Thursday, 15 October 2020
As I was leaving last night's campground, I noticed across the road a sign that said Central Kansas Flywheels - Yesteryear Museum. There was an old barn and a very large batch of land and a whole lot of very old flywheels. At least, I thought that's what they were, not having a clear idea of what a flywheel was, but they didn't look anything at all like the pictures I found online. They were big - several feet in diameter - and wide and I have no idea what they were originally for. But the website for the Yesteryear Museum doesn't really say anything about flywheels or have any photos of them. Instead it says the museum is focused on telling the story of agriculture in Kansas, which I'd have been interested in. Maybe another visit, when things aren't closed for the virus.
I've been noticing lately that some campers are sleeping in their cars, instead of in a tent or a cabin. Last night's KOA charges $26 for use of a tent site without any electric plugin or water nearby. I'm wondering why I'm often seeing people making that choice - staying in their cars. And I'm talking regular passenger cars, not even an SUV or minivan or something with more room. I've seen them now and then for most of my travels, but in the past it's only been maybe one every 3 or 4 weeks, where lately it's been several each week. Is the economy changing?
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| today's route |
I started the drive by first going through Salina. I wanted to stop at a grocery store and thought I'd see something of the town before I left. Salina has several nice, large parks, and the dogs and I walked around one for a while.
In town we passed a large plant labeled Mahaska Bottling Plant - An American Tradition. Not a tradition I'd heard of so I looked them up and found the company started by bottling its own soft drinks in 1916. In 1922, it took a giant step forward when it signed an exclusive contract with an up-and-coming brand called Pepsi-Cola. They've got bottling plants around Kansas and Nebraska and recently added microbrewery beer and cold brew coffee to their line-up. So I guess they can fairly claim to be an American tradition.
Also in town were a big batch of grain elevators with 4 railroad tracks running on either side (8 tracks total). Sounds to me like a really big grain shipping operation, because even assuming some of the tracks were for something other than grain, they still had a lot of tracks there.
I passed a building with a sign saying it was the senior center and the building looked just like a county courthouse. Sure enough, that's what it used to be. After awhile, you get to know the look of these old limestone courthouses.
I drove past a garage that might have been part of a commercial operation - it was open at either end and didn't look quite like a residential garage. I didn't have time to look for a sign because I was fascinated by the very colorful mural that had been painted all along the inside of one wall.
This is a town of nice, old-fashioned houses, front lawns, sidewalks, most with nice front porches, most well maintained. Since it has more than 47,000 residents, I'm guessing a lot of folks live in houses that aren't this nice, but the area I saw was very attractive.
When I got on I-135 I saw a sign - one of those that says things like no pedestrians, no bicycles - and this one also said "no animals led, ridden or driven." Makes me wonder about the circumstances that led to so much specificity.
On the road
Lots of maize growing in the fields here. And "fields" included the narrow strip of land between the road and the railroad tracks. Kansas farmers make use of all the land they've got.
I passed a fenced yard near a house and the yard seemed full of large white birds with long necks - maybe 3 or 4 dozen of them, though it was hard to tell from a distance. I'm guessing they were geese and were being raised for people's Christmas dinners.
It seems to be common in Kansas for small towns to have their city parks located on the highway through town. I never have to go hunting for them, which makes them handy to use as rest stops for us.
Heading down the unpaved county roads that led to my first stop, I came to a railroad crossing with a sign saying "SLOW." I learned some time ago to slow down for these crossings, because some of them can be pretty rough and shake up the RV (and contents) pretty thoroughly. So when I saw the unusual sign that I've never seen at a railroad track, I slowed down to a crawl. That turned out to be a good thing because anybody trying to take that particular crossing at any speed could've broken an axle or a tire valve. One of the lessons I've learned in all this driving is to trust the highway warning signs.
Mushroom Rock State Park
Mushroom Rock State Park is the state's smallest park - only 5 acres, strictly a day use area. Here's what I saw.
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| close-up at right |
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| the best known Mushroom Rock |
And there were also these:
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| This one has 2 legs. |
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| Over time, with erosion, this rock will likely emerge with 1 or 2 legs like the other two have. |
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| This same rock is close to my RV in the photo below right. You can see the rock field in the background here. |
If these rock formations look familiar, it's because they're more of what I saw at Rock City 2 days ago. The State says the largest of the rocks here is 27' in diameter. I took that photo at right to compare the sizes of the rocks with my RV - keeping in mind that the road level is somewhat higher than the ground the rocks are on.
The State has classified this place as one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas Geography, and says they "served as meeting places and landmarks for Native Americans and early pioneers like John C. Fremont and Kit Carson."
This place had a very different feel to me than Rock City, probably because I happened to be there when no one else was, and there weren't families climbing around on the rocks. I was surprised to see no signs here asking folks to stay off these formations. I'm sure they're solid, but the ones perched on pillars could surely be damaged, I'd think. Well, I was lucky to see them.
It was too bad the dogs couldn't see them too, but the field right next door had a large herd of cows, and I was pretty sure both my kids would focus on the cows and go bonkers, making a walk in this area hazardous for me. We took a walk break farther down the road.
Back on the road
I jumped on I-70 for an hour, heading west. I was interested to see that the view from the interstate here in Kansas was much like the view from the state and US roads, but there's a really different feel. The interstate view is boring; the view from local roads feels more cozy. It's slower, but the smaller roads are definitely the way to see this state.
