Courtyard By Marriott 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 ...

Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected the 34th President of the U.S. He served two terms – 1952 to 1961. He was elected President primarily because of his military accomplishments. President Roosevelt designated Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander. As such, Eisenhower's duties were to direct and coordinate all military efforts to end tyranny in WWII. He successfully commanded the Allied invasion of northern Europe and brought an end to WWII ...

... the movie starring Judy Garland, but the history of the story has touched millions with its message “There's no place like home.”

The Oz Museum is home to one of the largest privately owned collections of Oz memorabilia. Over 100 years of Oz history from all over the world is on display.

The spectacular architecture and elaborate waterways of the 1893 Chicago’s World Fair (the ...

... 8217;s Tacos Mexican restaurant and then the Museum. It was a small store stocked heavily with every imagineable Oz memento from “red shoes”, to snow globes to dolls and Christmas ornaments. I didn’t purchase a ticket to see “The Wizard” behind the curtain and preferring to stare at the window front showing a clothesline with faded Dorothy clothes, socks and a man’s shirt. They ...

... through the state who knew that this is the birthplace of Annie Oakly, Walter Chryslter, Eisenhower's Museum and Library, Dalton Gang Hideout and the original Boot Hill at Dodge City. We also passed a place that advertised the worlds larges prarie dog and a 5 legged steer.

When we got to the middle of the state we saw wind turbins for at least 10 miles and I stopped counting at 50 just at the beginning. I guess this must be the windy state

We ...

... world’s largest easel—a giant hand-painted copy of Van Gogh’s sunflowers on a giant easel. (Kansas is the Sunflower State). After a picnic lunch under the rotary club gazebo outside Bubba’s Meat House ("Home of Handmade Jerky!") we continued through the flatness of Kansas to our cabin in Salina, halfway through the state.

Our halfway stop today is Kansas City, Missouri (not to be confused with Kansas City ...

In the morning after eating cereal and packing the trailer up, we were just about to leave when dad noticed that the rear left tire on the van was loosing air pressure. So we went to an auto tire shop and got a new wheel .Fortunately, we were able to start heading west again only about an hour later than we planed. For lunch we ended up eating at McDonalds. Later in the after noon, we ...

... oil and strawberries for dessert. Julie made the pasta. It was bow tie pasta with a sauce made with tomatoes, peppers, lots of vegetables, cilantro and a dash of Tabasco sauce. It was really yummy. About five people ended up coming over, and we just ate and watched a movie. It was really nice. Felt like we were just at a dinner party in someone's apartment. I think I will be eating leftovers for lunch tomorrow!