A Few More Days in Kansas

Friday (Oct 29) to Tuesday (Nov 3):

Friday morning we decided to travel west to visit a couple of spots near Topeka, Kansas. Our first stop was at a place called Rock City. As you can see by the sign below, this is the largest collection of these types of rocks in the world.

There was no one else at the place and a gentle rain was starting to fall, so we decided to take a few pictures and then head into Topeka. The rocks look like mushrooms growing out of the ground and there is another collection of these rocks west of Topeka in the Mushroom Rock State Park (smaller collection).

We found a winery located on the north side of Topeka, but when we pulled into the place they were closed. We decided to go into downtown Topeka to see if we could find a place to have lunch. There is a few block section of Topeka that has a number of restaurants and specialty shops that we ended up visiting. We found the Blue Skye Brewery and Eats and decided to give them a try.

We ordered one a sampling of their beers along with some appetizers to have with the beer. We liked their darker beers, especially their stout, more than the lighter lager beers in the samples.

The light rain continued in Topeka as we walked a few blocks to the local historical museum. We toured the museum for a while to learn about this area of Kansas and its history (and to get out of the rain). We tried to find a bison farm that we had seen on the web, but found out it has been closed for a few years.

On the weekend we took it easy and didn't do any traveling. There was not any activities in the area for Halloween, so we took a picture of ourselves in our "costumes" to send to Rhys McKay (my grandson whose birthday is on Halloween - he turned 3).

Sunday was cleaning and wash day since we did not know if we would have full hookups at the next location. During the afternoon we went into Chapman to see if we could find the Joe Engle Walking Trail (Joe is an astronaut from Chapman). We never found the trail but we did end up walking around the town for about 45 minutes.

Monday morning we packed up The Duchess and headed south. We had a couple of campgrounds on our list that were about 125-150 miles from Chapman. We stopped and looked at one in Iola KS but it was right on the highway so we decided to keep on going. We traveled a few more miles south to Chanute KS where the town has a campground in the city park that you can stay at for two nights "free". We found the campground at the Santa Fe City Park and decided to take advantage of the free camping. The campground has a section with 50 amp electric/water and another section with 30 amp/water. We camped in the one with the 50 amp electric.

We found out that this campground is located near the Kansas RV Service Center. This service center is a holdover from the NuWa RV manufacturing plant that was located here in Chanute for about 50 years until it closed in 2012. The company made several models of 5th wheels and they kept the service part of the business open when they closed down the manufacturing portion of the business. They have since expanded their business and will service any 5th wheel or travel trailer in their shop. We were the only non-NuWa RV in the campground during the two days we were there. We met almost all of the other people in the campground who were all here to have work down on their NuWa 5th wheels. The park has a number of softball/hardball baseball fields along with an abandoned 9 hole golf course that has a walking trail that follows the old cart paths along the course. There is also two small lakes located in the park. We got out and walked around the park after we had setup the motorhome.

The next day (Tuesday) we ended up visiting with several other couples who are in the campground waiting on their scheduled time in the service center. Mike & Sue are a couple from Wisconsin who are full timing in their 5th wheel. They have been workamping for the last two years and are headed to south Texas for a winter workamping job. Harry & Pat are full timers from Georgia who just got back from a trip to Alaska in their RV. They spent about two months traveling around Alaska and had a great time. Al & Verna are Canadians who are on their way to Pharr Texas for the winter. They have been going to Texas for several years now after wintering in Arizona before that.

We visited the main part of Chanute and walked around the small downtown area. We saw a pharmacy that still has a soda fountain shop in their store. Also stopped in the local museum/library for a few minutes to see a few items about the area and then stopped in an old hotel that has been remodeled into extended stay suites (built in the 1920's for $210,000).  On the walls of the hotel lobby there were a number of photographs of a couple from Chanute (the Johnsons) who had traveled all over the world from 1905 to 1930's and documented their travels.

