We spent Friday playing tourist again in East Central Kansas - this time we journeyed about 15 miles West to Abilene, KS. Abilene is famous for being the rail head terminal for the Texas longhorn cattle drives of the late 1800s, famous for being a wild cow town needing Wild Bill Hickok for a Sheriff, but probably most famous these days for being the boyhood home of our 34th President and WWII Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe - Dwight David Eisenhower.
Abilene is a small town with that small town - mid west friendly aura about it. Good folks going about their lives and greeting all their neighbors as if they were family. It would resemble any other small town in Mid America except for the 22 Acre Eisenhower Museum, Boyhood Home, and Presidential Library located on the south end of town.
We started our visit by walking over to the large Museum Building only to find out that it is currently undergoing renovations and will not reopen until June of next year. We then walked across the large campus to the Presidential Library which is presently housing some of the Museum exhibits as well as being the Archive for Eisenhower's presidential papers. The museum exhibits were only a small portion of what one would normally see but it still provided a very interesting timeline of his early life in Abilene, his storied military career, and his landslide election as President.
It is hard for most of us to remember that he was a reluctant candidate, wooed by the Democrats (Truman even offered to run as his Vice President if he would head the ticket in 1951) and the Republicans alike. Eisenhower won all but 9 southern states. I couldn't help but purchase a lapel pin which looks just like this bumper sticker just to remind myself that there were times when bipartisanship wasn't a dirty word.
After touring Eisenhower's boyhood home and watching the nice video in the Visitors Center - we left the Eisenhower complex for a short drive for a visit to the local "heritage" museum run by the Abilene Historical Society. If you like small town America and want to learn what life was like for these folks going back to the first European settlers - visit any one of probably hundreds of similar museums all throughout the country. I learn something new with every visit!
Saturday we started up Winne and continued heading west through central Kansas. We gained altitude with every mile west and watched as the surrounding countryside changed from agricultural farms to ranchlands. We stopped for the night in Oakley, KS in windy high plains country at about 3,000 ft elevation.
We stopped in Oakley mainly because it was just a convenient place. Once again, it's just another small town in "flyover" country. When we checked into the RV Park we were invited to check out the on-site Bar and Grill - Cap'n Jack's Pub. We were even provided with a $5 off coupon! Well we had to take advantage of that deal!
And boy were we glad we did! Although the building housing Jack's is nothing special - the food was outstanding! Once I saw that the specialty of the house was Chesapeake Bay crab cakes - made with lump crab meat flown-in weekly from Maryland -- I was hooked. I even had to try the crab and shrimp bisque. All I can say is WOW was it good! Peggy decided to try her first attempt at eating Elk and had the 1/2 pound Elk Burger. She may not have been able to finish it - but she seemed to enjoy it nonetheless.
After our one night stop in Oakley we headed further west on Sunday, into the Mountain Time Zone, and to our planned stop here in Colorado Springs, CO. It's a long story about how Colorado Springs made the itinerary - suffice it to say that we are here - we had a great visit with our RVing friends (ex Full Timers - now residents of Arizona) Jim and Ellie Meacham. It seems Colorado Springs is their "hometown' (especially Ellie) so we also got a nice guided tour of the local area including the Garden of the Gods Park and had a good dinner at the Colorado Mountain Brewery.
Today we are taking mostly a "Zero" Day. Zero miles on the trip and Zero miles playing tourist. We may make it all the way to the local Camping World -- just because ... and we may even find time for another Happy Hour with Jim and Ellie. That sounds like a good day to me!
Might as well rest Winne today as well ... she gets to make the big trip over the Rockies tomorrow!
Well, it has remained hot and humid since my past post back in Cincinnati! I suppose that is to be expected as we are traveling in July through the Midwest of America! Each day has been pretty much the same - starts warm, gets warmer, might see a thundershower or two, and drops below 90 degrees around 8 PM when the sun starts to set (Central Time).
