Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Da Day!

On the last night of our adventure we sat around a beautiful campfire, told stories about our highs and lows of our trip and had more S'mores.  It was an amazing trip with the exception of a few bumps and the dog.  But the highs from Mt. Evans, to horseback riding, to trains and zoos and of course today's zip line tour way outweigh the lows.

Speaking of today, we spent most of it at The Wilds.  The Wilds is a private, non-profit safari park and conservation center.  It is more than 15 square miles and is considered the largest free ranging safari in North America.  Thirty-one rare and endangered species representing more than 350 mammals from around the world, including Sichuan takin, Grevy's zebras, cheetahs, giraffes and southern white rhinoceros, make up the animal population at the Wilds.

One of the activities you can do there is a 2 plus hour zip line safari over top of the wild animals and many lakes.  It was quite an amazing adventure as the pictures below attest and scored a solid 10 by all.  It was made up of a series of 10 zip lines.

After seeing some great wildlife we drove a short distance to a mining memorial park to see the bucket to Big Muskie!  Big Muskie was a giant strip mining digger!  The whole area we are at in Ohio was once a huge stripmine, now reclaimed into parks and The Wilds. Its bucket, all that is left of it, is 220-cubic-yards, for scale, you could put 2 full size buses inside the bucket side by side..  This was the largest single-bucket digging machine ever created and reputed to be the largest machine ever built that moved over land!   We had to find it.  

Following our adventure, we came back to camp where the kids took a dip in the pond using the sliding board, then played in the swimming pool.

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Tomorrow is a long final drive home of almost 400 miles.  Then back to work, regular routines and maybe some time to unwind and relax.

Another bump in the Road!

Literally!   Today we had a bump in the road.  We got up very early so we could be on the road by 6:30am.  On my final walk around inspection before leaving, I thought the tires on the right rear of the camper seemed to be riding a little low.  I pulled out my tire gauge to check it, could not get it to register, assumed, the tire gauge was sticking and drove off.  

Above: Typical day in the RV.

About 2 hous later we all heard a loud BUMP as we were driving down the road.  That bump would be the right rear inside tire coming apart.   But we were lucky.  Most of the tire stayed intact and it did no damage to the camper as it disintegrated.   We limped our way to the next exit.  Missy and I made a few phone calls using AAA and within minutes we had a repair crew being dispatched to our location.   The only thing left to do, was take a nap while we waited.

The repair man arrived about 90 minutes later and about an hour after that we were back on the road with 2 new tires not just one.  The damage to the other tire was fairly significant leading me to believe the first tire may have ruptured on our drive to St. Louis.    Important reminder to self.... If something doesn't look right, it's probably not right, so stop and deal with it right away.

After a long and hot 12 hour day we made it to our campground just 50 miles from West Virginia, had a wonderful dinner and then had our first campfire of the trip!  The fire bans all across the West made fires impossible and illegal.   We even had S'mores.  Yummy!

We also took note of the increased humidity.   

See ya in St. Louis

We really lucked out with the weather in St. Louis.  The really hot air was to our West and the really rainy and humid air was to our east, so a perfect sunny day with temperatures in the mid 80's.  We all voted and decided to have a nice cooked breakfast of pancakes and bacon and sausage to start the day out well.  Then we headed off to the St. Louis Zoo.  The zoo bills itself as a free zoo, but what they don't mention is parking is $15 then any exhibit with a little show or that is special is an added fee.  We opted to skip the fees and just wander. The kids rated it about a 8 on the kids scale.  Nice place.

We relaxed around the campground for the afternoon then headed the very short drive, literally just across the Mississippi River to downtown St. Louis where we had a delicious dinner and then headed over to the gateway arch for a trip up at sunset. Before heading up, Daniel and Alex participated in the Jr. ranger program and each earned their badge. The view was spectacular although Daniel still had some issues with the tight quarters in the elevator ride up.   Overall the Arch got a 10.

Tonight we packed up and said our goodbyes to St. Louis.  

Kansas... Who knew!

Kansas... Who knew!

I have to admit it, there is more to Kansas than I once thought.  For starters, its not nearly as flat as I thought.  The rolling hills on the eastern end of Kansas are quite scenic.  It was actually interesting see the two sides to Kansas.  On the western end it's dryer and flatter on the eastern half more hills and more humidity.  We noticed it almost at the start of our travels this morning in Salena.  The further east we traveled the more humidity and the greener the roadside became.  We also noticed the rivers and creeks had more water in them on the eastern half.

We slept in comparatively speaking this morning, not hitting the road until 8:15am for our 400 mile drive to St. Louis.  But we decided to take a number of detours anyway, after all, as Missy reminds me, what's the point in having an RV if we can't get off the Interstate and explore this country!

Our first stop was the city of Abilene, Kansas.  This is the birthplace and home to Dwight  Eisenhower.  We visited his parents home, complete with victory garden, his presidential library and walked the beautiful grounds.  

From there we walked across the street to the Greyhound museum and hall of fame!  This museum was all about the 4000 year old breed of dog, the greyhound.  They had the story of the breed and the history of racing.  Along the hall of fame were pictures of some of the more famous racing dogs.  They even had a pair of wonderful greyhounds there waiting to greet us and be pet!  It was tough getting the boys out of there.  I think the kids rated our visit here a 10!