This intersection in downtown Chanute is the default position of the Macintosh version of Google Earth. Dan Webb, the software engineer who is responsible for this, is from Chanute.

We invited everyone over to our RV for the evening (Happy Hour) and had a great time meeting and getting to know these couples. In one of those small world happenings: Mike and Pat had both work at UPS for more than 30 years each (Mike in Wisconsin & Pat in Georgia). We enjoyed hearing stories about their years at UPS.

Mike & Sue (left) - Harry & Pat (upper right) - Verna & Al (lower right)

Visit to Eisenhower Center

Wednesday (Oct 28):

We decided to visit Abilene, Kansas today to see the Eisenhower Center which includes his presidential library, museum & boyhood home. Even though Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, his family moved back to Abilene when he was 1 year old. His father worked for most of his life in a local creamery to support the family which included 6 boys. They bought a small house located on 2.5 acres on the “wrong side of the tracks” in Abilene where the boys were raised. The house was added to over the years as the boys got older and their grandfather came to live with them. One of the boys died in childhood. All of the other five became very successful in their selected fields: business, law, military and government. Dwight Eisenhower was the only son to go into the military as it was a way for him to receive a great education at West Point with very little cost to the family. All of the brothers supported each other efforts of attend college and all of the five graduated.

In 1946 his mother sold the home and it was later acquired by the group that built the Eisenhower Center along with the surrounding property to form the current facility. We took a quick tour of the house and learned some information about Eisenhower’s boyhood.

We watched a 23 minute film at the Visitor’s Center that gave a quick synopsis of Eisenhower’s life and his accomplishments. Eisenhower was the last president to be born in the 19th century. We also visited the Center for Meditation located near the Visitor’s Center.

Meditation Center.

Stained glass inside Meditation Center

We then started our tour of the Eisenhower Museum which gave a detailed history of Eisenhower’s life in the military and his time as President of the USA. Here are a couple of photos of murals on the wall in the entrance to the museum.

We spent several hours inside the museum (you could probably spend several days and not see everything in detail). As with the other Presidential Libraries/Museums that we have visited over the year, the total amount of exhibits and information is overwhelming. Eisenhower was at the center of world events for a least 20 years (1940-1960) and the museum attempts to document this portion of his life in detail.

We made a quick visit to the Eisenhower Library which houses the archives from his military service and time as president. It was getting late in the day and the Center closes at 4:30 PM.

We stopped by the Russell Stover’s Factory Store located in Abilene along I-70. They have a whole room full of “bloopers” that are candies that are eatable but did not turn out to have the look they expected. We bought some of these along with some sugar free chocolates that Connie wanted for baking.

Chapman, Kansas

Monday-Tuesday (Oct 26-27):

On Monday morning we left Nebraska City heading south to Kansas. As we passed from the farm fields of Nebraska into Kansas the scenery along the road changed. More of the land in Kansas is used for raising livestock and we saw more cattle than we have in a long time.

Driving along I-70 in Kansas

The trip was about 190 miles and we stopped at a rest area in Kansas to eat lunch. The Chapman Creek RV Park is located right off of I-70 and is a relatively new campground with only 23 sites. I rode around the campground with the host and chose Site 15. All of the sites are narrow and we had to make several adjustments getting into the site even though it was a pull through. We got set up and met our neighbors, Tim & Marsha, who are from Minnesota and just started "full-timing" in their Jayco Eagle 5th wheel this year.

Site 15

View from our site of I-70

On Tuesday morning I let Connie sleep in. She had not slept very well for the last couple of nights and we were not in a rush to go anywhere today. After breakfast we drove over to Milford Lake State Park which is located a few miles north of I-70 near Junction City KS. Milford Lake is a large man-made lake on the Republican River.

Milford Lake

Milford Lake dam

 We went to this park because there was a number of hiking trails located with the park. We stopped by the park office, obtained our daily fee pass and proceeded over to the south part of the park to walk a portion of the Eagle Ridge (it is 8 miles total and we walked about 3 miles of it). The trail wandered back and forth along the lake. There were not many good views of the lake along the trail because all of the trees that have grown up along the banks.

