by kenny

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by kenny

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by laura beth

It's been forever since I made a Happy Friday Post. Yesterday my friend Ben posted a similar video on Facebook. I laughed so hard that wasted the afternoon watching most of the literal music videos (some clever guy has changed the song lyrics to match what's going on in the video) that Youtube has to offer. For the next several Fridays I will be posting my favorites. This one was Kenny's favorite.

Daydream Believer by The Monkees-literal video version (2:45)

by laura beth

So... Yellowstone. Yellowstone is amazing. All kinds of beautiful. All kinds of wildlife. All kinds of unique geological areas.

When we were near Custer State Park in South Dakota we weren't sure if we should go there or not. Bison are abundant at Custer and we wanted to see that, but ultimately we decided to pass and hopefully see bison in Yellowstone. That decision worked out well as we saw lots of bison pretty early on. So many that it us quite a while to get to our first stop in the park because traffic had stopped due to so many bison on the road. We almost got sick of seeing bison.

We stopped at the hot springs and marveled out all the various colors they produced (The textures and colors are really, really incredible-Laura). We went both high and low all through Yellowstone. The lake was beautiful. The landscape was gorgeous. The waterfalls were abundant. All that you would expect. It was crowded with traffic in parts, but we didn't mind as it was nice to take it in slowly. Whenever there was a lot of traffic you knew there was some sort of wildlife up ahead. Elk, bison, bear, moose, coyote (which some people thought were wolves), bighorn sheep , etc.

On our third and last day in the park we headed to Old Faithful. I love old faithful. It brings back memories of that trip when Laura, my cousin James, and I went on a crazy spring break trip in 2000 that involved two breakdowns and two weeks stuck in Fort Benton, Montana. It culminated with a photo of the three of us and our cardboard cut out of Princess Leia in the snow with Old Faithful going off in the background. This time the weather was great and we grilled bratwurst while we waited. Perfect.
After leaving Yellowstone we headed to Grand Teton National Park. The Tetons are spectacular, but I was a little disappointed as I didn't know you don't drive through any part of them. The road and the mountain is separated by a river and you see them from a distance. There are trails for hiking and horseback though. Personally, I favor the Big Horn Mountains.

We made it into Idaho and ate at this restaurant/gas station where all the seats are made to look like little covered wagons. We finished the night by taking the motorhome to a drive-in movie theater. So great! The only condition was that we park in the back. We had snacks and beer and watched Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince followed up by My Sister's Keeper. I hope to do this many more times.

by kenny

Devils Tower! Wow! Devils Tower had us at "Hello"! We immediately compared this reaction with our reaction of seeing Mount Rushmore which was utter disappointment. Mount Rushmore is revered as an awe-inspiring achievement of man, and then you look at Devils Tower, which is not man made, yet will take your breath away.

The landscape driving towards the tower is pretty flat. In the distance you see what looks like a giant shark fin. Even from so far away it is just absolutely incredible.

Devils Tower is called Mato Tipila (which means Bear lodge) by the Lakota. In 1906 it was declared America's first national Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt. As with most National Monuments it is not without controversy. The tower is a sacred side for the Lakota, so justifiably they don't like people climbing on it. And they do, lots of them. A compromise of sorts has been made where climbers voluntarily do not climb the month of June when the Lakota are practicing various religious rituals at the tower. However, their are still a few A-hole climbers that do anyway. Jerks! How pissed would religious communities be if climbers climbed the dome of the rock or its equivalent?

How Devils Tower was formed (1:47)


The Lakota have a different story.
A group of boys or a group of girls were out in the countryside when a bear or a bear like animal with massive claws started chasing the group. The group cried out to the Great Spirit who hears their prayers and from beneath their trembling feet raises up the tower. The creature has not yet given up and continues the pursuit. He tries and tries to no avail and ends up clawing the mountain into the shape it is now. He finally gives up goes to rest in the east where is his body forms teh nearby Bear Butte.


Which one do I believe? All I know is this means something!

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Mashed Potato Scene (2:53)


From Devils Tower we took of towards Yellowstone National Park, but first we had to go over the Big Horn Mountains. The Big Horn Mountains are not as tall as the Tetons, but you don't literally go over over the Tetons. You do get to go over the Bighorns. There is a fork in the road and a map offering two different routes. Both beautiful, both go over the mountains, but one at a goes higher and at a steeper grade than the other. It warned that going so high up means when you go down the mountain you will have to go down a much steeper incline. We probably shouldn't have decided to take that route, but we have a smaller motorhome and felt adventurous. It will be ok? Right?

Highway 14 will take you pretty close to the top and it is beautiful up there. Panoramic views, alpine wild flowers, forest groves, stunning rock formations, moose, eagles, snow in July, and tranquility. It may have been the most scenic of the scenic routes we have been on. Then we headed down. Slowly. Or as slow as our big vehicle will let us. By the time we were down the mountain we were way behind schedule. We made it to our RV Park after 10pm, but still in time to grab a drink and enjoy karoke by the locals.

What a great day.