From Abilene we pushed on to the little town of Wamicko, Kansas.  Here we visited the world famous, Oz museum.  This museum is rumored to have one of the largest collection of Wizard of Oz memorabilia in the world.  It as an interesting and eclectic collection for sure.  The whole town got into the act, with a Yellow Brick road walkway, a Toto Taco store and even The world famous (lol) Oz Winery where Missy picked up a few bottles.  Overall kid rating was about a 6 because they didn't have a full size replica of Dorothy's house.

Then on East again to Kansas City where we had to stop for lunch at Fritz's. This KC landmark serves up burgers and shakes with a railroad theme.  You order your food by phone then when it's ready a train overhead delivers it to your seat.  It's a riot to watch and loads of fun, and the food was pretty good too!  

After lunch we drove a short distance across the river to Kansas City, Missouri where Sammi, Alex and Missy checked out the Negro Baseball League Museum.  This was a fascinating journey into history where they learned all about the league, the players and breaking the color barrier.

The sun shone bright all day and it was hot and humid, not a cloud in the sky all day.  We arrived in St. Louis around 8:00pm!  Once we got ourselves into our site we shot these pictures of the view of the Gateway Arch from our campground!  

There's No Place Like Home...

...as Dorothy would say about her home in Kansas.  We decided to experience the sunflower state in a way that very few people do.  We spent most of the day driving US Route 24 through the northern half of Kansas.  What's great, the state provided us with a guide of this route through what is called the Solomon Valley.  There were literally a dozen or more little blue kiosks with ample room to pull off and picnic tables along this route which told about the history, geology, and sites we were passing.  This area was settled after the civil war.  They were drawn to this valley because it was considered to be a Garden of Eden.  Today, the area literally feeds the world as witnessed by the farms that spread out as far as the eye could see.

We went through a number of interesting communities along this 200 plus mile deviation.  We passed through the town of Alton, the birthplace of Russell Stover, the famous candy maker.  We learned he was born in a sod house.  

We stopped in the town of Nicodemus, Kansas.  The whole town is a National Historic Site run by the park service.  This was the first and remains to this day, the only all African American Community West of the Mississippi.  At its peak, after the Civil war the community grew to over 600 people, but today comprises less than 50.  Another victim to the decisions of the railroad surveyors who bypassed this town.  The town was found by former slaves who came here looking for a better life since all the land in the South was already in use.  It was a very interesting stop.

Later in the day. We drove just 18 miles south of the Geographical center of the 48 contiguous United States.  There is a marker there, but we opted to pass on the drive north to stay focused on the main reason for our back road adventure, the worlds largest ball of twine!!!

The Ball, more like a blob as the kids called it, is located in the metropolis of Cawker City, Kansas, basically in the middle of nowhere!  It was a fun stop.  The ball is looked after by Linda Clover, who you call before you arrive and she meets you there at the ball to help you add additional twine and then record the addition for the official record.   She is full of stories of the odd and interesting people who have stopped by the ball and loved to tell stories and talk about the history of this oddity.   The kids had a tough time rating the day overall.  It was a 1 for the long drive, but a 10 for fun, as everyone played well together today despite the long drive and enjoyed the stops.   Although, they all agreed 2 or 3 more stops would have been better!

From there it was another hour and a half back down to the relative civilization of Interstate 70 and the town of Salina, where we spent the night at a nice KOA and the kids took a swim.  

America the Beautiful 

A busy day today for sure.  Today we decided to check out Pikes Peak.  This is one of the most famous peaks in the Rockies and it was the view from the top out over the plains that inspired the song America the Beautiful.  The peak sits at about 14,100 feet a full 100 feet below Mt. Evans.  Overall though we found Pikes Peak a disappointment after the spectacular drive to Mt. Evans and the kids rated it an 8 overall, especially since we saw no real wildlife other than a sign for Big Foot!  

Above: top is Sammi at the summit of Pikes Peak, below that is the boys with a miner, bottom is Sammi at on overlook looking north east to the valley.

After lunch, I took the car to get the windshield fixed.  It had gotten a crack when we were passing a truck going the other way yesterday and our insurance company suggested we get it fixed there.  While I was doing that, Missy, Sammi and the boys biked a short distance up to Manitu Springs for some more shopping and ice cream. 

Did I mention this area is considered a desert?  They only get about 10 inches of rain a year.... But when it rains, it can do a lot of damage.  Well today, a freak thunderstorm popped up over Manitu Springs and also over the site of last years Waldo Canyon Fire, which as luck would have it, is upstream to Manitu Springs.  They got about an inch of rain in one hour and the mountains gave way above town causing a mud slide over the highway and sending a torrent of mud down toward Manitu Springs.  The sirens went off calling for an evacuation and when Missy and the kids got back to the bikes, one of the locks would not open!  So a nice man with a pickup truck drove them back to the campground, where the fire department were encouraging everyone to evacuate.  Of course at the same time, the campground was telling everyone to stay put!  In the end, we stayed put, the mud stayed inside the riverbanks and I bought a giant sized bolt cutter at Home Depot and cut the bike lock!  All was good in the world again!

Above: mud filled creek and below that the snowplow used for pushing the mud off the road!

This evening we took a nice walk in the Garden of The Gods park.  The park is a series of tall red rock spires and the evening sun made them look amazing.  The kids even tried to climb a few of them for fun.

Below: the boys favorite gas station!