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Published: September 8th 2006
To those we leave behind...
Yes, it is finally here.... The day we start the "fun" segment of
The Odyssey. The day started off slow, finalizing the packing of the truck, thinking of those few things that we were sure we had forgotten and then confirming that we hadn't forgotten them, making final adjustments to the dog pen and packing the food - complete with fresh tomato's from Carl's dad's garden and freshly boiled eggs! Final goodbyes were made, albeit telepathically to Dawson (left) as we thought that might help him acclimatize... Then we were off!... Well not quite - we had a quick stop at FedEx in Manhattan, KS to collect the locking skewers for the bike racks and then the mini-storage to cover our stuff with plastic... Somehow we could hardly believe that this day was actually here!
In which our 'Type-A' personalites attempt to get parked
One of the objectives of our trip is to take the 'less-travelled' roads... So we left Manhattan via Hwy 412 - not so far out of town we passed... Several stone barns, a group of artfully placed racoon images and a white country church... Before we realized that we didn't need to make a mad-dash for our next destination, we could be more leisurely, stop and look and perhaps take a picture or two. Obviously our 'Type-A' personalities were having difficulties!! So for the rest of the day we diligently worked on slooowiing doowwnn..
Highlights
Unfortunately we didn't see any more stone barns or picturesque white churches... But we followed Hwy 412 to Hwy 24, following Hwy 24 past the largest feed-lot operation Maria had ever seen--it was so large that it covered half a Kansas hillside... Carl of course had been to Dodge City and Garden City where the feed-lots take up nearly the whole town... Thankfully in this case, the wind was blowing in the 'right' direction!!
Our next stop was the "Little Red School House" on the highway outside of Beloit - unfortunately it was not open, so we satisfied our curiosity (until later in the day) by peering in the windows.
We stopped for lunch in Miltonvale, a small Kansas town with a red brick main street, and an amazing park complete with Public swimming pool, outdoor amphitheatre, wooden fort playground equipment, tennis court, green green grass and plenty of picnic tables. Unfortunately the only tables close to the parking were occupied so we sat in the parking lot and feasted on the vista from our trusty steed - the pickup!
After lunch we continued along Hwy 24 passing Glen Elder and the fanciest gas station I have ever seen--made of sandstone, it was constructed to generally look like a castle & outbuilding. There was also an old red-brick high school that had been converted into apartments and my personal favorite the advertizing for the local Pig farm (left) "Porter's Porkers".
Cawker City and the 'World's largest Ball of Twine' (left) was the next stop along the way. You never know what you will see along the road...
Ball of Twine
We were surprised to find that the town adds to the ball every year in the 'twine-a-thon.'
North on Hwy 191, our next stop was the geographic center of the USA... Complete with a dedicated access highway--to the monument (left), the center church (with 4 pews, bible and appropriate advertizing literature!). Ok, as you can see Maria yielded to the temptation for an 'interesting' photo op!! At one time there must have been a motel, however, it appears it has been transformed into accommodation for hunters. Adjacient to the monument was a large stand of wild sunflowers - The Kansas state flower - we had hoped for a field of sunflowers, but this will have to do!! We continued North on Hwy 281 and passed into Nebraska... Past the Willa Cather grassland and into Red Cloud--another town with a red brick paved main street, but this one had very impressive period brick buildings. We found out later that Red Cloud boasted the operation of the last horse drawn trolley car in America!
Our next stop was Minden and "Harold Warp's Pioneer Village." An amazing collection of items from the railway age to the space age... There was an huge collection of vehicles--from the horse drawn to the motorized... Cars, trucks, snowmobiles (including the first ever), motorbikes, even a replica of the Wright Brother's flying machine and other airplanes.
In the village area there were several buildings that had been relocated--A school (complete with all the records and school books), Railway depot, Claims Office, a white church, pony express station and many more... The highlight for Carl and Maria was the bicycles--there were penny farthings, several tandems (including one side-to-side version with 2 wheels), one with a direct shaft drive and our personal favorite the hand pumped version (left). We could have spent hours in this place, but we had barely an hour--Maria had to severly curtail her tendency to want to read all the "information!!"
After Minden, we took the "quick" route to Kearney, via Interstate 80... It was getting late and we wanted to stop early so we could work on the TravelBlog... However we did make time for a quick stop at the 'original' Cabela's!! Then it was back to the hotel for our first 'unpacking' of the truck and dinner...
All and all a great start to
The Odyssey. We continue to be amazed at all the things you can see along the way if you are not obsessed with getting from point A to point B using the quickest possible route - our usual mode of travel!!
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Dan McKenzie
non-member comment
Riding Skyline drive in Colorado
An earlier entry noted that this was in your plans. I have driven that road in the Murano. There are a couple of times the road disappears on both sides and in front of you. It should be a blast on a bike, but the drop down into Canon City is quick. We have Ensignal stores across most the mountain states, so the side benefits are getting to visit locations like these. I am looking forward to reading these reports. Dan