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Kansas
19th - 20th June 2008
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We arrived in Kansas late afternoon and although
we couldn't quite place it ,Kansas just felt somehow different to all the
other states we'd visited so far. The landscape had
changed to rolling hills, often bare prairie or corn fields, the road signs
looked different, it all just seemed more rural and a little more
exotic. We got the feeling we'd truly arrived in the mid
west plains.
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We'd spotted a state park on our road map and as
it was getting late, decided to head there and try to find a campsite for
the night. Turning off the main highway following the
signs, we found ourselves on an unsurfaced road. As we ventured
further from the main highway, the condition of the road became worse, until
we finally arrived at the state fishing lake, where there was alleged to be
a campground.
The lake was pretty remote and there was
nobody anywhere about. With dark storm clouds gathering
overhead, the whole place seemed even more eerie. We decided to head
back to civilisation in search of a more accommodating spot to spend the
night.
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With no other state parks within a close radius,
we headed on to the town of Hiawatha and dug out our commercial campground
guide. Spotting a listing we made our way
there. After several wrong turns and finally getting directions
from helpful locals, we arrived. The campground was
not in the least appealing even to weary travellers and we decided that we'd
probably have a more comfortable, not to mention cheaper night at the nearby
Wal-mart supercentre we'd just passed. We enquired at
customer services if overnight camping was permitted in their lot and were
welcomed with open arms.
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Scenic view from our
Hiawatha campsite
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Not so scenic view but
who's complaining for the price?
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Now we'd already provisioned earlier in the day
at a Wal-mart in Missouri but still managed to find a thing or two we
couldn't live without before settling down for
dinner. After dinner with a lack of entertainment on
TV, what could we do for entertainment? Yes, a third trip of the
day to Wal-mart for more absolute essentials. In hindsight
it was probably cheaper to stay in a campground, but who is
complaining.
We left the store to make our long trip home,
only to discover that the sky had turned a menacing shade of black and the
apocalypse seemed imminent. We just made it back to
Harvey before the storm began, the parking lot became a river and lightning
was hitting the ground all around us. The wind picked up
to maybe 50 knots in no time at all and poor Harvey began to rock a little
with the force. We contemplated a sprint back to the store
for protection and sought out the VHF weather radio we'd brought with us
from the boat. Apparently there were no tornado warnings
issued and the risk of getting struck by lightning, not to mention soaked to
the skin, kept us aboard our beloved Harvey. Eventually
the storm abated somewhat and we turned in for the night to the sweet
lullaby of more distant thunder.
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Next morning we were tired after the disturbed
night and decided to make a short day of it. We headed out
on route 36 which headed directly west. Directly
west in this case meaning not a bend, not a turn, just straight across the
state with only the slight undulations of the rolling hills for variety.
We were following the beginning of the route
of the Pony Express riders and regularly passed historic sites, locations of
former Pony Express stations.
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We spotted a sign leading us on a detour off
route 36 to the geographic centre of the United States and turned off, ready
for some excitement. After heading down long
straight back roads for several miles we finally
arrived! Despite being in the centre of things, the
monument seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and we had only crickets and
wild flowers for company.
Back on route 36 we turned into the Prairie
Dog State Park of Kansas. The landscape wasn't very
inspiring as we'd approached but the park itself turned out to be very
pretty. We found a mixture of rolling prairie land,
fishing lake and needless to say Prairie Dog town to
visit.
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Phil decided it was time to break out his new
fly-fishing rod and bought himself a license to fish in the
state. His fishing adventure had to be delayed until we'd
visited the Prairie Dogs in their town, the technical term for a collection
of burrows, close together, inhabited by the very vocal little
critters. They were fairly small but we spotted them
easily with the help of their noisy chatter.
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Prairie Dog Town House
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Park view with bunnies
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We headed down to the lake and Phil tried his
luck with the new fishing rod. Big fish could be
seen lurking nearby but none wanted to take the bait. We
did managed to annoy the local feathered residents, who let it be known with
their shrill cries that we were in their territory.
We returned to Harvey empty-handed for dinner
(lucky we'd done all that stocking up at Wal-mart!). After
dinner we enjoyed another wild thunderstorm, the second of that
day. It was nothing against Kansas but we decided not to
hang around in the plains, the weather was too scary!
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