Photo Tribute to the Big Horns(4:05)

by kenny

We stayed in the Rapid City area for about 4 days. We got sucked into a 3 night stay at Rushmore Shadows Resort. The deal is that if you take a one hour tour and listen to a sales pitch (to buy into the vacation company), you get 4 days and 3 nights free. So we did. And we ended up buying too (which is so unlike us). It's a pretty good deal for full-time travelers or people that vacation a lot. We got a lifetime membership that allows us to stay at campground across the states for free, or really, really cheap. It also includes cheap airfare and fancy international vacation on the cheap. Anyhoo, while we were in Rapid City, we checked out Dinosaur Park, Storybook Island, and the Chapel in the Hills.

Dinosaur Park is a free, cute little hilltop kiddie park that was created in the 1930's. There are 5 huge "life-size" concrete dinosaur sculptures, all painted the same shade of bright forest green, and you are encouraged to climb on them. It provides nice view of Rapid City and has a gift shop with cheap hot dogs and nice people.

Storybook Island is another free kiddie park, but is much more elaborate than Dinosaur Park. The park was started in 1959 by the Rapid City Rotary Club and runs off of donations. It is 8 acres full of colorful sculptures and sets of all kinds of fairy tale, storybook, cartoon, movie, and Disney characters, and animals. They offer children's theater program, and random entertainment like balloon sculptors and street magicians. It was a pretty fun place to walk around.


The most amazing this we saw while in Rapid City was Chapel in the Hills. The Chapel is a stave church built as an exact replica of the Borgund stavkirke, of Laerdal, Norway and it is built out of Douglas Fir from Oregon. It is operated by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and still holds services. It is free to enter the church and to walk the grounds.


Inside the Church (1:50)

by kenny

We left Valentine early in the morning and headed towards Badlands National Park. Since we had seen the geographical center of the contiguous Unites States we decided to go off course a bit to see the geographical center of the entire USA. In Belle Fourche, South Dakota is the geographical center monument/museum. The museum is very nice and so is the beautifully carved granite monument. However, it isn't the center! The center is 20 miles northwest. The monument was made to be more "tourist friendly" as the real center is on a dirt road marked by a red fence post. So we were pretty disappointed since we had already gone out of our way to see what we now know was fake, and didn't have the time to take the moho over a dirt road there and back. So we kicked the dirt off our feet and left the faker monument without even approaching it. Hrrumph!

So off to the Badlands. But before we got there we stopped at a prairie dog town that boasted the world's biggest prairie dog, which was a massive concrete prairie dog. We payed our $1 for a bag of peanuts and proceeded to feed all the prairie dogs we could see. But they were not too excited to see us as they get fed peanuts every day, all day, by all kinds of touristy people. We saw more peanut shells than we saw prairie dogs and we saw a lot of prairie dogs. They are cute and fun to watch, but after 5 minutes you are over it.

Upon entering Badlands National Park, we purchased a National Parks Annual Pass for $80. This is a great deal since are planning to visit several parks on our way to Oregon. It is proudly dangling from our mirror and I couldn't be happier with our decision. I love National Parks.

About the Badlands (2:30)


Badlands is a bizarre place because it is gorgeous and also just dry, hot, dirt. There are thousands of crazy beautiful rock formations and patches of wildflower prairies. It is constantly changing every year as rain storms come in and erode the landscape bringing out a rainbow of colors. We also got to see a bunch of bighorn sheep. French explorers gave it the name Badlands, but the Indians who lived and loved there called it home, and see nothing "bad" about it. There is a bit of a scandal about the land because it was essentially taken from them (oddly enough, not unlike the rest of this country). It was taken and given to settlers to be farmed, but they couldn't get the land to produce enough crops from them. All but a few gave up and left.

The road coming out of the Badlands leads straight into Wall Drug Store. There are signs all along the road advertising free ice water and 5 cent coffee. The story goes that Mr. Wall was down on his luck and ready to close up shop when he had the idea to put signs on the road advertising free ice water. Before he got back to the store he was already receiving customers to take him up on his free ice water. Now it is a required stop for roadside Americana fans. The place is massive! It is essentially a mini mall with a restaurant, chapel, massive jackalope, a gorilla playing piano, a hungry tyrannosaur, lots of kitsch, and free ice water. We stayed for the food and free ice water, then headed out of town towards Rapid City.

We pulled into Rapid City late but were pleasantly surprised that Mount Rushmore has lighting ceremony at night. So we headed straight away to the monument. It is a hilly and windy road and took us some time getting there especially when you get down in to Keystone and then have to go back up the mountain. We were so excited going up that hill to catch our first glimpse of Rushmore and then we came around the corner to see it in all its glory. And nothing. Laura and I looked at each with underwhelmed faces and thought, "It's really small."

There were lots of cars parked along the side of the road leading up to the memorial entrance. I recommend this option. Otherwise you $10 to park, and parking is not covered by an annual pass. Park on the side of the road, take a picture, and move on. Don't bother going into the memorial grounds. We still paid the $10 to park (memorial entrance is free) because we wanted to see the lighting ceremony. After seeing the lighting ceremony, my advice is the same. Move on.

We walked the pathway that takes you right to the side of the mountain for a closer look. It was impressive to think of human beings scaling the faces with jackhammers and carving the four presidents, but with this massive mountain as a backdrop... small. There is a museum to see, but we decided on ice cream instead, sat down, and waited for the lighting ceremony to start.