All along today's drive I saw working oil wells. There must be a really big pool of oil under Kansas.
Passing through Dorrance, it occurred to me that some of these small towns may not have much else besides residents, and often not many of them, but almost all of the towns have grain elevators.
Coming into Russell, I saw a sign saying, "Welcome to Russell - Boyhood Hometown of Senators Bob Dole and Arlen Specter." Russell had 4,800 residents in the 1940s when these 2 families lived here. There was nearly a decade gap between their ages, but their families knew each other.
I passed lots of oil wells, a wind farm, cows and croplands. Kansas is heavily dependent on its natural resources.
I passed an ad for the Hays Regional Airport that said it was "your regional connector to Los Angeles," which wasn't a concept that had occurred to me.
Cathedral of the Plains
AKA Basilica of St. Fidelis, in Victoria.
The Catholic Church has declared it a real basilica, so that's not just a local name. It was built between 1908 and 1911. The exterior is limestone that was quarried 7 miles away from Victoria. The blocks were hauled to the site and lifted onto the walls by horsepower. It's 220' long.
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| The bell towers are 141' tall, and I saw them easily from the highway several miles away. |
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| A tribute to the Franciscan Friars who were stationed here beginning in 1878. |
The outside looks imposing but conventional, but the inside is glorious.
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| When I first saw these pillars, I thought they seemed out of place. I now know they're Vermont granite shipped in by rail. The stained glass windows along the walls were glorious, even though there was no sunshine. |
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| With this photo, I wanted to show more detail about the elaborate altar. But I was standing in the doorway 200' away, so the extreme zoom on the camera meant my breathing shook the photo. |
This church seats 1,100 congregants and was the largest church west of the Mississippi River when it was dedicated in 1911. William Jennings Bryan visited here in 1912 when he was running for president and he's the one who coined the name "The Cathedral of the Plains."
With just over 1,200 residents, the town of Victoria doesn't have a lot more going for it than the church and church-related activities and buildings. But I'm sure I didn't see it at its best, since the day was overcast, gloomy, very windy and chilly. I imagine on a sunny day in June it's much more vibrant.
Hays and Fort Hays
Just a few miles down the road is the town of Hays, where the restored remains of Fort Hays are. They have a museum there, but the afternoon was getting on, I was tired and just didn't want to pay the entrance fee when I wasn't feeling enthusiastic. But they let me have brochures and there was an informational sign outside.
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| sign part 1 |
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| sign part 2 |
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| sign part 3 |
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| sign part 4 |
Note in this drawing the lack of stockades or any kind of walls. Wood was scarce on the plains, and with nearly unlimited visibility, these forts didn't need the usual kind of fortifications.
This fort was built in 1865 for the purpose of protecting the Butterfield Overland Despatch [sic] (BOD) on its way to Denver. Though soldiers tried to protect them and even traveled on the coaches for extra safety, they were no match for the local Cheyenne and Arapaho warriors who were trying to protect their hunting grounds. The BOD went bankrupt because of those attacks and the fort closed about 6 months after it had opened.
Six months later, though, it reopened because the railroad was coming through the area, the Indians liked the railroad even less than they liked the stagecoaches, and the railroad builders needed protection. This time, Black troops, known as the Buffalo Soldiers, were stationed there and performed outstandingly well. The Buffalo Soldiers were stationed at Fort Hays from 1867 to 1869, and from 1881 to 1885, at some periods being almost the only troops stationed there. During that time, the railroad allowed Fort Hays to be used mainly as a supply depot for other forts.
Despite excelling as soldiers, the Black soldiers were subject to serious racism, both among the white troops but also in town. After some serious problems with the locals (including a lynching), most Blacks stayed at the fort. Desertion was apparently common at this time, but of the 629 deserters at Ft. Hays, only 31 were Black soldiers. Even though they faced prejudice among white soldiers, and were given lousy duty assignments and inferior equipment, the military was one of the only professions for Blacks that provided some respect and steady pay.
From the fort, I wasn't intending to go into town but took a wrong turn and ended up wandering around by the part of town around Fort Hays State University (established 1902). The town of Hays has about 20,000 residents and I'd be curious how many of those are part of the college's 15,000 who are enrolled. At any rate, I didn't go into the main part of town, just the area around the university, but where I was seemed very pleasant. It looked like there was a lot to do, with a huge sports complex and other kinds of entertainment. I passed an establishment with a sign saying, "Bar and Dinning Open." (Really.) I saw a batch of college kids meeting up with none wearing a mask or social distancing, though one was wearing the mask but kept it down. It's stunning our country hasn't had a worse time with this virus than we have - and 217,000 dead (so far) is not a trivial number.
Back on the road
About 20 miles or so farther along I went through the town of Ellis, where I saw a highway warning sign saying "Impassible During High Water." It seemed odd because it was a perfectly flat piece of road (not sunken in a valley) with no obvious sources of water (besides faucets) anywhere in the vicinity. I'm sure that sign is needed, but I couldn't figure out why.
Ellis is the boyhood home of Walter P. Chrysler, creator of Chrysler cars. The actual house is now a museum that offers tours.
A sign told me Ellis is Home of the Railroaders, and near the high school another sign said it was Home of the Ellis Railers. I never thought of railroad workers being a mascot, but they must have been incredibly strong, tough people so I guess so.
And after another drive down a state road, I got to Cedar Bluff State Park, which was a very nice campground.
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