And on the 7th day..... we found:
The quest for interesting eateries and motel/hotels remains elusive. Apparently the big box corporate entities have achieved their goals; the small guys/gals just cannot compete. We try hard to find spots of interest for a good old diner meal or Route 66 type accommodations. Thus far there has been limited success and especially in any town within 10 miles of a Walmart or row of Motel 6 and Holiday Inn Express. We will continue the quest with a bit of sadness and loss in our nomad hearts.
Started the day in Wichita looking for some Outsider art sites. Found the wonderful, bright and pretty non-political or religious inspired yard art of Dan Beck. Lots of rock, must be a strong sort. See photos #1-#3.
Our GPS scout (We call her Madge for her Australian accent and Magellan lineage - Har) was a drunken sailor at times as she led us awry or notified us of a turn we had just missed. This gave an unexpected tour of parts of Wichita we did not anticipate; all part of the fun. After some futile genuine food spot searches, we had a lunch.... yawn and hit the highway.
In Hutchinson we went to the Kansas Underground Salt Museum (Susan calls this a pretty dorky name; I agree). The two and a half hour tour took us 650 feet below the green wheat fields to a very surreal world. The scale of the mine is hard to describe and impossible to relate via a small digital camera. After cramming into a small open elevator upon arriving at the bottom, we walked or rode on a train of wagons. The place is vast and hard to fathom. It's all about mining salt mostly for use in animal feed, hide tanning or highway ice melting. The most unexpected surprise was the storage facility that housed immense caches of Hollywood archives. The dry atmosphere and physical reality of being so far below ground provides security for film and movie treasures. From film reels to scripts and even costumes, this vault looks like that last scene in Indiana Jones where they had stored the Arc of the Covenant. They also store endless boxes of government records.
Wow! Who'd-a-thunk?
As we have already experienced - truth is stranger than fiction and some things just can't be made up..... one other aspect of our underground adventure is that we shared our journey with a group of unexpected fellow off-beat attraction seekers. Apparently somewhere in the area was a gathering of "little people". Our tour included 6-8 of these diminuitive travelers. We thought that they were related but did not turn out to be the case. Really, who could make this @#*& up? In a salt mine with Schwarzenegger costumes and actual Munchkins in Kansas.
See Photos below of various aspects of our subterranean afternoon.
Then in yet another farm-dominated community, Kingman KS we found another outsider artist site. The yard art of Glenn Stark. Quirky and not quite whimsical. Seems he would carve tree stumps in the yard but after finding that inspirational, he wanted more so he took to concrete. Quite the combo of mythological characters, animals and a Hollywood icon or two. A favorite was Bigfoot following The Duke (aka - John Wayne). The cowboy in the tree was inexplicably cool and amusing as wafted in the wind. Loved it.
Then after finding a small little motel, "The Welcome Inn" (rating 4) we settled in a bit early. This gave us a chance to take a walk through the local cemetery - nice but not very visually extraordinary in any way. Got some good sleep and were feeling rejuvenated and ready to head off to Oklahoma...... "where the winds blows free an the sun come right behind the rain".
Love and some sunshine at last,
R & S
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