Nothin's the Matter with Kansas
Trip Start
Sep 09, 2009
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Trip End
Sep 18, 2009
Hutchinson, Kansas, United States
Monday, September 14, 2009
It took us several hours to reach the Kansas state line from Columbia, MO. At that point we began our "scenic tour of Kansas." The route began in Olathe, KS at the Mahaffie Farmstead. Our tour was going to follow the route of the old Santa Fe Trail and the Mahaffie Farmstead was one of the first stops for travelers going west. It was a farm and an old stone house whose basement had been turned into a dining room by the Mahaffie's where those making their way west in wagons or on foot could get a good meal before really hitting the remote prairie.To our disappointment it was just like the museums in New York, closed on Mondays. Why were we so surprised at this? We were welcome to stroll the grounds, however, and were able to get the flavor of the place from that.
From there, the road drove across the Kansas Flint Hills which like so much of our previous drive through western Pennsylvania and Ohio was lovely rolling hills
Wild sunflowers - one of 20,000 varieties
. The corn fields continued but now, in keeping with the golden wildflowers, there were more and more golden fields of ripened soy beans. And the farms became more spread out with fewer towns and farm houses. The roads were first class, however, despite the sparse traffic. Moreover, stretches of new highway were being put in (which, by the way, caused no delays as the new ones were being laid down next to the old which were still perfectly adequate. At one intersection, which was at that time a four way stop, a plethora of road equipment was in the process of mounding dirt, grading and the like for the construction of a major 4 leaf clover interchange the size of which one would expect to see in L.A. From a four way stop to a clover leaf??? Has the Kansas DOT heard of traffic lights? Some of these projects along the way were posted as being funded by "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act".Our first glimpse of the actual tracks of the old Santa Fe Trail was at the Ivan Boyd Prairie Preserve. As one of our guidebooks cautioned, it takes a lot of imagination to see the old trail. We parked the car near a highway marker and followed a narrow footpath out onto a piece of preserved prairie. The flowers and grasses were between waist and shoulder high and swayed in a light breeze. We climbed a small rise to a sign that located the old route, now merely a swale of subsided ground that crossed from east to west in front of us.
All across the country we had hoped, since it was harvest season, to pass some farm stands along the way and stock up on fresh produce. But it was not until Kansas that we finally passed one! Just after our prairie stop we saw a sign for farm fresh produce. Eureka! It was about a half mile off the road but we turned off and bounced along a dirt road to get there
The corner of Nowhere and Big Sky
. Well worth the trip as we got some wonderful tomatoes, cucumbers, and summer squash. I find it very disappointing that so few people are gardening these days. It used to be that many if not most houses in small American towns had gardens, at least for themselves, if not for sale at farm stands. No more. This was the only farm stand we passed in over 3000 miles and very few yards had vegetable gardens.
As we drove along, corn and soy beans continued to dominate the landscape. And that was it. The landscape was telling the tale of how factory farms dominate our American agriculture. And while we are at it, let us mention how Walmart dominates commerce. We passed so many dead and dying small towns. All the downtown shops boarded up and empty. No more variety store. No more drug store. No more grocery, or beauty shop, or bank, or florist, or......... Walmart does it all now. I make no judgement here. People love Walmart. Americans have their comfortable standard of living thanks to Walmart. We met one person who had retired with his wife to Wyoming, but they left. Too isolated. How was that? The nearest Walmart was 79 miles away! One night, one of the perks of the campground where we stayed, as listed in the guide, was that it was adjacent to a Walmart
Wagon trail west
!But back to the prairie. Our next stop was the Great Prairie National Monument. This was a large swath of prairie that had been acquired by the Nature Conservancy and turned over to the Federal government to administer. The Ivan Boyd Prairie Preserve had been a small tract adjacent to a newly built McMansion with a cluster of farm buildings across the road. It hadn't had sweeping vistas and while you got a sense of the wagons rumbling through prairie grass, it was at the Great Praire National Monument that we could see hill after hill disappearing in the distance across the then almost endless grasslands.
What I was wild about though with respect to the prairie was the endless variety of wildflowers. Since it was now well into September, many were past their prime, but the quantity and variety were still in evidence. If I had my checkbook and the Nature Conservancy's address, I would have sent off a check on the spot in gratitude for saving this beauty. Those early travelers on the Santa Fe Trail must have been blown away by the endless profusion of blooms (when they were not stuck in the mud or choking on the dust stirred up by the wagons.)
