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Published: January 16th 2008
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Posted by: Onaxthiel:
I again found myself up before Obfuscator and D. this morning. I let them sleep for another few few hours before deciding that If we wanted to see anything in Manhattan, KS we needed to get moving. Luckily they both woke up easily, and we were able to drive out to the state nature preserve that D. uses to stay conditioned for running marathons. By reputation, Kansas is supposed to be a terribly flat place with tornadoes blowing through all the time. While there are many parts that match this description to a T, this particular piece of public property never seems to have gotten the memo. The bluffs are sizable enough to note on a walk, and the views of the area around are pleasant enough. A small river cuts through the park, surrounded mostly with softwoods. In the winter season, the level of the river is quite low, and the thin ribbon of water doesn't cover the oxbows between the steep banks between the hills. I re-creation of a pioneer homestead stands nestled in the woods just off the trail. It is mostly locked up for the winter, but there is a wildlife viewing
shelter that remains open all year. Here, out of the cold and wind you can observe an open field with feed left out for the birds and deer in the area through Plexiglas. Up the hill are the remains of another structure that once stood here, long since burned down. On the way out of the park we encountered a family of dear on their way to the prepared field. D. pointed out that these deer seemed to be immune to fear of people, much like those we encountered in Glacier. He commented how lucky the deer were that the people of Nebraska were mostly law abiding, since most of their unprotected relations know to make themselves scarce when humans show up and the park is not a long walk from the highway.
Our last stop in Manhattan before we drove on to other Kansasian scenes was the big sign that the town uses to tell people it it there. The Midwestern tornado country to the Hollywood sign, it uses 20 foot tall concrete letters poured into the side of a hill to inform interstate travelers of where they are and many a college student that they are almost
home. D. had been looking for a chance to get photos of people standing above the letter for some time, but our time was growing short. So rather than going up the regular route, we took the shortcut direct route. D. warned us this was a bit taxing, but we thought we could handle it. We found we could, but it really was a hard climb. Out of breath four hundred feet up, we rested while D. climbed back to the bottom to take photos for us. Then he called us and told us to watch our step as he had managed to take a fall and make the bottom a bit faster than anticipated. He was alright, just a bit more banged up than before. Considering that he is one of the more accident prone people I know, that wasn't great news for him.
Next we drove to Ds home town so he could retrieve his truck that was in the shop there, (ACCIDDENT PRONE!) and see the towns claim to fame. The town is Marysville KS, and it was the home station of the pony express. Every letter, every package, virtually all communications with the west for
a generation, came through this town and were run to posts further on. Of course, when we arrived, the home station was closed for the season. Standard problem for us as of late. So we said goodbye to D, stopped in a local cafe for a quick snack, and headed towards our next stop, the geographic center of the US. To say that Lebanon, Kansas is two hours from nowhere is a bit of an overstatement, but not by much. There is a small marker at the spot that was first determined to be the center, (By the scientific expedient of balancing a giant cardboard cutout of the continental US on a point and seeing where it worked best.) along with a small chapel and a motel built for the expected influx of tourists. The center was later more accurately determined to be ¾ of a mile further west, and the American motorist for the most part seem uninterested in driving into the middle of northern Kansas, so the motel soon died. These days it is used by local clubs for various events, and mostly stays closed. We did try to head out to the actual center less than a
A doe
sporting the hottest of fashion accessories, the ear tag. mile away, but mud several inches deep convinced us that this was not really worth the trouble.
We had a decision to make at this point. We could drive north and east about 150 miles and visit the Strategic Air Command museum near Lincoln, or just a few miles north and see what there was near Fort Kearney Nebraska. We opted to add many more miles, and end near Lincoln. When else would we drive through Nebraska? We only made one stop in between Lebanon and our camp site. The small town of Red Cloud, Nebraska looked interesting if for no other reason than the presence of a museum dedicated to a woman by the name of Willa Cather. Mrs. Cather was a pioneer in early Nebraska history and wrote several books on the subject of those early years. She certainly enjoys celebrity status in the state now. In keeping with the trend of the day, the museum was closed for the season. The stop was somewhat salvaged by the fact that Red Cloud has a nicely kept up downtown.
Finally, about 8:30 in the evening, we pulled into our campsite. We dragged firewood out of the snow
The Manhattan sign
We are standing on the middle A and busted the ice out of the fire pit and fought to get a good cooking blaze going. Meanwhile , Obfuscator made a few astute observations. First of all, his thermometer was telling us that it was between 0 and 5 degrees Fahrenheit, and certainly felt it. Secondly, my favorite quote of the entire day was uttered as Obfuscator prepared our rice meal for the night. As I was feeding the flames, he started laughing and stated “Dude, there is frost covering our...um...everything.” This is a pretty good summary of the whole night, as our hands froze to the dishes like tongues on the monkey bars while washing up after the meal. All in all, a great night of freezing.
Lessons learned: We really should have gone directly to Lincoln from Marysville. It would have saved us about 240 miles of driving, as tonight we are virtually due north of Lebanon anyway. That's what we get for not looking on the Nebraska map soon enough, and getting caught in the model of knocking out all of Kansas first, rather than looking at actual regions.
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