But no worries for we wimps that can't handle the heat - that's why Winne has 3 Air Conditioning systems if you count the engine driven unit!
We left the Cincinnati area on Monday and drove a bit north towards Indianapolis and then west along I-70 to mid Illinois where we stopped for the night at a small mom & pop RV Park and Hardware Store in Vandalia, IL - the Kaskaskia Dragon RV Park. Yup - they have their very own fire breathing dragon! I understand the dragon has been there about 20 years but the RV Park of about 12 spots is a new addition in the last couple of years. Fun spot with friendly folks - and they will give you a couple of tokens to make the Dragon belch fire at the hardware store or the nearby drive through liquor store. It just don't get much better than that!
We left the dragon behind on Tuesday and drove around St. Louis to Columbia, MO - home of the Mizzou Tigers. There was nothing special drawing us to Columbia - it was just about the right number of miles for an overnight rest.
Wednesday we continued West along I-70 - through Kansas City - and to our spot here in Chapman, Kansas. Once again, there is really nothing special about Chapman. It is a small town in Kansas among many other relatively small towns in Kansas - just what we were looking for - a few days break from driving.
Yesterday was my birthday so we decided to go play tourist a bit and take me out for a birthday dinner. We started by driving about 40 miles back east to Wamego, KS to visit the Oz Museum. The Oz Museum is a storefront museum in downtown Wamego dedicated to all things related to the Wizard of Oz -- from the books -- to the plays -- to the movies. It wasn't what you would call large, and it certainly wasn't a reason to travel hundreds of miles out of your way to complete your bucket list -- but it did have lots of Oz memorabilia and was a fun couple of hours.
We found a Longhorn Steakhouse in Manhattan, KS (home of the Kansas State (K-State) Wildcats) where we enjoyed my birthday dinner and sat out a pretty intense but fast moving thunderstorm.
We plan on spending one more day here in Chapman and will probably play tourist again. This time we will be heading west a bit to check out Abeline, KS - the famous trail head of the Chisolm Trail that once had Wild Bill Hickok as its Sheriff - although he did end up shooting his deputy by mistake on day!
Our westward journey is about half over miles wise and I thought I would offer a few miscellaneous thoughts on our trip so far;
Winne The Two has been running great. We have had a few minor issues here and there but nothing that Mikees on-board hardware store and machine shop couldn't fix.
Winne has been averaging close to 10 mpg of diesel fuel - slightly above her average. I think she really likes this relatively flat country with a bit of a tailwind that I cant really explain! I also enjoyed the less that $3.00 per gallon of diesel fuel on our last fuel stop here in KS. I think I'll fill up again before we head into Colorado where I see the price is considerably higher. They must support their newfound "progressive" policies somehow I suppose.
I'm happy to be saving a little on fuel on this trip because we certainly aren't saving much on RV Parking fees. I must be doing something different on this trip when it comes to planning our stops because vacancies seem hard to find and "good deals" even harder to find. I suppose I just haven't traveled in the summer for awhile and didn't notice the availability going down while the demand was going up.
Did you know that part of I-70 west of Kansas City is a toll road (The Kansas Turnpike)? I didn't. Did you also know that they don't accept EZPass transponders? I didn't. But now I do!
Enough goofing around for now ... I have tourist stuff to accomplish.
Before I close I must say that I was especially saddened by the deaths on Tablerock Lake in Branson, MO yesterday when that Duck Boat capsized. Peggy and I road on one of those boats back in 2007 and really enjoyed the experience. Quite a tragedy.
See ya Down the Road.
Well .. we have been gone for a week now so I reckon it's time for a an update to this Blog!
We left as scheduled last Monday and had a beautiful travel day as we traveled through southern Maine, that short bit of New Hampshire along I-95, around Boston on I-495, through western Massachusetts on I-90, and then into New York - stopping for the night near Schenectady at one of our favorite spots along the Mohawk River. Winne ran great and we had an uneventful first travel day.
