KS, CO – Jun 2024

What a whirlwind trip through Kansas and Colorado.  Got to spend time with wonderful friends and family, and checked off a number of visits to Roadside America entries.  No truck troubles, mostly nice campgrounds, and uneventful travel was the norm for this stretch of this year’s trip.  As for this sign above, I’ll cover that in more detail below.  So let’s dive in and get this Blog edition going.

Wichita, KS

My first stop after leaving KC Missouri takes me to Wichita, KS.  I came through Wichita back in 2022, so there were many Roadside items in the area that I had already visited.  But I found two that I’d not seen – one because I arrived too late the last time and was not able to get a ticket to tour, and the other was something I just plain missed.

So back to the Museum of World Treasures for a second attempt – this time arriving in plenty of time to fully enjoy this very interesting place.  Lots of archaeological artifacts, prehistoric dinosaur skeletons, Egyptian mummies, and a host of other interesting exhibits can be found here.  One of the Roadside finds in this museum are two heads – one shrunken, and the other the human scalp, reportedly from 18 year old Henry Armstrong Reed – nephew of George Armstrong Custer, Thomas Custer, and Boston Custer.  All four were killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn, where the victorious Indians scalped and mutilated the young Reed’s body.  Sadly, I can’t share any pictures of these very interesting heads as signage with the displays asked that pictures not be taken in respect to the human deceased.  And, there were security cameras all over so I figured I’d abide by their rules.  The second venue I toured was called the House of Tanks.  In an old building in a mostly industrial area of town was the private collection of upwards of 20 military tanks from a WWI era M1917, to a modern day Leopard.  A local neurosurgeon collects them as a hobby, and makes them available for viewing by the public.  Some people collect stamps or coins, others collect tanks!

It was especially nice to reconnect with my former workmate Josh during this stop in Wichita.  I got the full tour of his new house that he purchased just as I was leaving back in 2022.  He’s done a great job getting settled and putting his own stamp on the place.  He also took me to a really cool local pub named Sickies Garage Burgers and Brews.  The food was fantastic, and the garage themed atmosphere very cool.  The following day, I joined Josh, along with his brother and sister-in-law, at an all-you-can-eat buffet place.  It was nice seeing his family again, and I even got to visit with them at their house after dinner, where I also got to visit with their two dogs – one being a beautiful Great Dane.  Thanks Josh for all the hospitality, and I look forward to coming though Wichita again sometime in the future.

WaKeeney, KS

My next stop was for just a single overnight, so I did not have too much time to play tourist.  But that’s ok as there wasn’t all that much to explore in this little town. What was interesting however, is that it proclaims to be the Christmas City of the High Plains.  It was a 90 degree day with sustained winds of 20-30 miles per hour that day, so it didn’t feel much like Christmas.  But I did visit the downtown area known as the North Pole where festivities abound during the holiday season.  The entire town is said to be decorated beginning on the day after Thanksgiving, and all remains until just after New Year.  An ornate lighting display of over 6,000 lights and a 35-foot tall man-made Christmas Tree has been a town thing since 1950.  Also to make the town interesting, there are several dozen of these metal Christmas trees throughout town to identify interesting places to visit, or historic homes.  One of these trees was actually located at the KOA campground where I was staying (at left, bottom right).  This would be a fun town to be in during the Christmas holiday – that is if it were not for the sub-freezing daily average temperatures during that time of the year, and the potential for several feet of snow!

Wray, CO

My next stop would take me to the north east corner of Colorado, to the town of Wray.  This small rural community with a population of just over 2,300, is home to my cousin Denise, along with her daughter Jocyline (aka Joy) and her family.  Denise relocated here two years ago, leaving the fun and sun of Florida behind, to be with daughter Joy, and the gaggle of grandkids.  I usually connect with Denise while I’m in Florida, as she will spend a month or two there with my other cousin, her sister Louise, during the winter months.  But I thought it would be fun to visit with her here to get a taste of the small town life. As for Joy, she and I both tried to figure out when the last time we had seen each other and it had been so long ago that neither of us could come up with a timeframe.  More than likely back when she was still just a kid, or at best, a young adult.

I also had the wonderful opportunity to meet Joy’s family.  Eldest daughter Natalie (at left bottom right, 2nd from left), a high schooler who works part time and is active in a cheering squad, middle school daughter Addison Jayne (aka AJ) (at left bottom right, far right) an accomplished musician and awesome softball player, and youngin’ Javen who has the coolest name ever, is working his way through elementary school and is an amazing baseball athlete.  I had the pleasure of watching AJ and Javen play some ball at the local Wray sports complex one warm and sunny late afternoon.  While I didn’t get a chance to see AJ at bat, I did watch Javen bang out a scorching triple at his first at bat.  It’s no wonder that in addition to playing in this rec league, he is also on a traveling team.  Javen was to be in a full weekend long tournament just after I had left. I was subsequently informed that not only did his team win the two games played on Saturday, they went on to squeak out a 13-12 win on Sunday to become tournament champions. Team photo from that event is at left, top left. Great job Javen, and congratulations!  It was really great getting to meet Joy’s family during this trip, and I wish them all continued success.