Connie crossing bridge along the trail.

We finished up the portion of the trail we wanted to walk and went over to the horse camping area in the park. One of the motorhomes parked in this area was a Dutch Star that looked a lot like ours.

We then drove over the north part of the park and had a quick bite to eat along with some water. We then walked the 2.1 mile Crystal Trail which goes around a number of corn fields located on the edge of the park. By the time we had finished our second walk we were both tired and ready to get off our feet. We returned to The Duchess for an early dinner and just as we finished eating it started to rain. Good timing on our part.

A few days in Nebraska City

Friday-Sunday (Oct 23-25):

On Friday morning we awoke to the sound of light rain falling on The Duchess. I spent the morning trying to update all of our financials through Quicken. With the recent cancellation and reissuing of our main credit card, I ended up having to make several changes in Quicken to have all of the transactions downloaded. In the afternoon the sun came out and we went back over the Lewis & Clark Museum to walk the prairie trail located on the property. We finished the walk and it started to rain again. That evening Connie made a pizza from scratch in our convection oven (even making the pizza crust). She tried using a baking stone to help make the pizza crust crisp and it did seem to help.

On Saturday we visited the Arbor Day Farm and the Arbor Lodge. Arbor Day was started here in Nebraska City during the 1870's and later became a state and then a national celebration of tree planting. J. Sterling Morton, an early Nebraska businessman & entrepreneur, is credited with being the founder of Arbor Day. It is reported that over 1 million trees were planted in Nebraska during the first few years of the Arbor Day celebrations. Most of Nebraska was prairie land with trees only located along creeks and rivers.

Our first stop was the Arbor Day Farm. The farm was started to celebrate Arbor Day with a number of activities for families to learn about trees and their benefits.

We saw a 20 minute movie about "Trees in the Movies" in the Visitor's Center for the farm and then walked through an exhibit with information about trees around the USA. From there we proceeded to a paved trail around the farm that had several informational areas along with a tree house that was 50 foot tall at the top. We both climbed to the top of the treehouse and enjoyed the view.

I climbed through a maze located along the trail.

After finishing the paved trail, we hiked a longer trail located along a creek that runs through the property. Lots of information about the trees that have been planted on the property along with some native to Nebraska trees.

After finishing this trail, Connie did a wine tasting at the small restaurant located on the property. She liked the reds but not the whites. The wines were $19 a bottle so we passed on buying any. From the Arbor Day Farm we walked across the street to the Arbor Lodge.

Arbor Lodge

The Arbor Lodge is a 52 room mansion built by J Sterling Morton on an original 160 acre property.  It started out as a small two room house in the 1850's and was added to over the years as the family prospered until it ended up this size. Mr. Morton was a businessman and politician. He served as territorial governor before Nebraska became a state along with being Secretary of Agriculture under President Grover Cleveland. He had four sons who all went into business for themselves. His oldest son, Joy Sterling, went to work for a company that supplied salt throughout the Midwest. He ended up buying the company and renaming it the Morton Salt Company. The slogan of the Morton Salt Company is: when it rains it pours. We watched a short video about the house and the Morton family. Then we toured the first, second and third floors along with the basement (a one lane bowling alley is located in the basement). Some of the furniture located in the house is original and some of it has been donated as period pieces. President Cleveland and his wife stayed in this house during a visit to Nebraska. The house and grounds were donated to the State of Nebraska in 1923 and have been overseen by the National Arbor Day Foundation for a number of years. The Morton family planted over 270 varieties of trees and shrubs on the property during the years they lived there. Several of the trees had turned to beautiful reds, oranges and yellows.

Located on the grounds is a statue of J Sterling Morton along with a whispering bench. You can sit at one end of the bench, speak in a whisper and be heard by someone sitting at the other end. Connie and I tested the effect and it does work. I don't know how it done, but it is amazing.

Connie at one end of The Whispering Bench.