The lighting ceremony started at dusk and opened up with a word by word "poetic" explanation of the pledge of allegiance. "I: Me. Myself. An individual. Pledge: Swear to. Dedicate. Allegiance: Devotion...: And on and on. Then they gave some awards to a boy scout who was in attendance. A short documentary about the making Mount Rushmore narrated by James Earl Jones (which was the best part). A gradual lighting while America the Beautiful was being sung. Then... we left early. It was a little too patriotic for us. The mountain was seized from the Lakota tribe, even after they had been granted ownership of the Black Hills. It was sacred to them. Then we carved the faces of our presidents in it. At least this was mentioned in the documentary.

by laura beth

While in North Platte, Nebraska, we stopped at Fort Cody Trading Post. It's been around since the 1960's and has a pretty impressive hand-carved, semi-automated, miniature Buffalo Bill Wild West Show.

We stopped there primarily because of the Muffler Man out back, in this case portrayed as a Native American. The stop was well worth it, however, as we were able to purchase replacement bull horns for our moho (see this earlier post).



On our way out of Nebraska, we stayed at an RV park in Valentine, Nebraska which, as to be expected, had a lot heart themed shops and decorations. We waded our feet in the nearby river and rested up for the trip tomorrow to the Badlands.

by kenny

Ah, Nebraska. The Cornhusker State. "Equality Before The Law." Home of Arbor Day and the Nebraska National Forest(s). Our first stop was Harold Warp's Pioneer Village's RV Park. It is a pretty good deal if you are going to Pioneer Village because you get one free admission with each stay at the RV Park. The admission covers as many days as you want to visit the museum. We found someone who was staying overnight but not using his ticket so we were able to stay overnight and get in the museum for free. It cost $26 a night to camp and $11 admission, so we spent $26 and saved $22. That's a big deal for us.

Harold Warp's Pioneer Village is massive. You really could spend 2 or more days there. Looking back, I regret not spending more time there then we did. The museum is dedicated to the progression of all things Americana in chronological order. So when you go into the many rooms with cars, they're all lined up from their beginning to now and by manufacturer. The same is done for everything in the museum. It covers 20 acres and includes 28 buildings full of exhibits. There is an sod house, art collections, china collections, furniture collections, collection collections, cars, trucks, wagons, airplanes, tractors, clothes, musical instruments, kitchen appliances, telephones, video cameras, lamps, watches, brooms, everything. EVERYTHING! Most everything was bought by Harold as he made his fortune by creating those clear plastic walls that block you from going into, but lets you see into rooms in museums. It's called"Flex-O-Glass".

One of our favorite sections of the museum was where they had set up a row of kitchens from different eras. You walk down the hallway and the first room would be from the 1800's and when you reached the end you would looking at a typical 1980's room. They did the same with bedrooms and living rooms, and the mannequins' clothing styles would change to fit the era. They also had some rooms based on professions like barber, dentist, shoemaker, etc. We really liked this place but only stayed about 6 hours. It was not enough time.

Next we headed north to Kearney, Nebraska and the Great Platte River Road Archway as seen in "About Schmidt". It is a big, beautiful archway that crosses over Interstate 80.



Inside the archway is a museum/exhibit celebrating the pioneers migrated west. And that was all I really knew about it. What we in for was excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone. You start by going up an escalator to catch up with some covered wagons that are on the trail before you. You are given a headset that is activated by your different locations in the exhibit. The audio explains what you are looking at and usually has someone reading a diary entry from the trail in character with background noise to be expected in the environment you are in.

The first part is about the pioneers on the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, and the Mormon Trail, which was news to me, as I had never heard of the last two because there was no video game promoting their journey. You hear stories of gold miners in 1848 who made it rich and the 49ers who didn't. Homesteaders who were trying to make a new start and Indians who were pushed farther and farther west. Joy and sadness. Kindness and cruelty.

From there the exhibit evolves from the journey to the settlements. I feel like they did a pretty fair job of both highlighting the amazing accomplishments of the pioneers and laying out the devastating impact on Native Americans and the land. There is a section on the Pony Express, the telegraph, and the race to build a transcontinental railroad. The railroad and the inventions of automobiles led to the establishment of new highway systems and the Lincoln Highway. our nation really changed at his point. Diners, drive-in movie theatres, motels, gas stations, and roadside attractions spring up across the country. National Parks were being established. Road trips and the traveling vagabond lifestyles became popular.


The Archway is a really great stop and if you're anywhere near Kearney, make sure you go. From Kearney we headed west on the Lincoln Highway (Hwy 30, which runs parallel to Hwy 80) to Paxton and Ole's Big Game Steakhouse and Lounge. Rosser O. "Ole" Herstedt opened his saloon at 12:01 am the day after Prohibition ended. Obviously, the place was popular and Ole did well. Locals would gather and swap hunting stories. Ole started hanging the mounted heads of the animals he had killed. But apparently deer and elk weren't enough. Over a period of 35 years he traveled to every continent killing animals. The saloon expanded to include the 200 animals heads.

At a quick glance, this all sounds kind of charming. But this man killed more than game animals. And I wouldn't be surprised that most of the meat was wasted. Zebra, water buffalo, giraffe, elephant, polar bear, highland coo, moose, deer, elk, cats, birds, bear, rabbits, bison, and various horned goat-like animals from Africa. Seriously. Who shoots a cow and mounts the head? The place was packed when we got there, and I wouldn't be surprised if Ole's keeps Paxton alive. The food was decent, and our server, a young man of about 14 (the owner's son) provided some of the best service we've had. The owner let us stay in the parking lot overnight, so I came back for breakfast in the morning.



