Driving Through a 'Fly Over State'

Aloha all,

the “Kansas” movie at the Domed Theater in Wichita starts off with a series of quotes and common stereotypes how boring Kansas is. They even (somewhat proudly) proclaim that, according to some thrill seeker magazine, Kansas is #50 on the list of most exciting states. 

For the rest of the film they show a variety of beautiful and spectacular aerial footage of the state. They do that without ever arguing that maybe Kansas should have been the 49th or even 48th most exciting state. In fact, they never say a single word. They let the images speak for themselves. But you know that I can never shut up about our road trip. And you know what they say: “A thousand words are worth a picture”, so I’ll write 1,000 words and try to explain why we are so excited to drive through this flyover state. 

The Keeper of the Plains in Wichita, Kansas

Our road trip actually started in Oklahoma City this year, since that is where we left Joy last year and she rarely goes anywhere without us. She was patiently waiting for us and was in good shape when we got to her, even with a catalytic converter, just not with a working battery. The first day is always about getting her ready and stocked up. We knew she needed new front tires and we also got her a new battery. Luckily Walmart’s battery warranty is valid even when you store your vehicle for half the year. Other than that, Joy was as ready and as eager to go back on the road as we were.

Joy is on the road again...

I’ve said this before: I think Oklahoma City is the most underrated city in the US. When I told that to a friend who grew up there, he thought I was kidding. I proceeded to name about ten things we like about Oklahoma City and his answer to each and every one of them was “Well, that wasn’t there when I grew up”. Now there is one more thing we like about OKC that wasn’t even there when we first came here not even five years ago: We spent a full day at the “First Americans Museum”. It just opened in 2021 and it’s run by the 39 Native American tribes that live in Oklahoma today, most of them not by choice. The museum is equally depressing and inspiring.

FAM - First Americans Museum in OKC

Another night at a campground by a lake and then we were off to Kansas, to Wichita to be precise. Avid readers might remember, this is where we had met our instant friends at a brewery last year. We are still in contact with them and reconnected to catch up, play cards and even pickle ball this time. 

Pickleball with our friends from last year's trip

We also visited the “Old Cowtown Museum”, which wasn’t the most lively living history museum, but still very fun and even free! We spent a day at the “Exploration Place”, because they let you stay in your RV for free, by the river in downtown Wichita. This science museum is mostly for kids who are even younger than us, but all the four films we saw at their domed theater were included and well worth it. The above mentioned “Kansas” film even gave us some new ideas about where to go on this trip.  

Shootout at the Old Cowtown Museum

From the museum we could walk to a great bar and restaurant and to the theater in downtown where we saw the very fun “Gypsy” musical. We also rented scooters to ride along the riverfront park. That scooter ride was enough for me to decide that I want to buy one of those electric scooters and enough for Sandra to decide that she’d rather have a folding e-bike.

My newest toy

You can probably already guess that we don’t think that Kansas is a so called “flyover state”. You’d miss a lot by just flying over it, including what there is to see UNDER Kansas. For that, we went to “Strataca”. This is a still active salt mine, in fact it’s active in three different ways: If you live in Chicago, the salt mine’s most important purpose is to mine salt for de-icing Chicago roads in winter. If you have some important documents or maybe some precious movie costumes that you want to store in one of the safest and naturally air conditioned places, the mine’s most important function is that as a huge secure storage facility. For the rest of us, who avoid driving in Chicago in the winter anyway and don’t need high security storage, the third function of the salt mine is the most important one: They offer guided tram and train rides and an underground salt mine museum. There are over 200 miles (!) of underground tunnels. Judging by the few miles we saw, those 200 miles of salt mine tunnels are probably as barren and desolate as many people expect Kansas to be above ground, but for a couple of hours it was fascinating to be in a totally different world.