J. Sterling Morton statue dedicated by Ex-President
Grover Cleveland in 1905.

We walked back across the road to the Arbor Day Farm restaurant and shared a piece of apple pie made with apples from the farm. It was delicious. We then drove back to the Lewis & Clark Museum to take the short trail down from the Visitor's Center to an overlook of the Missouri River.

Both of these photos are looking across the Missouri River
into Iowa.

On Sunday we drove over to Peru Nebraska and rode our bikes along the Steamboat Trace Trail. This trail runs along the Missouri River for about 22 miles (we did not do the entire trail). The trail is level with only a few inclines along the way.

While in Peru NE we drove through the Peru State College. This is the oldest college in Nebraska beginning with it's roots as a Methodist college in the 1850's. We only saw a couple of students walking around the campus which we thought was unusual even for a Sunday.

We drove over to visit the Indian Cave State Park but most of the park (including the cave) were closed due to a road repaving project. Back to the Duchess for dinner and then started our preparation for travel tomorrow to Chapman Kansas.

Nebraska City, Nebraska

Wednesday-Thursday (Oct 21-22):

On Wednesday afternoon we arrived at Victorian Acres RV Park in Nebraska City, Nebraska. Our Garmin GPS sent us over the Missouri River into Iowa before we realized where we were (it completely missed our turn in Nebraska). We returned across the river into Nebraska and quickly found the campground. The campground is located next to Hwy 2 but we are below a hill and don't hear much noise from the road. We got The Duchess set up in our pull through site 66. It is nice to have full hookups again for the motorhome.

Victorian Acres RV Park

We went into town to do some grocery shopping before returning to the campground for the evening. Both of us had saved half our dinner from the restaurant we ate at on Tuesday night, so we heated up our left-overs and settled in for the evening.

On Thursday we visited the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Trail & Visitors Center located here in Nebraska City. There are a number of Lewis & Clark Centers located around the country at various locations along their expedition in 1804-1806. This Center concentrates on the discoveries of plants and wildlife made by Lewis & Clark on their journey.

Entrance to Center

Connie standing in replica of boat used on
Lewis & Clark Expedition (boat was used in a movie about the Expedition)

The Visitor's Center

Replica of smaller boat used on the Expedition with the one dog,
Seaman, that accompanied Lewis & Clark.

Inside a replica of Native American
Earth Lodge

Replica of Native American Earth Lodge

Lewis & Clark documented discoveries (by white Europeans, the Native Americans had known about them for centuries) of 122 animal and 178 plants while on their journey. There was also an exhibit about the fishing done by the Expedition along the Missouri, Yellowstone & Columbia Rivers. There was information about the fishing tackle they took along with them as well as the techniques taught them by the Native Americans. Most of their meals consisted of meat shot or fish caught by members of the Expedition. There was information about the vessels used by the Expedition on the rivers: over 20 different kinds of boats, canoes and barges. There was also an exhibit showing the different medicines used by the members of the Expedition along with the remedies shown to them by the Native American tribes they visited. Only one member of the Expedition died which was very unusual during that period of time so some of the medicines/remedies did work.

We then went into Nebraska City and walked around the downtown area. Nebraska City is the oldest city in Nebraska and was the start of the Oregon trail overland once the settlers got off of the Missouri River boats. During the second half of the 19th Century the city was a busy river port for boats along the Missouri River.

Rock & plaque indicated a spot along the Oregon Trail.

The city has a number of building from the late 19th and early 20th century still in use with old painted advertisements on the side of the corner buildings. Notice the prices charged on the advertisements.

There was also an open area in the middle of downtown with a very large mural and other artwork.

We passed by an unusual building that is now a bank but was once the United States Post Office for Nebraska City.

Old Post Office building.

We drove around town and enjoyed the fall colors along the residential streets.

We returned back to The Duchess where Connie cooked us a Lemon Chicken Pasta dish for dinner. Looks like we may get some rain tomorrow here in Nebraska.