I spent three nights in Wray, so I really only had two full days to explore.  And boy, did Denise have my schedule all filled up.  Well before I arrived, she put a list together of all the places she wanted to take me.  Some of those places were already on my list as being in Roadside America.  Then, I added a few items from my list to her list, and together we filled in two full days of playing tourist.

After an awesome breakfast in the small town of Haigler, NE just east of Wray, we headed south to the town of St Francis, KS to check out the Motorcycle Museum.  This museum houses upwards of 150 vintage motorcycles from more than 40 manufacturers, and includes one of only two known 1902 Orient motorcycles.  It also had a chopper from the movie Easy Rider, though it was a replica and not the original from the movie.  There were lots of vintage panhead and knucklehead Harley’s here to be seen also.  Many of the motorcycles on display are from the private collection of Mike Bahnmaier – an avid  collector of vintage motorcycles and also a professional drag bike builder and rider.  It was a very cool museum filled with lots of really awesome motorcycles.  Lastly of special interest was this nicely restored bright red Cushman Scooter (at right, bottom right).  It brought back lots of memories as it was very similar to one that I had salvaged from someone’s trash when I was a kid.  I never did get that thing running, but I sure did have a lot of fun trying.

Next we headed further south and west to the town of Burlington, CO to visit the Kit Carson County Carousel & Museum.  And what a very cool carousel and museum it was!  This particular carousel is the 1905 Number 6 of 74 carousels manufactured by the Philadelphia Toboggan Co.    It was originally built for Elitch Gardens, an amusement park located in Denver, where it served until it was purchased by Kit County in 1928.  This is known as a three row, stationary carousel, where the horses remain in a single position and do not move up and down.  It is however, one of the faster carousels as its 46 hand carved animals  spin around at nearly 12 miles per hour.  Denise and I took a ride on this thing, and I can attest to its excessive speed as I quickly succumbed to motion sickness soon after the ride was put into high gear.  But I successfully managed to keep my composure and my breakfast through the several minute ride.  This was a very fun and interesting stop.

Also in Burlington, we made a stop to visit the Old Town Museum.  At just over six acres, this old western era recreated town is made up of 21 fully restored building – each complete with authentic artifacts from the turn of the century.  We walked through the venue checking out all the vintage buildings to include a train depot, law office, bank, general store, blacksmith shop, a jail, a schoolhouse, and a saloon among many others.  The tour wrapped up in the large heritage hall that contained tractors, wagons, and all sorts of items from back in the day.  The barbershop had a vintage curling machine (at right, bottom right) that honestly looked like some sort of torture device.  It was amazing that many of the buildings were authentic and original for their purpose, and had been relocated here from cities and towns from all throughout the county and beyond.  It was a great way to view and experience life back in the old western days.

The next day was the start of yet another day of fun and adventure.  This time we headed west, making our first stop in Yuma, CO to visit a place called The Orphanage.  This venue is a showcase of the private car collection belonging to partners Ron Wenger and Richard Birnie.  The name The Orphanage comes from the fact that this museum mostly features automobiles that are considered orphaned.  That is, cars from manufacturers who are no longer in business, or those car models no longer in production – thus orphans.  It was definately an interesting collection of unique cars from manufacturers I’d never heard of including Citroen, Ural, and Stutz.  It also featured no longer produced cars such as the Nissan S-Cargo, the original VW Bug, and AMC Rambler.  They also apparently have an extensive collection of hood ornaments, though we really didn’t get to see most of them as they were on loan to the XIT Museum in Dalhart, TX for a two month exhibit.  It was a fun stop to see several very special cars.

We continued heading west until we reached the town of Sterling, CO.  There we visited the Overland Trail Museum.  The Overland Trail runs along the South Platte River through northeast Colorado, and is actually a branch of the Oregon Trail in Nebraska.  This trail was the heaviest traveled road in America between 1862 to 1868 and served the westward migration of gold seekers and early pioneers.  The museum was opened in 1936 in this original rock building, and has been expanded upon since.  Among its many pioneer artifacts, it houses a Roadside America novelty of a two-headed calf.  It also featured one of those torture curling machines, but this time, was actually hooked up to an unsuspecting victim.  This museum also featured several out building to include a schoolhouse, church, blacksmith shop, and others, similar to what we had seen the day before in the Old Town Museum.  It was a fun stop and allowed me to check off another Roadside visit.

