Salina KOA, Salina
Monday, 12 October 2020
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| today's route |
Leaving town on I-70/US 40, I saw a sign saying the next 8 miles were the 1st section of interstate completed in the US under the Interstate Highway System act. That was in 1956 and, at the time, it was also the 1st concrete highway completed under the interstate act. When Kansas finished all of I-70 in the state in 1970, it was the longest continuous segment of interstate completed in the country. I'd be curious whether these milestones were achieved because Kansas terrain is easier to build on or because the system was proud Kansan Eisenhower's idea.
When I turned north on a Google shortcut I decided to risk taking, I saw signs saying I was on both the California Trail and the Oregon Trail.
I crossed a large, unlabeled river I later learned was the Kansas River. Considering it has the same name as the state and it flows through the capital city, I figured it'd run through most of Kansas. Instead, it's only 148 miles long and begins in mid-state between Abilene and Manhattan and flows into the Missouri River at Kansas City.
On the radio I heard a short interview with Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he said he thought that "we're the only country in the world where the military swears an oath to an idea, the one that's built into the Constitution, not to a person or an office but an idea, and we're [the military] willing to give our lives in defense of that idea." I was impressed.
At St. Marys I saw a sign saying I could visit the Historic Pay Station Museum. Not anything I'd ever heard of - sounds a little like a parking meter museum - so I looked it up and learned this building was built in 1857 as the agency that disbursed various payments the US Government owed to the Potawatomie Indians.
I also heard on the radio that a lawsuit has been filed against Cisco, alleging they were allowing caste discrimination to prevail in their workplace. That's a new one on me.
That water tower (left) is at Wamego, too. On the next side around, the town name is written in fancy script, but I couldn't get a photo from that angle. This water tower looks like a baby's rattle to me.
Wamego has wineries and vineyards, not things I usually associate with Kansas.
The volunteer litter clean-up crew along the highway was listed as United States Navy. I don't know what the Navy's doing so far inland.
A roofing business had a sign that said, "We install Covid free roofs."
Manhattan
AKA The Little Apple
Driving into town I saw a sign at the Express Lube: "Lube Long and Prosper."
The Rifle County Courthouse, First United Methodist Church, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and the First Congregational Church are all built of limestone and reminded me a lot of small towns in Texas.
Kansas State University has an attractive campus built on a long, fairly narrow strip of land in the middle of town. It includes a veterinarian school, a lot of greenhouses, and a natatorium (that word always makes me think of swimming pools long ago). I know its various branches of agricultural studies are really important throughout the state, because I've seen signs about one aspect or another in my driving around.
Manhattan seems to have a strong Thai population.
Back on the road
I'm guessing Manhattan's on a hill, because as I headed west from town I found myself on a long fairly steep hill going down.
In the area of Fort Riley, I crossed the Kansas River again. And I saw signs saying exit 301 from I-70 would take me to the US Cavalry Museum and to the site of the First Territorial Capital.
The 9th and 10th Horse Cavalry Regiments - Buffalo Soldiers - were stationed at Fort Riley from time to time, beginning in 1887 and running through WWII. In 2000 there were still 5 of these men alive and they all attended the dedication of a memorial erected in nearby Junction City. The first I knew about this was when I saw a highway sign telling me I could take exit 296 to see it, but it was too late for me to turn back.
I saw a billboard that said, "Ride the Rails of History - Dinner Train Mystery." Of course that sounded great to me, but it didn't include any other information at all. Still, when I typed that phrase in as a search, I learned about the Kansas Belle, which runs out of Baldwin City, due south of Lawrence, in far eastern KS. Odd to see the billboard so far out of the way, but the train sounds like a lot of fun.
The town of Chapman (pop. 1,400), a very nice-looking place, claims to be the home of Joe Engel, Astronaut.
Abilene
I came here to visit the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood Home, knowing full well it'd probably not be open. It wasn't, which is a shame, since I know surprisingly little about his presidency - surprising, given that I was alive for all of it. Of course, I was 3 years old when he was inaugurated, so I wasn't paying much attention to public events. My memory has him pegged as dull, boring, playing a lot of golf, and not really getting much done. Which goes to show how wrong a kid's perspective can be.
According to Wikipedia, he did everything from preventing isolationists from unraveling NATO, to opposing McCarthyism, to using a nuclear weapons threat to get China to end the Korean War, to establishing NASA after Sputnik was launched, to sending federal troops to enforce integration in Little Rock public schools. I already knew about him establishing the interstate highway system. I didn't know he was the one who approved the Bay of Pigs invasion, that Pres. Kennedy took the blame for. Anyway, he was busy during his 2 terms. Here's the link. https://en.wikipedia.org/Dwight-D-Eisenhower
But though the indoor facilities were closed, the dogs and I walked around the grounds and saw a few other things.
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| a sign there said, "Eisenhower Home 1898 - 1946" |
But I really like the look of this house; it was the era of the houses some of my relatives lived in. I also took photos of the other sides, because I was intrigued with all the doors and porches.
