Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14
Day 15
Day 16
Day 12 - July 10
Kansas City, KS to Middle-of-Nowhere, KS
Miles traveled: 311
Local Music:
Stuck on Broadway, Sounds a lot like Green Day.
Kansans seem to have a real thing for the Wizard of Oz. Several towns had Oz museums in them and several more advertized Oz-fests. I stopped at this one arbitrarily. It was a collection of memorabelia, and wax figures of the characters from the movie. Very skippable, but it wasn't out of my way, and it gave me an opportunity to stretch my legs and meets a few of the locals.
...And their little dog Toto too!
The marker at the geographical center of the lower 48 states, is also the exact middle of nowhere (as evidenced by the road you have to travel to get to it...
Not far from the middle of nowhere is Cawker City, KS, and another, even bigger twine ball that the one in Minnesota. The MN twine ball claims to be the largest such ball wound by one man, and is sealed behind glass to preserve it exactly as it was when that man stopped. But here in Cawker City, the twine ball is still growing, and visitors are encouraged to add a few yards of twine to it themselves. The lady in the second picture (whose name I have forgotten) is the owner of the little shop across the street from the ball which sells souvenirs, Christmas ornaments, t-shirts, postcards, etc. (none of which were to be had in MN) She's also the one who breaks out a spool of twine for tourists and snaps their picture winding. That's her thumb in the picture of me. Great lady, awesome sense of humor.
And not far from the twine ball, in Lucas KS, you can find the Garden of Eden, another example of concretia dementia like Thunder Mountain (see day 1).
and also in Lucas, The World's Largest Collection of The World's Smallest Versions of The World's Largest Things Traveling Roadside Attractions and Museum. The guy who owns this converted school bus, has found dozens of roadside attractions of the "World's Largest --------" variety. He sticks a normal sized whatever it is in the window of his bus and labels it. For example, there is a ball of twine about the size of a baseball in the window labeled "World's Largest Ball of Twine, Cawker City, KS." This is by far the most pointless attraction I've seen yet, and I wouldn't have bothered if I weren't passing close by Lucas on the way back to the interstate after visiting the real largest twine ball.