Speaking of Roadside, there were several of them that Denise and I visited during our two day adventure, many of which Denise was not aware of.  It was nice that I could return the favor and share some places to visit in her own back yard.  Among those were three items in Sterling, CO.  Well, actually two that were on my list, and one that we just happened to stumble upon.  First up was a visit to a statue of the Popcorn Man (at left, bottom left).  This is a bronze statue honoring Clarence Mentgen who sold popcorn from a shack at this location for nearly 40 years from 1939 to 1977.  In 2008, the town erected this bronze statue by artist Sharjah Perkins  to honor him.  On the way to visit the Popcorn Man, we passed a statue that looked all too familiar.  Sure enough, it was one of the Boy Scouts Liberty statues from 1950.  What a cool find!  Last up in Sterling is this somewhat bizarre bronze creature titled the Dream Redeemer (at left, bottom right).  Commissioned by the Logan County Chamber of Commerce, this was created by Bradford Rhea and unveiled in 2007.  It has elements of clocks, sundials, balloons, and a monkey looking creature at the helm of some device.  Way too much going on here for me to figure it out.  The day prior, when we visited Goodland, KS, we checked off two additional Roadside items along the way – neither of which Denise had any clue where there despite her having been to Goodland on many occasions.  First up is this tractor piece creation known as the Goodland Grasshopper created by farmer Lloyd Harden.  It’s located along busy highway 27 just north of Goodland.  Then, in downtown Goodland we visited the worlds largest easel.  Standing at an amazing 80 feet tall built of steel and weighing in at 45,000 lbs, it holds a 32×24 foot reproduction Van Gough “Three Sunflowers in a Vase” painting.  Goodland is central to the sunflower industry, and holds an annual Sunflower Festival each year.  It was during the 2001 festival that this piece was unveiled.  Pictures hardly do justice as to how big this thing actually is!

On the down and tragic side of things, Wray, and nearby Yuma, went through a devastating hail storm a mere four weeks before I arrived.  During the late evening of Mon May 20th, golf ball, and up to tennis ball size hail pummeled the area for over 30 minutes.  Tornado sirens were also blairing, though it is believed no actual tornado touched down.  But, as you can see from these pictures, the damage was extensive.  The car you see at right top right belongs to Joy.  The top and side are full of dents, and the windshield is cracked in several locations representing over $10K in damage.  Most homes throughout the area have boarded up windows, and those with vinyl siding are riddled with holes.  Everywhere you drive through Wray, this was the sight.  Even in the campground where I was staying, there were several RVs with apparent busted windows and dented sides resulting from hail damage – suggesting they were long term campers and were  here in the campground when this all went down.  I had to reflect a bit as this year, I left Florida approximately a month later than I usually would have.  Had I left at my normal time, it is possible I too could have been a victim to the damage from this storm.  Joy has a few windows to get fixed, and the roof of the in-law home occupied by Denise reportedly will get a new roof.  Besides Joy’s car, they didn’t fair too horribly bad in this storm especially as compared to many of their neighbors.  But what a horrible mess!  If you want to see a local news story shortly after this event, you can view it HERE.

Well, as I wrap up my report about Wray, and mark the end of this edition of the Luv2rv Blog, I thought I’d share a couple of additional things I learned while in Wray.  First up was this crazy looking building (at left, bottom left) that sits on the north side of Rt 34 just east of Akron.  Denise and I passed it as we were out on one of our adventures.  I asked her what she knew about it, and the answer was nothing.  So, being the curious person that I am, I did some research.  I figured it was some sort of antenna system, perhaps a ground station for some satellites.  Well, it turns out it’s the VOR-DME AKO – or better known as the Akron VHF Omnidirectional Range/Distance Measuring Equipment.  It is a radio frequency based directional and guidance system for aircraft.  As you can see from the map, this unit (right arrow) serves the nearby Colorado Plains Regional Airport (left arrow).   This system, having transmitters like this one all over the US and abroad, was originally developed in the 1930s, but gained popular commercial use in the 1960s.  Today, GPS satellites have all but made this system obsolete, but it remains operational and is maintained as a backup system in aviation.  The next perplexing issue were these signs – No Snowplowing 7PM – 5AM.  Once again, I asked Denise what the purpose of these signs were, and why they do not plow these roads in the night.  Once again, her knowledge of area history failed her.  So, again I did the research and found their purpose.  It turns out, limited budgets had forced the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) to find ways to save money.  So, statewide, they implemented a program whereby roads having an annual daily average traffic of 1,000 or more cars are plowed throughout the duration of a storm (24 hours continuous).  However, those road having annual daily average traffic of fewer than 1,000 cars, are only plowed 14 hours per day – leaving the 7P – 5AM gap in coverage.  Exceptions are made for routes that service hospitals or those being on a school bus route.  So, those roads which are part of the limited services are marked every few miles with these signs.  So, now you know the rest of the story (and Denise can now explain these items to future visitors and guests 😁).

Final Thoughts

Well, once again a very busy few weeks visiting with friends and family, and exploring these areas – many of which I’d not been to before.  Thanks again to Denise for being an exceptional tour guide and spending two full days playing tourists with me.  I’ll be continuing my trek into Wyoming for the next few weeks, where I’ll be meeting up with my brother Gerry for a National Park tour and perhaps also chasing down a few Roadside attractions.  As for this edition, in lieu of a comic or meme, I opted instead to share a story that was just published yesterday on Fox News.  I am a born and raised New England boy, and definately grew up eating Fluffernutters.  Even today, I still partake and enjoy these treats on occasion.  The Fox story did a good job of explaining where this all came about, and how it was a mostly New England tradition.  I even remember receiving Fluff care packages when I was in the Air Force stationed in Japan as there was otherwise no way to obtain this wonderful treat.  So, give this story HERE a read so you too can learn about what makes Fluff and Fluffernutters so special.  Till next time, safe travels!

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!