We reached Mc Pherson, KS that night. There were no campgrounds in the area that we knew about so we had pushed to get to an Interstate exchange where we would find a motel. At the interchange, as expected, there were several budget motels. In rural areas there are no Marriotts or Hiltons! We chose a Holiday Inn Express as being the best of the lot. When Joe came out from registering, however, he had raised eyebrows and a scowl on his face.
Prairie
"Well, you better enjoy it!" he said as he got into the car to drive to where we were to park. "$150 a night!"
"What!?" This was an outrageous price for a midwestern motel room in "the middle of nowhere."
"It was the last room, a "suite". I had no choice, " he lamented.
As it turned out, the t.v. picture was barely viewable, the drapes did not close completely, the shower did not drain, the clock radio was missing, etc. We made a list (7 problems) that Joe gave to the clerk when he checked us out in the morning to save the next traveller from these problems. Far from receiving an apology or thanks from the clerk, he was told that the manager was not in and if Joe wanted to "stick around to gripe" he could talk to him when he came in later!
The good news, though, was that the reason for all of this was that the Kansas State Fair was in full swing in Hutchinson, a town about 20 miles away. The state of Kansas is about 500 miles from east to west so the folks who had come from far and wide for the fair had taken all the nearby motel rooms
Schoolhouse
. Although we had not intended to drop south into Hutchinson, the chance to visit the fair motivated us to incorporate it into a revised route and off we went. State fairs are fun and with Kansas being so agricultural we knew they would have a good one.As we might have expected, the fair grounds were enormous with many entrances and it took us a lot of circling and backtracking in Hutchinson to find the visitors entrance and parking. They had the usual midway set up with rides and an arena where there were shows scheduled. At 9 a.m., though, not much was going on in either of these places, but we wanted to see all the 4-H and Future Farmers of America, etc. exhibits anyway. We immediately sought out the blue ribbon tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, eggplant. We saw the life size butter sculpture in its Houdini-like glass refrigerator case. We saw the 450 pound winning pumpkin. We saw shelves and shelves of jams and jellies, pickles and beans, neatly lined up in their canning jars.
This being Kansas, there were special exhibits of corn, giant sunflowers, soy beans, hay, - and wheat! We had wondered where the wheat was as we drove along. Well, we found out at a special exhibit sponsored by the Kansas Wheat Commission. It was all harvested and in the giant silos we had been passing! Their exhibit was manned by the friendliest crew who as patiently explained about wheat to us city slickers as they did to the schools kids coming around. Wheat, my friends, is planted in the fall. That very day, as we were admiring the display, the Kansas farmers were preparing for planting. The wheat then germinates, grows a few inches - and then winter hits! It sits patiently, sometimes under snow until spring comes when it again takes off to reach maturity mid-summer
Telling the Story of Wheat
. Who would have thunk it? One of the fellows manning the exhibit was a wheat farmer from the nearby town of Stafford. We were hearing straight from the horses mouth (so to speak) how wheat grows. His farm was 3000 acres! The average farm was about 1000 acres, but that average was brought down by hobby farmers who did not farm for a living. We were impressed and saw that running such a farm takes a lot more than a strong back. It takes business acumen, management skills. And a taste for risk! Prices this year had plummeted with a good crop.
On our way out, we caught a snatch of the pig races! Pig races! Who could resist that? So cute they were. They were piglets, really. At a signal they came out of pen, tore around a circular track and back to the finish where a tasty snack was waiting. Snort, snort. Alas, that was the only animal competition we caught. We'll be back!
We continued our scenic Kansas route stopping at the Quivira Wildlife Preserve. We have no luck at these preserves it seems. Although the preserve was a lake surrounded by marshes, there was hardly a breath of life. We saw one baby garter snake, one deer, and three pelicans
More blue highways
! We have concluded that birds must like people. Go to a National Park (teeming with people) and there are birds everywhere. Go to a Wildlife Refuge and you often see only an occasional bird way off in the distance.By late afternoon we crossed into eastern Colorado. By then we were squarely into "the West" with its parched landscape and sparse habitation. We had to "put the pedal to the metal" to cover the distance necessary to reach a campground in La Junta which was not at all a problem on this straight, flat, road with no traffic. We spent the night at the La Junta KOA Campground (conveniently next to a Walmart!) and across the road from a railroad junction. La Junta is on the mainline between Chicago and Los Angeles and uses the same Raton Pass that was used by the wagons on the Santa Fe Trail to reach Santa Fe.