Nebraska has some other really beautiful surprises. There are 2 National Forests. Real ones. Samuel R McKelvie National Forest is located in north central Nebraska. The Nebraska National Forest is divided into two separate ranger districts. The main part is in the northwest corner of Nebraska, near Chadron. We visited the Charles E Bessey Ranger District in the Sand Hills of central Nebraska, near Thedford. This area was established in 1902 as an experiment to see if a forest could thrive in the sandy prairie grasslands of the Great Plains. Well, it worked and is now the largest man planted forest in the U.S. Anyhoo, it was quite amazing. After all the grassy flatness, we were suddenly walking around in a forest of Ponderosa pines.

The Willa Cather Memorial Prairie was another beautiful piece of Nebraska countryside. Willa Cather was author that lived in the first half of the 20th century. She moved to Nebraska as a child, fell in love with the prairie, and wrote about it. She's pretty great. You can read more about her here, here, and here. But for now I will leave you with these passages from her book My Antonia:

by kenny

After leaving Salina, we backtracked to Lucas, Kansas. We were headed out to Lucas because they have this weird folk art community there that formed in the early 1900's. The art community essentially makes up the town, almost in entirety. In fact, the Lucas community was voted one of the 8 wonders of Kansas art. Who knew? Just in Kansas. 8 wonders! To be expected there are strange art sculptures scattered throughout the town and on the main highway. But we headed there for mainly two reasons. The Garden of Eden and the World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the Worlds' Largest Things or, as it is otherwise affectionately known, WLCoWSVoWLT.


So, yeah. Yesterday we were at the gates of hell and today we are entering the Garden of Eden. Kansas is diverse! Samuel Perry Dinsmoor built the Garden of Eden between 1907 to 1928. The house is built from limestone "post rock". (These abundant limestone outcroppings are found all over Kansas and have been used for everything from building blocks and fence posts to mortar (in powdered form) and grave markers. was. Anyhoo, from a distance the stone house could be mistaken for a log cabin. Dinsmoor was a teacher, a Freemason, a Populist, and a sculptor. The sculptures around the house is where it gets bizarre. Mostly every bit of the sculptures are made from concrete and are have something to do with the other sculptures to tell elaborate stories. Biblical stories from creation to the story of Cain and Abel are told through concrete, with Dinsmoor's own twist. There is a scupture called the "Crucifixion of Labor" that describes his feeling about the politics and the economy he found himself in. It depicts the torture of Labor, or mankind. A banker, lawyer, preacher and doctor surround the crucifixion. The topper is the mausoleum he built. He dug up his first wife without permission and buried his her in it. His second wife, who was 20 when he was 80 (and they had 4 kids together!), is apparently buried elsewhere. For himself he constructed a cement coffin with a glass window over the head. This was done as a fundraiser to keep the Garden of Eden running. He added a stipulation to his will that anyone could pay a dollar and they would be let in the mausoleum to get a look at him. And we did. Ol' dead Dinsmoor.

Right next door is WLCotWSVotWLT. Erika Nelson creates miniatures of the world's largest things from the world's largest teepee in Arizona to the world's largest lobster in Maine. Laura and I love all things Roadside Americana, as many of our posts attest to, and what Erika has done here is absolutely brilliant. She has imitated Americana in a way that is, ironically, completely unique. A short school bus has been converted to display her collection so she can take it with her as travels the nation visiting the world's largest things and creating the world's smallest versions. She visits the large things, creates the small things, and then photographs them together. When we went, Erika was not home, but on her porch was the world's smallest collection of the world's largest version of the world's smallest things (the opposite of WLCoWSVoWLT): 3 quarks.



From Lucas it was on to Cawker City for one of the icons of Roadside Americana, The Big Ball of Twine! I know this is ridiculous, but the ball of twine had dominated my internal compass since Jr. High. I mean it. I love the ball of twine. Frank Stoeber started the ball of twine on his farm in 1953. By 1957, it weighed 5,000 pounds, stood 8 feet high, and had 1,175,180 feet of twine on it! Apparently, there is a rivalry between the size of this ball and another in Minnesota. The one in Minnesota was bigger when Frank died in 1961, so the townsfolk in Cawker City kept the ball going and now is the biggest ball of twine. I found out when writing this post that you can still add twine to the ball, so I guess we will be going back!

Painted on the sidewalk by the ball of twine is an unwound string that goes all through town. It beckons you to follow and if you do you will be rewarded with famous paintings altered to reflect Cawker City's ball of twine in all the local shops. I love that the whole town of Cawker City is dedicated to this amazing ball of twine.


After leaving the ball we headed to where it all happens, the center of the contiguous united states. Two miles northwest of Lebanon, Kansas is a rest stop of sorts that has a pyramid type monument with an American flag on top, a gazebo with a rooster ( a real live one) in it, and a tiny chapel. We took some time to offer up some prayers for family and friends in this chapel in the center of USA. Hope you all were blessed that day.


