Get the Heck Outta (or Into??) Dodge!

The old, old west.  Classic American history 101.  Gunslingers, bison, cowboys, lawmen... is there anything more iconic?  I would submit that there is not!

The Kansas landscape is commonly referred to as part of "flyover country"- that part of America that is not worth the time it would take to drive through it.  Yet in it, I see the heartland, small-town America, the values and culture and history of how this country was built.  As we flew over the western part of the state, I noticed the beautiful churches and towns built back when the west was only a dream for most people.  Yes, I know I'm getting close to waxing poetic, but what can I say... I love my country! 

We started out on a day-trip to Dodge City in our rented Cessna 182.  The sky was blue, the air clear, and the flight swift and steady.  Our initial objective was to fly over some land purchased by my parents, to observe the farming being done on it.  Yet why stop there?  We were headed to Dodge City after all!  

Boot Hill  Casino

After flying over the property, we landed at the Dodge City airport, and rented a car to take us into town.  We ate lunch at the Boot Hill Casino.  The buffet food was pretty good, though the selection was fairly limited.  

Although we spent some time at the casino (whoops, there goes my spending money for the month!) we didn't stay long, and then we were headed for what I considered was the most interesting part of the trip... history, of course! 

We spent most of the afternoon at the Boot Hill museum.  There, we watched a short film on the American cowboy and how Dodge grew up out of the cattle trade, explored the Boot Hill cemetery, then strolled through the reproduction of the town's main street.  There weren't any reenactments going on, as it was Sunday in the off-season, but the displays were still pretty cool!  (Have I mentioned how much I love history, museums, and reproductions of old-west towns?!) 

A few more highlights of the day:

Dodge City from the air, looks so small! 

A true icon of the Old West.

Inside the old Dodge City church.

Dodge City Jail.

Boot Hill Cemetery. 

The old stagecoach... complete with orange traffic sign!

The window speaks for itself.

Guns and gambling- classic Dodge! 

And finally- a beautiful sunset in the Kansas skies.

Skyway to Springfield

Ok, so I've fallen a little behind on updating our travels, but then again, we haven't really gone anywhere in the past month, I think it's acceptable!

So, a run-down of our latest general-aviation adventure!  On September 24th we flew to Medicine Lodge, KS, to witness the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty Pageant.  This spectacle runs every 5 years and reenacts the signing of a peace treaty between the U.S. government and local native tribes in 1867.  I may post pictures and more information about that festival in a later post, but for today I will just say that it was very fun, but that if you're into general aviation, be warned- the airport there is really only a runway and a few hangers.  There is no FBO, no rental or courtesy cars, so unless you know someone in town with a car, you will find yourself walking quite a ways into town.


After the pageant finished, we hopped back into the plane and took off for Springfield, Missouri.  It was a sunny day in Kansas, but by the time we crossed into Missouri the sky was clouding up and we were dodging rain-showers.  We made it to Springfield, however, and landed at the airport in the late evening.  As usual, I had to snap a few aerial photos as we came in to land, as I enjoy seeing everything from up above.  

 Once we were safely on the ground, we proceeded to their general aviation complex.  There we parked the plane for the night, refueled, and made our way into the terminal.  I have to say, from the FBO's I've visited to this point, the Springfield FBO ranks high on my list.  A nice facility, clean and professional.  The staff was friendly, and, as we had rented a car, they had even taken care of the arrangements the car to be delivered and waiting for us out front when we arrived.

(Photo from owners)

We continued from the airport to the bed and breakfast we'd selected for our trip to Springfield: the Mansion at Elfindale.  The B&B looked very promising from the pictures on their website and google maps!  A nice Victorian mansion converted at one time into a school and currently owned by a church and run as a bed and breakfast.

When we arrived at dusk, however, I felt the building had taken on a little bit of the atmosphere of a "haunted house".  The grey stone construction seemed to reflect the darkening sky,  and I will admit I have an overactive imagination.  But the parking lot and outside part of the property was pretty deserted, and it did make a shiver run down my spine.

Once we entered, we were greeted by a nice staff member, shown to our room on the second floor, and basically left to our own devices.  We were informed that the staff was not on-site overnight, but that we could call from the phone in our room if we needed anything.

