Leaving Colorado was a really big step for me. It was the first time we were leaving known and familiar parts of our travels for new and unknown places. We've always had friends or family along the way and that is always reassuring for me, but our destination to Florida and my sister, Emily, seemed a long ways off.
So, up really early and on the road at 7AM Tuesday morning with plans to drive about 400 miles east. Kurt had suggested taking the Parkway around the northern area of Denver to avoid morning traffic. Such a good idea! It was a great way with only cameras to record our license as we went on and off the road. We're evidently going to get a letter in the mail with the toll fee. Something new for us. The road was fantastic! NO traffic and such an easy drive for almost an hour. Once we joined I-80 East we were once again on straight and flat roads making good time. In fact, so straight that I took my first try at driving our motorhome, and drove for over 2 hours. About 11 that morning we stopped across the border in Kansas at the Visitor Information Center, a must for us!
Loaded up with brochures and maps we continued east and our first stop to visit the Fort Hays Historical Museum
There's a wonderful interpretive museum explaining the history of the fort active from 1865 until 1869. It was used as a base for troops defending the newly built Union Pacific Railway and white settlements in the area with almost 600 troops stationed there during those years. Today four original buildings survive: the blockhouse (above photo), guardhouse and two officers" quarters.
We walked the grounds with a docent from the museum...an "off season" benefit, we had another personal tour.
Nearby was another sight to visit, "The Cathedral of the Plains", Saint Fidelis Catholic Church in Victoria, KS. With seating for 1100 people, it was the largest church west of the Mississippi when completed in 1911. The church was open when we stopped by and the interior was beautiful with German windows, works of art and an Italian marble altar. Pretty amazing things out on the prairie. This part of Kansas had been settled by German immigrants.
It was getting late, so we headed to Wilson Lake for a campsite for the night. Just 7 miles off the freeway, it was a fantastic find; a beautiful clear lake with its surrounding sandstone cliffs. This was our first stay at a US Army Corps of Engineers campground. I had bought a campground guide book last year listing all Corps campgrounds but had never used it, as most of the campgrounds and lakes are found east of the Rockies. The lakes/dams were built to provide relief from flooding, create a source of hydro electric power and offer recreational facilities. The lakes are huge and usually have lots of campgrounds along the edges of the lake. The campsites are so much larger than any we have seen with water and electricity at every site. Since they are federal campgrounds our Senior Pass reduces our cost by half, we stay in these beautiful parks for only $8 a night.
We woke up to a rainy morning, our first in this motorhome but it lasted only an hour or so. As we drove out of the park I took this photo of the limestone fence posts that were used in this area. It was the material at hand on the prairie, and when the praise fires swept across the country the stone fences were still standing. They are considered a scenic attraction even with a Post Rock Scenic Byway to follow.
Our destination Wednesday was Abilene, KS to visit the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and childhood home. We have decided to try to visit all 13 of the Presidential Libraries as we travel. I bought the Passport to Presidential Libraries to record the dates we visit, it will be fun to find and visit them all.
After a film in the Visitor Center we walked the lovely grounds and toured the house he was raised in with his 6 brothers. Wow...six brothers...made me feel connected!
An interesting story we learned about Ike was how he and brother Edgar both wanted to attend college though they lacked the funds. They made a pact to take alternate years at college while the other worked, in order to earn the tuitions. Edgar took the first turn at school, and Dwight was employed as a night supervisor at the local creamery. Edgar asked for a second year, Dwight consented and worked for a second year. At the same time, a friend was applying at the Naval Academy and urged Dwight to apply to the school since no tuition was required. After applying and winning the entrance exam competition, he was accepted at West Point and his brother went on to finish his education. From that point his military life took hold. Dwight and all of his brothers became successful in their varied fields and all from the beginnings of this small mid west town.The museum was extensive in the collections of his presidency and also his years serving as General of the Allied Forces in WWII.
We started our walk through the with an unexpected exhibit in the museum, a display of incredible artwork created with yard or small woven pieces of fabric of some of the most influential people in history. It was amazing!
After about 3 hours touring the museum we walked right across the street to visit something totally different; the Greyhound Hall of Fame. Greyhounds have been a favorite of my oldest brother, Harry, and seeing this sign meant we HAD to go in for visit. We were greeted by 2 beautiful greyhounds who live at the hall and then we toured the rooms displaying the history of greyhounds in America and their racing history. Interesting.
By now it was late afternoon and time to locate our next campground about 35 miles south at Marion Lake, another Corps of Engineers Park. Sunset on the lake was gorgeous and again we had a large, quiet site for the night. Ahhhhhh....
From central Kansas we went a little further east along back country roads to visit the town of Council Grove and a visit to the Kaw Mission State Historic Site. This was built by early missionaries for the education of the Kanza (Kaw) nation Indian children in the late 1800s. The Kanza didn't trust the white men and only sent orphans to the mission and no girls. It operated for only 3 years when the US government reduced the Kaw reservation more, putting the mission outside the reservation.Interestingly, Kansas gets its name from the Kanza people and yet eventually they were completed moved out of this region and forced to live in Indian Territory, present day Oklahoma.
There was a great walking tour of the little town so a chance to walk Foster and see the local history, love that! Council Grove was one of the last stops on the Santa Fe Trail heading southwest. The town has 13 sites on the National Register of Historic Places including the Post Office Tree...Travelers left their mail in a designated tree to be picked up by others going in the right direction. Pretty neat. Other sights were
Madonna of the Trail
Guardian of the Grove; a bronze statue in tribute to the Kaw tribe
This beautiful river runs through town. From Council Grove we drove one of the 8 scenic drives in Kansas, The Flint Hills Scenic Byway. We stopped along the road at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. What once was a tall grass prairie covering 170 million acres now only 4% of it remains. The preserve usually has bus trips 3 times a day out onto the prairie but since it had been raining off and on for 2 days the buses were not taking tours, so disappointing. But we did tour the historical Spring Hill Farm.
Going further south along the byway we chose our next Corps park for camping at Blue Stem State Park. The clouds had followed us all day but no rain, making for a beautiful sunset.
Friday morning we drove southeast to Independence, KS and our campground at Elk City Lake State Park. I
thought it was a Corps Lake but learned that it was now run by the state...our usual $8 stay became $24. Yikes, going to have to be more careful in looking up our campgrounds! Fun night watching football in a small mid western town.
Before leaving the state I had to get a photo of the sunflowers growing all over Kansas roadsides. No wonder it's the Kansas state flower.
Our last piece of history was a stop along a tiny country road to visit an early home of the author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Along with the reproduction of the cabin she lived in for a year at the age of 3, there was a school house and the original Wayside Post Office.
Just before crossing the state line into Oklahoma we stopped in Coffeyville to learn the story of the Dalton Gang, accomplished train robbers who met their fate when they tried to rob two banks at the same time in this little town. This is the photo of the C.M. Condon Bank. The second bank was to the right. Though they were wearying false beards, they were recognized and citizens armed themselves with guns from a nearby hardware store and were ready for the gang when they left the banks. A shoot out followed in which eight men died, 4 of the robbers and 4 townsmen. We found the tiny jail located down an alley and listened to the story told through a ballad for 50 cents. Fun stop but such a quiet empty town for mid day on a Saturday. Most of the storefronts were vacant...no surprise since we'd come into town and passed all the sprawling shopping centers to the west.
That ended our wonderful week in Kansas, though there's still much more of the state... we'll have to see that on another trip. Time now to go into Oklahoma, another new state for us!
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