We decided to go back to Lebanon to get a souvenir, but the town is dying, if not dead. I circled the town once and saw no sign of anything kitschy. So I stopped at the gas station and asked where I could get a souvenir and was directed to the grocery store I already passed. "It's the building that's not torn down with the wheelchair ramp." So we got our bumper sticker and headed due north.

From the center it is a short drive to the Nebraska border and so we left Kansas with quite a lot of fondness in our hearts. Hoorah for the Sunflower State and on to the Cornhusker State.

by kenny

We left the Wal-Mart parking lot in Kansas City, MO and headed back to Kansas and on to the OZ Museum in Wamego. Before we got there we had a few stops to make.

Throughout the U.S. there are few known Gateways to Hell (being Buffy fans, we call them Hellmouths) and in the town of Stull, Kansas is one such Hellmouth. In an old cemetery is a church on a hill. Through the church doors, given the right situation, Halloween, full moon, midnight, etc. the Devil himself may appear. We arrived with none of those situations in effect, however from the start this Hellmouth was looking ominous. When I entered the coordinates for the gates of hell, my GPS consistently returned "Location can not be found". Hmm... I haven't had that issue before or sense. So we went to Stull (or was it originally called Skull?) and found the cemetery in the main road through town and parked the moho in a church (a different church, not the Hellomouth church) parking lot. On the way to the cemetery we came across a massive pile of dead bugs. There were also dead bugs on the sides of the church. Yuckers! We walked through the cemetery and made our way up the hill, but the church was no longer standing! Apparently in 2002, it was burned down. Or was it knocked down? It is all very vague. Why did this happen? Was it drunken teenagers? Was it a desperate attempt by the townsfolk to close this gate to hell? Whatever the reason, it stands no more. We walked among the rubble, took a few pictures, and left. On the way back to the moho, Laura was paralyzed with fear by an unidentified creature that blocked our path, hanging from a tree. We negotiated around it and the many others that filled the area. And so we left the Gates of Hell unscathed. Or did we?

We went to Truckhenge but it was closed. So we just got to peer through the gates. But to make up for my sorrow we saw two Airstream motorhomes. In all of our travels we had only seen two before. But in Kansas, we see two in just the time from the Hellmouth to Truckhenge! One was parked, the other was driving in the opposite direction. There was much waving and smiles shared between our two mohos.

Then on to another cemetery in Topeka to visit Carrie Keane, a five-year-old who died in 1885. A statue of Carrie adorns her grave and every season she is given a new outfit. No one knows who has been providing the new outfits over the decades and will likely cease when ever the mysterious donor dies.




Now off to Wamego's Wizard of Oz Museum. There seems to be quite a few Oz-themed museums in Kansas, as to be expected. Are there better ones than this? I don't know but this one was pretty excellent. It is divided into three sections, one about Lyman Frank Baum and all his works, one about all things Wizard of OZ related, and one about the movie specifically. We spent a few hours there, saw the part in the movie where it goes from black and white into color, and learned more OZ than I can remember.

Random facts that I do remember:

• There were at least 6 pairs of ruby slippers made for the film.


• Toto got paid more than the munchkins.


• Baum wrote an alternative to Mother Goose called Father Goose, which became the best-selling children's book of the year.


• Baum's great grandson, Roger S Baum continues to write new OZ books in the style of his great grandfather.

Across the street from the OZ Museum is one of Kansas' wineries, Vin Vivante. It triples as a winery, art gallery, and law office run by Britt Nichols. Britt provided some great conversation and even better wine. He also pointed out that just like the moral of OZ, perhaps what we are looking for, we truly had all the time. Hmm...






Rock City near Minneapolis, Kansas was our next stop as we headed west. Rock City contains these peculiar, large, mostly spherical boulders made of limestone. There are about 200 of them all in small area with nothing like them anywhere nearby. It is pretty fascinating. A massive boulder patch among a flat Kansas prairie.





We headed on to Salina, KS where we dined at KFC, enjoyed an amazing sunset, and watched a rather impressive thunderstorm yet another Wal-Mart parking lot.

by kenny

After leaving the Ressels we set out for a big day. First stop was Kansas's Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Well we didn't really stop, but we did drive through it, and it was beautiful. We had expected Kansas to be simply a place to drive through, check off our list of states we've visited, and never go back. Most of Kansas is beautiful, surprisingly lush and green. The sky touches the ground and the air is filtered by prairie grass. The wildflowers and fireflies are quite amazing. If you stay on the main freeways, the drives are boring, but if you get off those roads and drive through towns you will find more life than expected. We have come to find that true of most states actually. We will be going back to Kansas.

We headed directly north as fast as we could because we needed to be near Topeka, Kansas by 2 PM to get a tour of a missile bunker that has been converted into a personal residence, called Subterra Castle. Ed Peden bought this decommissioned missile bunker in Kansas for about $40,000. Now it is worth over a million dollars. Ed took us on a sometimes jaw-dropping tour for about an hour. Jaw-dropping because the bunker is just so immense. The room where the missile was stored was cleaned up (and there was a lot of cleanup!) and converted into a massive garage and workshop. The command center was turned into a living room and the rest of the building was built into their living space. About 90 percent of the house is underground which keeps the house a consistent cool temperature. We were glad to have visited and we learned a bit more information that will be useful in forming our own community. The owners feel that the site has a lot of bad energy associated with nuclear destruction, so they hired some people to live with them for 3 to 6 months changing the negative energy into positive energy. We didn't really get that impression, but we were impressed with the positive, peaceful improvement they have made at Subterra.