We left Schenectady Tuesday morning and travel along the "Southern Tier Expressway" - a combination of Routes 88 and 86 along the southern border of New York State. The roadways on the eastern 1/3 of this route are concrete and are in need of repair in spots - but overall I prefer this route to taking the New York Thruway across NY. A whole lot cheaper since it's not a toll road and much more scenic. We stopped in Cuba, NY at a nice family run RV park and spent two nights. We visited this area back in 2009 while doing some genealogy research on my family and we both really like this area - mostly small towns and small farms but heavily wooded rolling hills -- just lovely.
We made it to near Cleveland, OH on Thursday - another uneventful travel day. We did have to figure out a round-a-bout way to find our destination RV Park since the route we had planned had a closed road -- but we figured it out. One must learn to be flexible when on these kinds of trips!
Friday was another nice travel day as we headed southwest across Ohio down to near Cincinnati. Nice ... but it is starting to get HOT (around 95 degrees) and Humid! You all know how I don't like humid! Remember what I said about being flexible? Flexible also means keeping the A/C units running! We repositioned to another RV Park on the west side of Cincinnati yesterday where we are going to take a tourist day today and go visit the "Ark Encounter" down in Williamstown, KY.
We have stayed at this RV Park (Indian Springs Campground) several times in the past since it was convenient for visiting our niece Carin when she lived near here. I did notice that they have improved the facilities here somewhat over the past 13 or so years. They now have paved roads and a bit of grass at most sites but I also noticed the fees have "improved." Back in 2005 through 2009 we payed $31 a night for a spot here that now costs $48 a night. Can't really blame the owners I guess ... they have a great location, not much competition, and the place is packed. A sign of the times.
On a good note - Our RVing buddies Darrell and Judy Patterson stayed here recently and told us about a good Mexican restaurant about a 1/4 mile away. We tried it last night and were not disappointed. Great food and notably great service! But be careful when ordering the "medium" margarita --- it's pretty good size!
So today we play tourist and then it will be back on the road tomorrow. Destination west and driving through some forecast thunderstorms.
Perhaps it will cool down a bit?
A thousand miles behind us and a couple thousand to go before we make the left coast!
Well - here we are - just one wake-up away from climbing aboard Winne and heading west for a few months. We have spent the past few weeks taking care of what needed caring for around the Maine Homestead, getting in a few visits with the kids/grandkids, and getting Winne readied for travel.
Last Wednesday (Independence Day) was Aiden's 1st Birthday -- so that was special. His parents brought him over for a short visit and present opening as the big party was delayed until yesterday.
We decided to combine a family pre-voyage send off party with Aiden's birthday party and it worked out great. The hot and muggy weather of last week broke for a couple of days and we had a lovely day yesterday with warm temps, sunny skies, and best of all - dry air! I decided to smoke up a pork shoulder roast for some pulled pork and added a couple of grilled king salmon fillets from our Seattle care package we received last week. Eric and Stacy added to the feast and we had a fun time and some yummy vittles.
And of course we had to have a summertime squirt gun fight with Papa!
So today is final loading day. Load up the clothes, load up the food, and load up anything else that looks like it needs to be taken. Regardless - we will think of something right around Kennebunkport that we should have loaded - and didn't. Oh well - I'm sure we can live without whatever it is - we always have in the past!
The first leg of our westward journey will take us across Massachusetts, across southern New York, and down through Ohio to near Cincinnati where we will hang out for a few days and where we plan to visit the relatively new Ark Encounter down in northern Kentucky!
Oh yeah ... we will also be keeping an eye on updates from my sister Jamie and BIL Ernie who were evacuated yesterday from their home near the wildfire ongoing in extreme northern California and Southern Oregon. Although the fire is generally heading away from their house it is still very close! Keep them in your prayers!
See y'all down the road!
