the north of the highway. It was a genuine Kansas experience for sure.
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