From the missile bunker we headed west to Lawrence, Kansas to visit the Deleware Street Commons which is an example of co-housing. Co-housing is sort of an off shoot of intentional communities which are more appealing to mainstream America. It is more appealing because it boils down to a gated community with no gate, no annoying rule telling you how your property should look, and only about 20 families. With that size you get a community of people that know each other. The people that buy into the community know what they're getting into. This creates a community of relatively like-minded people, but also allows for freedom of the indiviuals. Everyone owns their own house, yard, and makes and keeps their own money. There is a shared meeting house for general purposes, shared meals, and bumping in to each other when you check your mail. Houses are positioned in a circular formation with the front facing each other with a shared common yard. There is also a shared garden. When we walked up to community, many of the residents were outside talking to each other, kids were playing, and gardens were growing. We met a few of the residents and were given a tour by one of them and she explained how co-housing works and more specifically how Delaware Street Commons works. So today ended up being a really informative day for us about our future community. We don't want to be so care-free as the missile silo without any form of rules, but we also don't want to form a gated community, albeit a small one. And we also want to provide a community for people who can't afford it. Unfortunately, DSC seemed to me like a place that you have to be well off to enjoy.

It was late after visiting the Delaware Street Commons and drove as fast as our little moho could go to Kansas City, Missouiri to check out IHOP. Nope not that one, this one. International House of Prayer has been offering continual prayer and worship 24/7 since . Each hour they pick a different theme to focus on during prayer. The worship team changes every hour as well, but the music never stops as the bands enter and exit the stage seamlessly. We were there for about three hours during the night and the place was packed. We went to sleep in the parking lot but around 2 in the morning we were awoken by security and told we not allowed to park over night on the premises. So we left IHOP's parking lot and spent the night at Wal-Mart.

by laura beth

Josh Ressel is a friend of ours from Saint Barnabas. He's originally from Salina, Kansas, and we were able to meet and visit his parents in Wichita. We only meant to spend one night, but ended up staying 5 nights. Vince and Faye are some of the most wonderful, generous, and humble people I've met. They live in a wonderful big old house. They fed us, sparked good conversation, and Faye took us to a farmer's market and a nice brewery for lunch. We spent the 4th of July with them. We had a BBQ with Faye's brothers and their families, and watched fireworks in Peabody, Kansas. One the way to Peabody we stopped at one of Faye's favorite spots, on a piece of land that was her father's. It's just a small portion of a larger wheat field. There is a beautiful meadow there, surrounded by a creek lined with trees. It's completely serene. As we drove in, the fireflies starting flickering beneath the tree, and we started a couple of spotted fawns. It was an amazing place. I thought it was kind of magical.

Anyhoo, Peabody knows how to celebrate. On the way from the wheat fields towards Peabody we couls see fireworks going off in the distance. So we sped up to get there as we were missing the show. Then we could see fireworks going off in all four directions! Small towns throughout Kansas were starting there firework shows and we were missing them all! So we parked and when we get out of the car we discovered that the show had not even started. The fireworks that we had seen, which are the fireworks we are used to, were being set off all over town right out of people's front yards! Amazing! It was like the opening scene in Avalon where the main character arrives to America on the Fourth of July and walks the streets with fireworks going off all around him. Kenny has never really believed that scene and thought it was just a bit of Hollywood flare. That scene is mild compared to what we witnessed in Peabody.


This was Peabody's 88th annual celebration, and it was by far the best small town fireworks show I've ever seen. Peabody's population is roughly 1, 400 people, and I bet all of them (times 5!) were gathered around the local high school baseball diamond at the city park for the show. After dark, the field lights shut off, and the sky lit up with tons of huge blasts. It seemed to us that they had started with the finale. Throughout the night, they alternated the sky show with fireworks piece sets-the kind that are built on a wooden frames and spell something out or make a specific image. Apparently Peabody has the largest piece set display in the state-around 20 of them! It was really amazing. Just when we thought it couldn't get better, the finale came in the form of canons shooting off huge blasts to the tune of Johnny Horton's The Battle of New Orleans. As we walked away, even more blasts lit up the sky, almost like they found a box of fireworks they somehow forgot to set off. To make it even better, people were setting off huge fireworks in their yards. Obviously Kansas' fireworks regulations are no where as strict as Oregon's. It was the largest, longest, most spectacular display either Kenny or I have seen. This is a little recording Kenny made with his phone. The quality is poor, and it only shows a fraction of a fraction of the 2 hour light show. But you get the idea. If you listen close you can hear us laughing with disbelief at the sheer scale of this small town fireworks display.




This has been our first trip to the Midwest, and we are definitely pleasantly surprised. I would come back to Wichita in a minute. The landscape is green, the people are friendly, even the cities feel like small towns, and fireflies are everywhere. It really is wonderful in Kansas.

by laura beth

We made a really quick trip through Oklahoma, stopping first at a tiny roadside chapel on a muddy county road just outside of Dickson. Apparently built by a man as a memorial to his deceased sons, the chapel has two short rows of tiny pews, an altar with a Bible, and stained glass windows. When you walk in and shut the door, a generator starts, and hymns play. It was so tiny, I could hardly take a photo in side of it, but it was really precious and worth the out-of-the-way drive.