200 miles of tunnels, 200 meters under Kansas
at the Strataca Salt Mine

Today, over 87% of Kansas is farmland. But it’s not that long ago that it was mostly open prairie with millions of roaming buffaloes. To get an idea what that was like, we went to the Maxwell Game Preserve. It’s not a big tourist attraction. During the week you actually have to arrange a (surprisingly affordable) private tour ahead of time and then drive over some gravel roads to get there and hope that the tour guide shows up. Ours didn’t. But she did answer the phone, apologized and arranged for the preserve manager of 40+ years to give us a tour. We’ve seen buffaloes before, but never this many, never this close and never with such a knowledgable guide. 

Private tour through a buffalo herd
at the Maxwell Game Preserve

On our way to the campground, we stopped at a castle at Coronado Heights. It’s only about 100 years old instead of 1,000 years like some in Europe, but what it lacked in history, it made up with the view. In a state as flat as Kansas, it only takes a 200 foot hill to get sweeping 360 degree views. There was also interesting wildlife, beautiful flowers and the best picnic spots east of the Rocky Mountains:

Let's have a picnic!

Horned lizard at Coronado Heights

Coronado Castle

Remember those gravel roads on the way to the game preserve? Joy did. When we got to the campground, Sandra noticed an unpleasant smell and a trail of wet spots behind us. The washboard road had loosened the pipe from our blackwater tank. We rushed to the dump site and I climbed under Joy. Luckily the repair was relatively simple, but also relatively gross. Let’s just say I was glad the bathhouse with showers was right there…

I'll admit that the scenic wonders of Kansas are not as widespread as in Hawaii, Colorado or Utah, but it’s a lot greener and hillier than most people expect and if you look for it, you can find some really cool stuff, for example the Mushroom Rocks and Rock City parks. In case any of you are as oblivious as we were, these rock formations are called “concretions" and these are some prime examples. In this case I will follow the old saying and post two pictures, saving me the trouble of accurately describing the scientific origin and saving you from having to read another 2,000 words.

I love Mushroom (Rocks)

Kansas ROCKS!

We haven’t even made it to all 50 state capitol buildings yet, but we are already making sure we will not run out of places to visit. In Kansas for example, you can also visit the “First Territorial Capitol” on the Fort Riley Army base. This building, the exhibit in it and the docent there tell the story of the first legislative meeting after Kansas became a territory. Basically, 39 dudes met here 169 years ago for a grand total of 5 days. This was during the tumultuous “Bleeding Kansas” period, so they mostly tried to outmaneuver each other over whether Kansas would become a free or a slave state. But those 5 days is all it took for the state to make this a Historic site and for us to spend the better part of an afternoon there. If we want to go to all the places where a few guys met for a few days a long time ago, we’ll never run out of things to do!

We can't see everything, but we can try!

I never wanted to drive an RV into Manhattan, but we did it anyway! It was surprisingly easy. We did not make it to the Guggenheim Museum, but opted for the Rile County Museum and the historical Goodnow House instead. Visiting those lesser known places has its advantages. Instead of standing in line and fighting crowds, we got a two hour long, private tour. Isaac Goodnow was a committed abolitionist and left ‘civilized’ New England to come to ‘Bleeding Kansas’ in order to help make it a free state. He also co-founded the city of Manhattan and what would become Kansas State University. Our tour guide had a theory that people here are so friendly because the town was founded by people who came here to do good rather than to make money. 

Joy in the middle of Manhattan!

Our last stop before leaving Kansas was the very cute Alcove Springs area. It’s a somewhat remote nature park with surprisingly well maintained hiking trails. There are descriptions from early pioneers on the Oregon Trail how rejuvenating the little oasis of Alcove Springs was after weeks of dusty wagon rides through dusty plains.  It felt very rejuvenating even after just an easy hour of driving in Joy. We did a little hike, with beautiful wildflowers and even a little waterfall to go behind, which always makes me happy.

From behind the waterfall...

...at the Alcoves Springs Park

Now we are off to Nebraska. Even if we saw nothing but cornfields there, we’re still in Joy and that is our Happy Place. And if we were to see anything else but cornfields, I might post a picture or write another 1000 words pretty soon…

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra