Country Inn Suites Salina

The Tallgrass Prairie once covered 140 million acres of North America. The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve was established in 1996 to preserve, protect, and interpret the less than four percent of remaining tallgrass prairie ecosystem. The 10,894 acre preserve ...

Although Mushroom Rock State Park is the smallest state park in Kansas, it's the most interesting. The Park has Dakota sandstone concretions. There are many concretions in this Park, but some of it still remains and has been supporting three of the rocks for many years.

The resulting combination of rocks have a mushroom shape. The unusual shapes caught the imaginations of the Native Americans and pioneers, some of whom have left graffiti in softer sandstone.

Fort Larned NHS:

Fort Larned was established on the vast prairie in Western Kansas midway along the Santa Fe trail in 1859 to protect mail coaches, freighters and other Trail traffic from Plains Indians. With nine beautifully restored buildings, Fort Larned is the best preserved Indian Wars military post on the Santa Fe Trail. As the site of an Indian Agency, Fort Larned also was instrumental in maintaining friendly relations with Plains Indians. In July 1978, six years ...

... 8217;s other significant accomplishments during his Presidency included the Civil Rights Act of 1957; support of the Brown V. Board of Education’s desegregation of schools lawsuit; avoiding a nuclear war with the Soviet Union; and began NASA.

Dwight was nicknamed Ike. He was of German descent and in German, Eisenhower was pronounced "Ike- enhower". Dwight preferred to be remembered as General Eisenhower rather than President Eisenhower.

Brown V. Board of Education NHS:

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court unanimously declared that segregated educational facilities are "inherently unequal" and, as such, violate the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This decision by the Supreme Court was one of the most significant in U.S. history. Its affirmation of the 14th Amendment made it clear to all Americans that the federal government would ...

... and a piece of their chocolate pie.

As I sat finishing my pie, in walked a teen in "goth" clothing complete with chains and studs. He seemed known to the folks there, but oddly, it was the first time I had seen a goth kid in almost my entire trip and this was the last place I expected to see one.

I had been worn out Saturday, so I decided to stop in Salina about 2:00 and rest and do laundry at Motel Six.

... at the Good Sam campground and there were 4 motorhomes here and within 2 hours almost 8 more came in behind us. However, they did have a gaggle of geese here to pick up all the crumbs.

One thing that we always wonder when we get to a new site is when is sunrise and sunset. Someplaces it has been as early as 7:30 and as late as 9pm. It doesn't matter about sunrise as I am always up when it comes.

Tomorrow we head for Independence MO for 2 days.

... the closest grocery store and stocked up. We are only here for two nights, but it doesn't mean we can't eat well while we are here. We decided to make a home cooked dinner for anyone who wanted to come over. Realizing we don't have an oven, we went with a pasta and salad dinner. I made (well assembled) a spinach salad with mandarin oranges, almond slices, and red onion. I also got an Italian bread loaf with ...

... for home. I stopped in Dodge City for dinner. I wanted to visit some modern day saloon but Dodge City still appears to be a rough place to be a stranger so I played it safe at a Pizza Hut. Dodge City also has it's own version of Boot Hill but, unlike Ogallala's tasteful city park, this one has become a tourist trap. I continued northeast along Route 56 and I made it to I-70 and by midnight I was in Salina, Kansas. Drive time stats... Daily KM: 1210 Hours: 15