Prairie Dog State Park, Norton, Kansas
Today was all about the kitschy roadside attractions. What else is there to do in Western Kansas?
First stop, Cawker City for the world's largest ball of twine. This is just about the only thing in this ghost town. Most of the downtown is empty. I did enjoy the mannequin demonstration in one of the windows. Cawker City got its name when 4 men played poker. Whoever won got the city named after them.
Kudos to the nostalgic gas station in town too.
We also had to make a stop at the Geographic Center of the Continental US.
There's also a picnic area, tiny chapel (seats 6) and some displays. Inside the chapel is where the guest registry is.
Ned waxing eloquent about a woman who lives very close to this point. She used to get harassed daily by ambulances, fire trucks and other assorted emergency vehicles. Turns out some techie years ago made her address the default location for 911 calls where the address is unassigned. She finally got that figured out and they don't come calling anymore. Pretty good story considering there is not much around here! Thanks Preacher Ned for always keeping me entertained.
As we drove thru Western Kansas it seems like every farmer was harvesting wheat today. Do they get a memo? How does that work out? I mean seriously, for 200 miles they were all harvesting wheat! Our guesses were - storm is on the way (mmm, 100 degrees and no clouds in sky), longest day of the year or something to do with the moisture content. Anybody want to enlighten us?
We pulled into Prairie Dog State Park about 4. The temperature reading was 107 in the shade! We couldn't wait to jump in the lake and just float until the sun went down.
Uh-oh. Beach closed. Blue-green algae bloom. Supposedly every lake in Kansas has it this time of year. Good thing we survived yesterday. We looked over our maps, google, etc. and there is nothing within 2 hours of here. Guess this is it for the night! There is not a soul in sight. Everyone is inside their air-conditioned 5th wheels and big RV's. Guess we'll just settle for hosing each other down.
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