Then it was on to Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The memorial was definitely one of the best I've seen, primarily due to its simplicity. We didn't go into the museum. I'm not usually a big fan of memorial, for personal reasons that I won't share here so as not to offend anyone, but I did think this one was nice. While we were there, we noted that although Oklahoma City is a large city, the downtown area really closes up shop early. At seven o'clock on a Sunday evening there was no traffic for miles around. Not a single moving vehicle. It really felt like a small town.

We drove on to historic Guthrie, Oklahoma, hoping to have a drink at the Blue Belle Saloon, the oldest bar in Oklahoma, where Tom Mix tended bar in the early 1900's. But it was closed for the evening. Apparently, however, it is the place to be according to this site! After driving the brick-paved streets and admiring the beautiful brick architecture, we slept in the Walmart parking lot. The next morning we visited a couple of old graves. One belonged to Bill Doolin, founder of the Wild Bunch and member of the Dalton Gang. The other belongs to Elmer McCurdy. Elmer was an outlaw and train robber who was shot and killed in Oklahoma. After a serious of strange events, his mummified body was found at a Long Beach California amusement park, and eventually returned to Oklahoma in the 1970's. He is buried next to Bill Doolin in the Boot Hill section of Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie. Read about Elmer here.

We left Guthrie and headed for Kansas, hugged on the highway by cornfields as far as the eye could see. Although we didn't spend more than a couple of days in Oklahoma, I was impressed with its beauty. It wasn't at all what I imagined. The soil is red and the landscape is green, and the towns are quite charming.

by laura beth

We just had to go to the Pest Stop in Plano on our way back through Dallas. It's a pest control business, but may be better known as the Cockroach Hall of Fame or the Cockroach Museum. The shop is tiny, but big on style, and the owner, Michael Bohdan was happy to tell us his story:

The pest business was slow, so to drum up some interest, Michael advertised a $1000 prize for the biggest cockroach in the Dallas area. Apparently this caught the attention of the Johnny Carson Show. After Micheal's appearance on the show with the winning roach, the pest control product company Combat, hired him to judge dressed-up roaches for a promotion. Michael ended up keeping the contest entries, which now adorn his shop. He has made several appearances in the media and entertainment world, and "Hollywood" still looks him up from time to time. Apparently Samantha Brown is coming for a visit soon.

There are some super clever and intricate roach scenes. I really enjoyed "Don't Drink & Fly" (even though roaches don't fly), "The Combates Motel" (modeled after the Bates motel from Psycho), and :"Norman Roachwell".

Michael is a super friendly guy, and made some general statements about retiring someday. We talked about traveling, and he seems interested in Arizona. He also seemed like an honest business man and cares about his customers. It's primarily a do-it-yourself shop. As customers came in he would excuse himself from visiting with us and gave them prompt attention and fair advice on how to take care of their pests (everyone was having carpenter ant problems) easily, efficiently, and in the least expensive manner. I was honestly impressed with his customer service. So if your in the area and have roaches or ants, look up the Pest Stop in Plano on West 15th.

by kenny

We went to a Christian compound near Waco. No, not that one. The Trinity Institute in Tehuacana (teh-WAH-kana), Texas. Trinity is run by Jim Parker, a professor of Apologetics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, for the last 18 years. It is modeled after Francis Schaeffer's Labri, which is a place for spiritual seekers to come, rest, and ask questions about all things spiritual. On the Trinity property is a historic building called the Texas Hall (originally built as the Presbyterian Trinity University from 1869-1902, then used as the Methodist Westminster College from 1942-1950). The hall is amazing-built of limstone, four stories high, and going through a badly needed major restoarion (as money allows). It houses a small local historical museum and an art gallery, and some of the rooms are useable for visting groups, weddings, videos, and photo shoots. The property also includes a big house with an awesome enclosed porch with many swings, as well as an old student boarding house. If ever in this part of Texas (the highest point between Dallas and Houston), you should stop by and check it out.

Trinity Institute has been opened up to anyone who is seeking spiritual things. The Institute also has an artist-in-residence program. Any artist is welcome to stay there free of charge for however long they want to pursue their creativity, Christian or not. Musicians, painters, screenwriters, photographers, what have you. And they do. Sometimes for a few days. Sometimes for over a year.

We visited Trinity because this sort of thing is what we hope to provide in the future. A place were artists and friends can come to live, free of charge, to focus on their craft. Trinity has been successfully doing this and we were able to ask a lot of questions and let our minds go wild with the possibilities. It was really uplifting to be in an environment where our dreams were being accomplished. Maybe we are not crazy after all. It is being done, so perhaps we can do it too.

by laura beth

Just kidding! I couldn't help myself. Well, to wrap up our Texas visit, we came to Ft Worth to see my cousin Rob Willey. I haven't seen Rob in years, and in that time he has grown up a lot. We had a wonderful 4 day visit, just catching up, watching movies, swimming, and eating. He made a fantastic spaghetti dinner by himself! He has recently become a Christian, and we enjoyed going to church with him, and seeing the passion in his life for things of God. We also went to Chik-Fil-A for the first time! We had planned to go to Dallas to not only see the spot where JFK was shot, but to find out who killed JR. We decided to forgo Dallas, however, and do a quick backtrack to Tehuacana (near Waco).

by kenny

We left Nick and Sammy Jo's house around 6 in the morning so we could be Lexington in time for Snow's BBQ. Throughout Texas we have been sampling BBQ at every opportunity. We have tried random joints, franchise places, and a two of the top five BBQ pits in all of Texas according to Texas Monthly.

