Kansas

Buddy had his two week break from school so it was vacation time.  We took two days to cross Kansas into Colorado allowing us time to stop at places along the way.  The first stop was the Tallgrass National Prairie.  Across the street from the visitor center was a large field with grass blowing in waves.  I've seen that effect elsewhere but never in such large scale before.  We went on a hike and found several animals and flowers.  Buddy spotted the horned toad and he and I both caught a glimpse of a very large bluish lizard.  This prairie was in the Flint Hills so it wasn't flat at all.  On our walk we didn't hear cars or airplanes or people.  It was just us and nature.  There was a feeling of vastness and isolation that is rare these days. 









There was a mansion on the property with an extensive stone wall.  I can't imagine how long it would take to build so much wall. 


From the prairie we continued onto Hutchinson which is a not very big town in the middle of Kansas.  The only underground salt mine in the Americas is here and a Cosmophere museum.  A tour of the salt mines sounded better than the museum so we headed there.  Unfortunately Cora is too young so either somebody stayed with her while the other three did a two hour tour or we try the museum.  We were disappointed that we couldn't do the salt mine especially since we thought a museum in a small Kansas town couldn't possibly be that great.  We went anyway and were pleasantly surprised.  It's one of the top museums I've ever been too.  The layout and presentation were definitely the best.  Cora was getting tired and Nyla was bored so we couldn't take as much time as we liked.  The museum discussed the space race between the US and Russia starting with the German V1 and V2 missiles in World War 2.  The museum had a lot of really great pieces.  It had a better collection than the Air and Space Museum.  We'll have to go back someday. There is so much we missed.

This is an ejection seat from a B-52 bomber.


This is the flame bucket of Launch Complex 19


Nyla and Cora made their own fun. 





The next day there was no stopping as there is nothing of interest in western Kansas or eastern Colorado.  We arrived at grandma's house before noon thanks to the time change.  The kids had time to play a little bit and explore before we headed to New Mexico the next day.