The kids and I have taken a lot of road trips together. We have, for the most part, always treated your road trips with a just get there kind of attitude. Perhaps because Iowa takes 11-12 hours each way... and our trip to Houston last spring took 16 each way to bring Tucker home.
I can remember as a kid my parents stopping at places like Car Henge and the Finstone's Park on our way to South Dakota for family vacations. Without Handy Man's vote to veto my plans, the kids and I decided to add a day of travel and plan an amazing roadside-touristy-trip across I-70. I pulled out my Cruise Ship Patty notebook and got busy Googling roadside attractions along I-70.
Handy Man rolled his eyes as I started pitching suggested stops to my Brown Eyed Girl and Mr Blue Eyes one night at the dinner table. He snickered and asked me, "What? Are you planning to see the World's Largest Ball of Yarn on your trip, or something?"
With a beaming smile, slightly flushed cheeks and a sing-songed tone to my voice, I replied, "Not the World's Largest Ball of Yarn... but we do plan to see the World's Largest Easel in Goodland, Kansas!"
First stop - The World's Largest Easel, Goodland, Kansas
The "Big Easel" is an 80 foot tall celebration of art and agriculture that was installed in June 2001. It is a reproduction of Vincent van Gogh's "Three Sunflowers in a Vase" painted by Canadian artist Cameron Cross. The Goodland Rotary Club maintains this little roadside attraction stop.
We made sure to sign their guest book. We were amazed how many signatures there were.
The kids thought it was pretty cool.
A tiny little stop in our travels and yet a lasting memory made for sure!
We grabbed some lunch and I switched the audio book back on play (amazing timing that Rah Rah let me spend a few of her audio book credits. Oh, by the way... Where the Crawdads Sing is an excellent book. I highly recommend it!) The good old DVD player was set on repeat and we were off towards our second roadside adventure.
Second stop - The Sternburg Museum, Hays, Kansas
The museum had a wide variety of fossil, geological and even live rattle snake exhibits.
Beyond the fossils the kids really enjoyed the replica displays of different dinosaurs. These were in the underwater experience.
Upstairs was a land animal exhibit.
It was like walking with the dinosaurs.
As we came around the bend, I must have set off a motion sensor because the large T-Rex model came alive! Screeching and moving with animation. The kids hit the deck!
Laughing hysterically, I reached for my camera and tried to coax them out from behind the log they were hiding by.
I laughed as I reminded them that dinosaurs are not real!
The museum had several hands on displays. The kids were able to dig for fossils! Awesome!! Digging in sand! Said no parent ever on a road trip...
Back on the road again, we headed to our final destination of the day, Junction City, Kansas. Our only goal: a hotel with a pool!
Day Two
Third stop - The OZ Museum, Wamego, Kansas
Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!!
The OZ Museum is truly dedicated to all things OZ. The museum is home to exclusive exhibits featuring the earliest Baum books to souvenir memorabilia from around the world. There are over 2,000 artifacts including historical facts about the movie and actors.
Thirty minutes later and the kids were done. Jumping in the OZ balloon basket and ready to move on to bigger and better things.
The balloon basket was the only 'hands on' part of the museum. It was definitely just looking at historical items and reading about their significance from a wall of glass displays. There were a couple videos playing about the author as well as the movie production, all boring to the kids.
I could have stayed a little longer.
Like a tribe of traveling gypsies, we were on the road again. Bonner Springs or bust!
Fourth stop - Moon Marble Company, Bonner Springs, Kansas
After years of owning a woodworking shop and creating wooden toys and game boards out of the scraps of wood, the owner of Moon Marbles, Bruce, found that it was hard to buy quality marbles for his game pieces. In 1997, his 'need' for marbles led him to transform his woodworking shop into a marble and game company. They stock both machine made and handmade marbles in every size and color.
I noticed while planning the trip that on Fridays Moon Marble offered free demonstrations of marble making. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but the 20 minute demonstration was well worth the time spent.
The crowd voted that she should make a rocket ship marble (similar to the blue marble on display in the lower right corner of the picture) in honor of the first female space walk that was happening on the same day.
The artist took a blue glass rod and began "painting" the clear glass ball with a sky blue.
As Bruce and the artist talked about the history of Moon Marble Company, she took additional glass colored rods and began sculpting a tiny rocket ship onto the marble. It was absolutely amazing how much detail could be made with a torch and glass rod.
On the display station we saw so many beautiful handmade marbles and even other glass creations like these eggs and bacon in a tiny skillet!
We landed in Merriam, Kansas for a short family visit with family. The kids swam for hours and the adults caught up on the latest news with each other.
The wedding was beautiful and held in a really neat old building back in Bonner Springs. Bride and Groom are both very into cars and the venue was a club for car aficionados.
It was a beautiful, intimate setting for a fun filled night of family and friends.
I was able to finally meet my cousin's young daughters in person. A truly special moment for me.
My Brown Eyed Girl swept The Minister in connect four.
It was lovely seeing my cousins, Riley and Reid! Such beautiful young ladies those two are!
It's always so good to see family. I just wish we all lived closer.
I wish the Bride and Groom a million years of happiness!
Early the next morning with the sky dark and mottled by fog, we ventured the long drive back home along I-70, only stopping for gas and food.