Snow's was the last place on our list of BBQ to try in Texas and according to Texas Monthly was #1. Snow's is only open on Saturdays and starts serving at 8 in the morning. They stop serving when the meat runs out and that has been awfully quick since they have been deemed number 1.

So we took our fill of a pound of brisket and a half pound of ribs. And it was great. Really good all around. But not my favorite. Floores Country Store holds the top place in my heart. I will let Snow's hold the number 2 spot with no qualms, but the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the top of the top belongs to Floores. I told Laura that if we came back to Texas I would not go out of my way for Snow's, but at the time I said it, and as I write this now, still have an unwavering hankering for more of Floores BBQ. I would come back for Floores.

Best atmosphere goes to Luling City Market. When you place your order you go in the pit room with all the wood, smoke, and meat tickling your tongue. There are two or three pit guys asking for your order by the pound. They slice it up for you right in the pit and send you on your way. Loved it! Here are the BBQs we had, shown in chronological order, but rated by goodness:






After Snow's we headed to Waco for the Dr Pepper Museum. This one was a lot bigger than Dublin's and better displayed. It starts off with a replica of the soda shop Dr Pepper was invented in. At that time it was named a Waco after the town as in, "Shoot me a Waco". There is an animatronic Charles Alderton (he created Dr Pepper) talking about how Dr Pepper came about. The next room has various Dr Pepper cans and bottles from the 1900's on and videos and exhibits of the bottling process.

The second floor with original flooring was where they made the syrup and has the many different style of vending machines. Vending machines with a water drinking fountain on the side in case you didn't have money for a soda. Vending machines that poured Dr Pepper into cups. There is a section of Dr Pepper knockoffs. Skipper, Dr Schnee (Laura's favorite just because of the name), Dr Becker by Bly Sky Soda Co. (Laura actually likes this one), Dr Nut, and one that I actually liked better than Dr Pepper (I know...), Doc Holliday.

The third floor, yep, there was three floors, was dedicated to Woodrow Wilson "Foots" Clements and his Free Enterprise Institute, who may be the man responsible for Dr Pepper being latched on to by the masses. He went from town to town, visiting public parks or anywhere people were and putting cups of Dr Pepper in their hands. After we had our fill of the museum, I went down stairs and enjoyed a Dr Pepper float made the original way soda jerks did in the soda shop that started it all. Dr Pepper syrup, carbonated water, and vanilla ice cream. Delicious!

by laura beth

Nick and Sammi Jo took us on a Texas history excursion to the Battleship TEXAS and the San Jacinto Monument. It was super hot and humid (as it has been during our entire visit in Willis), but we loaded up with slushees from Sonic and piled into the zebra mobile (without ac) and headed south to the Houston Ship Channel. We hit the ship first, which is pretty impressive, but obviously not air conditioned. We kind of melted a little on our self-guided tour. It was quite interesting, though. As we walked through the ship I thought more and more about what it must have been like to live on it. I think I would have rather not. It's not so much the cramped quarters and lack of luxury (duh! I live in a 27-year-old 28-foot motorhome), but the lack of day light and the swishy washyness of being on open sea. Oh, and war. That would suck. But the sailors had everything they needed on the little floating city.

Next we headed over the San Jacinto monument and museum. We were overjoyed to have cool air conditioning and cold drinkign water. We didn't have time to go through the musuem, but we watched a fun little movie about the pivotal Battle of San Jacinto which was where Texas finally won its independence from Mexico. Were then rode an elevator to the top of the tower, which is the world's tallest monument tower, and which freaked me out just a little. As we left, we stopped at the far side of the reflecting pool and had a lot of fun taking silly photos with the monument in the background. All in all it was a great history-filled day.

by laura beth

Since Willis is only about an hour from where James and Kim live, we invited them to come visit us. James' daughter Ashley is spending a month with him for the summer, so they brought all 4 kids up.

After they pulled into town, we headed to Huntsville and the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church...and BBQ. This is sooooo great. I mean, the BBQ was just good, but the whole idea of it is absolutely hilarious. Right next to the church is a smoked stained shack serving up ribs, brisket, sausage and chicken (along with the fixin's and homemade pies). You pass the smoker as you walk into the tiny place, there are several picnic tables crammed in, and the kitchen is very much a run-of-the-mill small church kitchen, serving the BBQ out of stainless steel buffet pans and sweet tea out of cooler jugs. It was an experience to say the least.

After filling our bellies, we took the Tavs to visit all of the animals. Jason's camel, Butter, really likes kids a lot, so he and Ephram got along great. Later, Sammi Jo took us on cart drives with Charlie. Apparently Ashley loves zebras, so she was thrilled to be able to hang out with them. Nick is really into genealogy, which fascinated Cal and DJ. Also, it was Kim's birthday, and I had saved some cupcakes in anticipation of their visit. I think everyone had a really great time, and it was so good to see the Tavs again.