KS, NE – Jun 2022

Well, as you can see from the dash cam images above, my day kinda got ruined.  I feel bad for the deer, but it was its decision to engage in a game of chicken with me.  Sadly, neither one of us came out of it well.  More on that later.  Otherwise, I had a wonderful few weeks touring Kansas and Nebraska, checking out the sites, and spending some time with a friend and former workmate.  But once again I find myself with way too much stuff to share in this blog, so pour yourself a cup of joe or crack open a beer ‘cause this is gonna be another long one.

Visiting with Friends

My first stop in this leg of the journey brings me to Wichita, KS.  A place I’ve not been before, and home to my friend and former co-worker Josh.  He was a fabulous host during my visit, and even invited me to a family BBQ where I got to meet his parents and siblings.  What a terrific and welcoming group of people!  I also got my first in-person lesson on the challenges and triumphs  of disc golf by walking along as Josh, his brother and nephew, played a round of 18.  It was a lot of fun!  We also enjoyed some wonderful local pizza, and a Mexican dinner at a nearby truck restaurant.  Speaking of which, the food truck was located in the parking lot of a tire company, and I got to see first hand how they change tires in this part of the country.  Jack up the vehicle with floor jacks, no jack stands, remove all the tires, and chat with the owners while they remain in the vehicle the entire time.  Very interesting!  Josh also introduced me to “Hurts Donuts” – home to the “Emergency Donut Vehicle”, or as its otherwise known as, the Whaambulance.  Donuts were really good!  Thanks Josh for making my stay a lot of fun!  It was great seeing you again.

Tourist and Roadside America

Once again I find myself ready to share on this blog the seemingly tons of interesting places that I visited in these past few weeks.  I guess as I’m playing tourist day by day I don’t realize just how much they accumulate over what seems to be a short period of time.  But alas here I am with lots of pictures of places and things that I experienced during this travel time.  So, here goes.  One of the first things I learned about downtown Wichita, KS is that it is a very artsy town.  Throughout the city you will find various bronze pieces from something as simple as a cat laying out the sidewalk, to a child pushing a pedal cart or playing a game of hopscotch.  There was also a life size horse constructed entirely from car bumpers.  Too cool!

Standing 44 feet tall, the Indian sculpture known as “Keeper of the Plains” Created by Kiowa-Comanche artist Blackbear Bosin, the sculpture sits atop a 30 foot high rock, and is surrounded by a circle of firepots.  I’m told they fire up the pots on summer evenings, but I didn’t get to see that while I was there.  Would be very cool though!  I also got to visit the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum.  Located in what once was the City Hall building, this fabulous sandstone structure was designed and built back in the early 1890s.  The exhibits showcase life in Wichita over the centuries, from the Wichita Indian Tribe – whose name the town adopted – to the cattle ranching cowboys, and the cities role in aviation.  It was a terrific museum located in an amazing building.

I visited a few Roadside sites including a Steampunk Village that filled the yard of its creator Gary Pendergrass.  It was really cool and very creative.  I didn’t see any signs welcoming visitors to go into the actual yard, so I simply viewed it from the safety of the sidewalk.  As I was leaving, I noticed a man sitting out on a porch across the street from the venue.  I made a comment along the lines of “gee you get to sit and look at this yard art all the time – must be nice”.  He replied by saying “yea, and I’m the one who created it”.  Turns out, it was the artist Gary who was sitting on the porch.  I do wish he would have invited me to go onto the property and get a closer look.  Oh well.  I also visited a place known as Stonehenge Jr – located in Central Riverside Park.  This minor member of the American Stonehenge family is a collection of limestone megaliths, with colored glass inlays, designed as a solstice calendar.  The stones catch sunlight at high noon each day, and marks the solstice and equinox.  That is, assuming you know how to read a solstice calendar – which I do not.  But the large stones with their beautiful mosaic insets were beautiful pieces of art just by themselves.

My next stop took me to the worlds first Batwing Gas Station.  This Vickers Petroleum Service Station was built in 1954 by architect John M. Hickman, who had apprenticed under Frank Lloyd Wright.  This was the first station to have the batwing design that was both extreme and futuristic.  Though certainly beautiful in design, this structure was not well suited to either the weather or gravity.  Though at the time it had long since been abandoned, this structure was one of the few survivors of a 1999 F4 tornado.  This inspired the little town of Haysville to restore and preserve this landmark.  In 2019, the Park Service added it to the National Register of Historic Places.  Besides the stunning architectural design, I found the frozen in place gas pumps particularly interesting as they reflected a long gone $0.23 a gallon for regular, and $0.33 a gallon for ethyl.  With the current fuel crises going on in this country, I would certainly welcome prices like these again!