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There was also this memorial:
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| Each side had a symbol, a title, dates, and a quotation from DDE. |
The 5 sides were: General of the Army, Rank Awarded 12-20-44; Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force, WWII, 2-13-44 to 7-13-45 (pictured); Chief of Staff, United States Army, 11-19-45 to 2-7-48; Supreme Allied Commander Europe, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, 12-21-50 to 5-31-52; 34th President of the United States, 1-20-53 to 1-20-61.
I noticed this bench near the memorial:
I took photos of both the back and the seat of this bench to be sure and get all the text.
There was one more memorial on the grounds - this one from the DAR. Each of the 5 columns had a plaque on it with language I'd describe as florid, if not way over the top. Two of them include information about the Eisenhowers and 2 others say things about veterans who have fought for the US. I'm including the 5th one both as an example and as the only one that's not so far gone I can't stand it.
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| you can almost hear the drumroll |
More of Abilene
This location is protected because it's the only place in the world where so many of these things of such size are gathered in one place. There are about 200 of them here, and geologists think there are many more that haven't yet been exposed.
The rocks in these 2 photos are so big you can't see the family that's wandering around among them. Really, a whole family, including a father who looked like he was about 6' tall. He just disappeared when he walked behind these.
A couple of blocks away from all this is a 1901 Parker Carousel that still functions, despite being a national landmark. Unfortunately, it only functions Thursdays - Sundays so, today being a Monday, I was SOL. But I looked it up and learned that C. W. Parker started building carousels in 1892 to make his little daughter happy. He was soon manufacturing them and was the only carousel manufacturer not located on the East Coast. This carousel is the oldest operational carousel that can be ridden, and I'm very sorry I didn't have a chance to do so.
I drove out of town by a different route because a train had stopped on the tracks (they run very near the Eisenhower house) and I followed the locals for a route to get around it. Doing that showed me a large banner that said Abilene ♥ Greyhounds. The National Greyhound Association has its headquarters here in Abilene.
Another exciting feature of Abilene is the Russell Stover Candy Factory which, unfortunately, doesn't give tours. I can't tell that it ever gave tours, but it definitely doesn't these days. I still had a lot of driving to do so didn't stop.
I thought Abilene was a nice old town. And it's quite clear they're all about Ike.
Back on the road
More strong winds today and this time they almost caused a hawk to hit the RV. It was taking off from the ground, and the wind made it hard to get enough lift to be high enough to avoid us. It just made it, to my relief.
Earlier today I saw a Red-tailed Hawk, and I know that's what it was because it was soaring and the sun was behind it, shining through its tail, making the red color obvious. Very pretty.
I continued to pass large fields of maize.
Rock City
I came here because I'd heard they were ancient rock formations, and thought it might be something like Monument Rocks. But it wasn't anything like that at all.
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| This sign greeted us . . . |
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| . . . and this is my first sight of them. |
To say I was underwhelmed is a start. To me they looked like rocks. Big deal. But there was more to them than that.
Millions of years ago, when Kansas was covered by the inland sea, it deposited the Dakota Sandstone that is now the bedrock in this area. Groundwater that contained dissolved calcium carbonate seeped through the porous sandstone and gradually cemented loose grains of sand to a small fossil or shell. This process is called "concretion," related to the word "concrete." Over time these small masses became larger and larger as more sand grains were cemented. In places where the sand wasn't firmly set, it washed away. When the inland sea receded, the sandstone was exposed and, because it's soft rock, it was eroded by weather. The erosion gradually revealed the harder concretions in the surface. That's what's here.
Honestly, to me they looked just like a giant child had been making mud pies. You can see by the photo with Gracie's rear end that they're much larger than they look in these pictures.
One of the park's publications urges visitors to climb on the rocks and the other says the rocks' surface is "fragile and particularly susceptible to human wear." The dogs and I stayed on the ground.
I took one more photo in that area.
I'm standing in the rock field taking this photo of the fields next door. This is a pretty good example of Kansas farmland, though the green in that field next to the red maize is more washed out than it looked in real life. I haven't been able to find a place to stop to take a picture of the kind of landscape I've been seeing so was glad to get this shot.
Back on the road
I was really glad I didn't have much farther to go to get to Salina (pronounced with a long "i"). I've been having a lot of trouble with the mechanics of driving today. Three separate times I tried to drive off after stopping, forgetting to release the emergency brake which I almost always set when I stop.
And when I first started out this morning, I didn't realize for many miles that the shift lever wasn't set on D for drive but instead on 4 for a lower gear. That made the engine rev way up all the time, worrying me sick thinking there was something wrong with the throttle (which I actually think there is anyway, I just didn't think it was that bad). I must have gone at least 20 miles before I finally figured it out.
Then there was the time we stopped for a break and a dog walked by the RV and both Dexter and the other dog went crazy. Once the other dog had moved on I didn't have to worry about him, but Dexter just couldn't seem to calm down. I tried to take the dogs out for a walk, but Dext was in his manic phase - darting around back and forth and back and forth, hard to control, getting in Gracie's way, just a basic nuisance - and I had to take them back to the RV.
It was just not an easy day and I figured I needed a rest.
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