We blew through Kansas and have landed in New Mexico!

 Kansas, from the NE corner to the SW corner traveling on the back roads.  We are taking our time and enjoying the local sights along the way.  
Marion Lake sits in the rolling Flint Hills and farming is the only activity around here.  Nice camp site right on the water, lots of wildlife.  A was a good place to relax and do some day trips.

Ranch house from the cattle baron era.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve and the Flint Hills,  it once covered 170 million acres of North America. The vast majority has been developed and plowed under.  Today less than 4% remains, mostly here in the Kansas Flint Hills. The preserve protects a remnant of the once vast tallgrass prairie. , We were lucky enough to get on a free bus tour through the grasslands seeing a small but growing herd of bison that now make their home on the preserve.

 A side trip to Abilene,

The Eisenhower Presidential Library & Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, an interest place, it includes Dwight D. Eisenhower's boyhood home.

Behind the library is a little hidden jewel, the Dickinson County Historical Society.

The historical section of the museum depicts life on the plains during the American Pioneer and Westward Expansion Periods.  Exhibits include Native Americans, pioneers, railroading, agriculture, Victorian, and Cow Town eras and life on the prairie in 1850's Kansas before statehood.  Two special exhibits,

  A 1901 carousel manufactured here in Abilene, Kansas  as a traveling carnival ride.  the Dickinson County Historical Society was contacted to purchase and bring the carousel back home to Abilene.  After ten years and many volunteer hours, the carousel became fully restored and was named a National Historic Landmark. It is one of only twelve National Historic Carousels in the United States. We had our own person tour from George, one of the caretakers of the carousel.  He stopped  to Crank her up and around she went, playing music from an original Wurlitzer military band organ to top it off. You gotta smile at that!!

The Museum of Independent Telephony.  This exhibit area features different types of telephones and other communication devices throughout the history of telephony.  In 1884 there were nationally 6,000 independent telephone companies.   Many of these smaller companies merged to create larger companies that still exist today. 

Stepping outside the back door you are transported back in time, discovering several early Dickinson County buildings. This will give you an experience of how life for the early settlers would have been. 

This area is complete with actual rescued and restored buildings from the local area. The buildings include the Volkmann Log Cabin built in 1858, the Pritchard barn, the Acme Telephone Office, the Burklund Store complete with retail items from the era, a saw mill, farm machinery, a blacksmith shop, and the 1901 C.W. Parker Carousel. Did you know Abilene Kansas was established first and Abilene Texas came second? 

Next stop Liberal Kansas,  Seward county Fairgrounds was supposed to be a quick in and out just for the night stop.  After talking to the only other camper at the fairgrounds we decided to stay another day and go to the Air Museum and see the yellow brick road.  Liberal is a small town of 20,000 which sits on the largest Helium field in the world.  During WWII they had an airfield and a training center for pilots. No signs of that now.  I learned that at the Mid-America Air Museum with over 100 planes on display.

Seward County historical Museum.

I like to know the history of the areas we travel through and find the local Museums full of information.  Liberal is located south of the Santa Fe Trail and the broom corn capital of the world.  Before plastics, a good quality broom was made from the straw of broom corn.  The museum has a Spain bit from the era of the Coronado 1500 expedition.  Found in 1950 by a local rancher just north of town. How close we are to his traveled route.  It’s true, the Smithsonian authenticated it. 

We toured Dorothy’s Kansas home and a cute private collection displaying the events in The land of OZ.  I started humming “I’m off to see the wizard…… and Follow the Yellow Brick Road!”  I saw the movie as a little girl at the Palace Theater.  It was scary and a special event for us!  You all know I mean “The wizard of Oz”.

That’s way too much for this report but it’s hard to condense all the cool things in Kansas!

So next stop New Mexico via the corner of Oklahoma and Texas.  Hoping to drive parts of old Route 66!  Happy Trails till next time!