Pizza anyone?  Among the many things I learned about Wichita, one in particular was that the now ubiquitous Pizza Hut actually had its humble beginnings here.  It was founded by brothers Dan and Frank Carney, who were students at Wichita State University.  The story goes they were approached by the landlady of a tiny, closed beer joint just off campus.  She wanted a nice neighborhood business, and the pizza craze was just starting.  The brothers knew nothing about pizza, but were interested in starting a business.  The property included a sign with a Pepsi logo on it, and space for nine characters.  They certainly wanted Pizza in the name, and came up with Hut after it as it was the only word that would fit on the sign.  The rest, as they say, is history.  It opened June 15, 1958.  A mere 19 years later, the Carney brothers sold their Pizza Hut franchise to PepsiCo for $300 million.  Now that is a nice return on investment!  The museum, though not the original building or location, is a brick structure located on the grounds of WSU.  It contains lots of memorabilia including advertising materials, toys and nicknacks, even the original recipe for Pizza Hut pizza sauce (written by Dan on a napkin), and of course the original Pizza Hut sign.

Also in Wichita was a mini Statue of Liberty replica.  This bronze replica of the famous status is one of about one hundred remaining that exist across the country that were placed by the Boy Scouts in the 1950s.  Known as the “Strengthen the Arm of Liberty”, this Boy Scouts of America theme was in celebration of their 40th anniversary.  Between 1949 and 1952, approximately two hundred 100-inch replicas, made of stamped copper, were purchased by BSA troops and donated in 39 states in the US and several of its territories.  The project was the brainchild of Kansas City businessman J.P. Whitaker who was then Scout Commissioner of the Kansas City Area Council.  The 8 1/2 feet statues weigh 290 pounds and originally cost $350 each (around $4,000 in 2022 dollars).  Many of the statues have been lost or destroyed, but preservationists have been able to account for about 100 of them.  Interesting fun fact – Kansas has the most statues of any state with 26 of them being accounted for.  Now I’m going to have to add a visit to all the other statues throughout the US on my bucket list!

Last up in the Wichita area was a visit to an interesting medical research campus, made up of oddly shaped buildings.  Now the Bio-Center Laboratory at Riordan Clinic, the entire campus is made up of geodesic buildings, and a single pyramid.  The company provides laboratory analysis and diagnostic services for healthcare providers, laboratories, hospitals, and self-referred individuals, specializing in nutritional testing and analysis.  This facility opened in 1985 and is made up of eight interconnected geodesic dome structures.  The spherical shape was found to be both structurally strong and the open interiors allowed air to circulate inside without obstruction.  The pyramid was originally conceived to be used for research.  Popular theories in the 70s around pyramid power and energy fields suggested the pyramid design was beneficial for the types of research they were doing.  Sounds like they bought into the hippie fad of the time.  But, it was certainly an interesting place to visit.

Next, I was off to Lawrence, KS (near Topeka) for a weeks visit.  Turned out there was lots to see and do there as well.  First up was a trip to Topeka to visit a few places.  My initial stop was the Evil Knievel Museum.  Interestingly, Evil, aka Robert Craig, Knievel was born and raised in Butte Montana.  So why a museum in Topeka?  Well, that was the efforts between avid collectors Lathan McKay, a professional skateboarder and Mike Patterson, owner of a Topeka Harley Davidson motorcycle dealership.  Mike added 16,000 sq feet and a 2nd floor to his dealership to house the museum.  This place was amazing!  It is the largest and most complete collection of Evil Knievel memorabilia in the world.  They had individual displays for each and every jump attempted by Evil, the results of that attempt (Pass/Fail), and a running video of the event.  For the fails, they even included details of what damage was done in terms of broken bones.  They had lots of motorcycles, jump suits, and other personal items belonging to Evil.  A couple of their most notable possessions includes “Big Red” Evils 63 foot Mack Truck mobile home, and the Skycycle X-2 – a rocket on wheels in which Evil tried (and failed) to jump the Snake River Canyon.  Big Red was Evil’s luxury ride as he moved from jump to jump.  It included a dressing room, color TV, mobile phone, and full bar with beer on tap. It was noted on one of the placards that Evil was frequently pulled over by the police just so they could get his autograph and look at his truck.  That activity probably would not fly these days.   The X-2 was one of two built for the jump – one to test without a person, and then the final one he would use.  The one in the museum was the test rocket which didn’t fully make it across the canyon, and instead crashed nose first into the river.  This obviously gave Evil significant worry on his actual official attempt.  The X-2 was actually found and acquired from someone in Canada.  Mike eludes to a story about getting it out of Canada, but does not provide details.  He only stated that when moving something from Canada to the US, you should NOT use the term Rocket to describe what it is you are moving.  Ah, what fun that must have been.

The other tourist destination I visited in Topeka was to a private home in a non descript neighborhood, with a significant collection of fire hydrants.  Known as the Fire Hydrant Garden, this collection by Claude Belshe has been his hobby for many years.  He had gardens along the interior of his fence line, but they constantly got trampled by his dogs.  So he eventually gave in and instead started planting fire hydrants to keep his dogs busy and happy.  He got his first hydrant in 2005 – a yellow Mueller model dating back to 1965.  Since then, his collection has grown to over 100, and features hydrants going as far back as 1903 with a Nelson Manufacturing Company of St. Louis model.  He has collected hydrants from all over the US, often picking them up using his custom-built hydrant trailer pulled behind his Harley motorcycle.  When he gets a new hydrant, it is sandblasted clean, then painted with various vibrant colors – often representative of the original, but other times with lots of colors just for fun.  Truly a Roadside America inductee, and deserving of a visit if you are in the area.

My last stop in the Lawrence area was to a tiny sleepy little town called Lecompton.  Despite its diminutive population of around 650 residents, this town is overflowing with history.  In Aug of 1855, the town was designated as the capital of the Kansas Territory by then President Franklin Pierce.  The town swelled with officials working to establish a local government.  Constitution Hall (pictured right, top left) was built in 1857 and housed various agency organizations.  However, conflict soon erupted between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions regarding how Kansas would be recognized, which led to the period known as Bleeding Kansas.  This conflict was said to have fueled the slavery debate, and ultimately the catalyst that resulted in the American Civil War.  Also nearby in Lecompton was once supposed to be the capital building.  After an appropriation of $50,000 from the US Congress, only its first floor had been completed by the time the US House defeated the towns constitution.  As a result, the town population plummeted and most buildings and hotels sat empty.  Additional funding was obtained through donations, and the building was completed and became Lane University.  The university prospered until 1900, after which it moved to another town, and the building become home to the local high school, church, and community building.  Today it is a museum filled with artifacts related to its long history.  Very interesting!

My time in Kansas was over and my next travel stop brings me to Greenwood, NE – roughly halfway between Lincoln and Omaha.  My first stop was to downtown Lincoln where in a residential area showcased a couple of interesting tree carvings.  In one, a beautiful bald eagle adorned the front yard of one resident, where just a couple blocks over, the mighty man of steel himself Superman now resides were a mighty tree once stood.  Both were nicely done and very intresting.  Next was a visit to a downtown restaurant where a pair of giant insects live.  Made of chrome, the giant praying mantis and grasshopper accessorize the front of Penelope’s Cafe.  I decided to hang out for lunch there, and I was not disappointed. Also in downtown Lincoln is a big clanging head of bricks.  It’s 10 feet tall and weighs in at 8 tons, it’s the largest of several big brick heads built by New York artist James Tyler.  This one is named “Groundwater Colossus”.  The head has a speaker and sometimes plays the sound of trickling water representing the aquifer that sits beneath it, and other times sounds of clanging metal to represent the jarring impact of people on the environment.  Definitely an interesting art piece.

Next up in Lincoln was a visit to the National Museum of Roller Skating.  The museum resides in the back of an office building where the National Rollerskating Association organization is headquartered.  This was a very nicely done museum, filled with skates going back to the late 1800, and tons of merchandise affiliated with roller skating.  They also had music devices that were once used to play live music at the roller rinks, including a Hammond B3 organ with attached Leslie 122 speaker (which I would have loved to heard played, but the museum curator had no clue how), and an even more rare Mechanical Band Organ – something I’d never seen or heard of.  This device has 8 automatically playing instruments – bass and snare drums, cymbal, tambourine, triangle, castanets, 27-note glockenspiel, and 43 calliope pipes.  Apparently, these too were used in roller rinks to provide music to skate by.  Fortunately, this was an operating model and required only a $.25 donation in the slot to get it to perform.  Here’s a video I shot while it was playing so you can see it play and hear what it sounds like.

Next I was off in the direction of Omaha. Just outside the city in a town called Ashland is the Strategic Air Command (SAC) Aerospace Museum.  This Air Force command museum is filled with all kinds of bombers, fighters,  missiles, and pretty much anything strategic military.  Outside at the entrance was the massively impressive B1-A bomber – serial number 4 of only four made.  This was the prototype of the latter famous B1-B aircraft.  Inside the museum was your standard fair of other cool aircraft including a B-29, an SR-71, and a nice collection of NASA space capsules.  I thought I’d pretty much seen everything there was to see until I peaked into an area roped off to visitors, which turned out to be their restoration area.  And behold was the beauty that is the stealthy and very cool F-117 (at left, top).  That will certainly be an outstanding addition to the museum display when the restoration is complete.  Very enjoyable museum that you should visit when your are in town.

Last up on this seemingly never ending dissertation of cool places I visited while on extended vacation, was a trip to Boys Town.  I had heard of Boys Town, but thought it was just an old movie (1938 – Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney).  Turns out, there’s an actual place in Nebraska called Boys Town, whose founder Fr. Flanagan set out to teach and mold young troubled and orphaned boys.  Anyway, the intent isn’t to tell you all about the history of Boys Town (which as it turns out is quite interesting), but rather to share with you an interesting Roadside item that exists there.  Weighing in at 600 pounds, 32 inches in diameter, and containing a reported 4,655,000 stamps, this is the worlds largest ball of stamps.  It was created, layer by layer, by the sticky tongues and fingers of the Boys Town Stamp Collecting Club starting in 1953.  By July 1955 the ball had just about reached its current size, and was featured in the syndicated newspaper column of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.  It remains the same as it was then, still the largest ball some 67 years later.  Interestingly, the ball is displayed in an open fashion, and welcomes anyone to touch it.  But, don’t even think of adding or removing any stamps!

A Slight Accident

Ok, so lets discuss the 500 pound deer in the room.  It was Tuesday May 31st, mid afternoon on a bright and sunny day, my final day here in Nebraska before I was to head further north to Sioux Falls, SD.  I was out playing tourist, and was on a nice country road that was to lead me to a Roadside item known as the Holly Family Shrine.  When out of nowhere, a deer shows up in my path, leaving me no option to slow down or steer away from hitting it.  So, it got the full force strike of a big boy steel truck, weighing in upwards of 5 tons, going 59 MPH.  Needless to say, the deer did not fair too well.  Thankfully, I was in a big beefy truck.  I’ve known many occurrences of vehicles being totaled by a deer strike like this.  For me, the worst issue was a leaking radiator, which certainly grounded me from further RVing until it gets repaired.  So, I’ve extended my stay here in Nebraska, cancelled my stop in Sioux Falls, and will travel straight to the follow up stop which is Fargo, ND.  It’s a long 6+ hour drive from here, but at this point, I’ve got no choice to get me back on my schedule.  The truck is at the Collision Center and they are working to finalize the damage estimate with the insurance company.  I can only hope the repairs are done by at least the end of next week (Jun 10th).  We’ll see.  If you are not too squeamish, I happened to have captured the entire event on my front and rear dash cam video system in the truck.  So, for your viewing pleasure, here’s what happened.  Please excuse the expletives at time of impact.

Final Thoughts

First, this is my 72nd edition of the Luv2RV blog.  Hard to believe I’ve written so much about my travels.  Anyway, some of where I’ve been had started to blend a bit sometimes, and I was finding it difficult to locate a specific blog post.  So, if you look at the very top right of this page, you will see a magnifying glass.  I’ve added a search feature to the blog, and now you can easily find any post with any word or words contained therein.  I know I’v already enjoyed this capability, and I hope you all do as well.  Also, I’ve updated all the “Fun Facts” slides bringing them current to May 2022.  Now having a home base in which I reside for many months of the year, my “Campground Fees” category has accordingly been reduced – rather significantly. Similarly, my Healthcare category dropped some since my reduction in monthly premiums thanks to the 2020 Covid American Rescue Plan.  Year 4 saw a significant increase in maintenance thanks to the aluminum wheel replacement and $9k in engine work on the truck.  Otherwise, most of the remaining categories have stayed relatively consistent throughout the 4 years.

Well, I think I’ll wrap this up for now.  Besides, this blog is once again rather long, and if you made it this far, again thanks for being a loyal follower.  I hope to continue writing the blogs for the foreseeable future, and I hope you continue to enjoy them.  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!