We settled into our room and then I decided to explore the house a bit.  We had been told we could go into any open rooms, and there were only 2 other couples staying in the house that night.  The house itself had three main floors, with guest rooms on the second and third story and the dining and public areas on the first floor.  It was filled with Victorian decor and furnishings, which were beautiful and enjoyable.  Unfortunately, I still felt the chill of a ghostly aura, and, as the house was eerily quiet and I was alone, I tended to snap a photo in each room and quickly move on, back into the more well-lit hallway.  (My husband thought it was quite funny, and thought himself a real comedian when he stepped out from behind our door when I returned to the room and nearly gave me a heart attack!)

Some pictures from different rooms of the mansion:

We dined at Mexican Villa, a restaurant chain that started in Springfield back in the 1950's and spread into the Ozarks.  Some of the food was pretty good- if you read my post about the restaurant in Lindsborg, the food was very similar.  Not overly spicy- in fact my burrito had beef that was pretty much unseasoned (which is the way I prefer it).  But in other areas, it was lacking.  My hubby didn't care for his entree as much, and the pre-meal chips and dip left much to be desired.  The chips were lacking flavor (we had to salt them) and the dip was more of a runny sauce that was very watery and somewhat sweet- like juice from a tomato with a few extra seasonings added.

The rest of the evening we spent enjoying the amenities of our room- the haunted house feeling having left me for the night. Our room was the "John O Day" suite, with wallpaper that was similar to Victorian-era paper, with an India theme- peacocks and elephants.















The next morning we were treated to a very superior breakfast.  We had a first course with orange juice and a peach and yogurt parfait.  This was followed with eggs and bacon and a very nice French Toast.  Everything seemed well-cooked and had a good flavor.  We enjoyed breakfast quite a bit.

Once we checked out, we returned to the airport and proceeded to fly home.  Overall it was a great trip, and I would like to be able to return to Springfield at some point with more than one night available so we could experience some of the local attractions.

High Flying Fun

I haven't had the opportunity for weekend wandering in recent history, so I'll look back at a trip from a few months ago!  We had planned to fly to Omaha to visit the zoo, then spend the night and make a nice weekend getaway out of it.  Unfortunately, the weather raised its ugly head, as it does all to often when we plan flights, and rain kept us from making it on Saturday.  But we figured it was all good... we could still make a day-trip out of it.  So Sunday morning we got up bright and early and...

Source: http://www.kansastravel.org/sternbergmuseum.htm

Didn't go to Omaha. Nope.  It was raining again (in Omaha) which would prevent us from being able to land.    Well fooey.  So we thought of all the other day-trip destinations we'd ever thought of going to and... most of them were covered in rain too!  But we found one bright spot, and so we headed west, to Hays.  Why Hays?  Because there was rumored to be a lovely dinosaur museum there! The Sternberg Museum, through Fort Hays State University (http://sternberg.fhsu.edu/).

So we hopped in the plane, flew about an hour flight (to a location that would normally be about a 3 hour drive) and landed at the little airport there in Hays.  The FBO (fixed base operator- kind of a airport terminal for private planes, they provide fuel, a place to park the plane, and often have other amenities to offer pilots) provided us with the use of the courtesy car so we could get around town.  We lunched at Napoli's Italian Restaurant, which was very good (so if you're ever in Hays, you must try it!) then continued on to the museum!

Inside the museum were two main levels: one that included all of the fossil exhibits, and another upstairs that held a life-size dinosaur diorama. Some of the dinosaurs even moved, which I didn't find out until the T-rex almost took a bite out of me!! (ok, not quite).

The Tyrannosaurus moved it's head back and forth and roared... the baby hadrosaur chewed on it's grass.  None of the other dinosaurs did much, but the diorama was still cool, with some large pteranodons flying overhead. The painting in the background was that of a prehistoric beach, as most of Kansas was under water during the late Cretaceous period.  

The diorama continued into a tunnel that was also a ramp to the level below. It was made to seem like you were entering the deep sea, and there were models of some of the ocean-dwelling monsters of the time, things like plesiosaur and mosasaur.  Fish and reptiles that make Jaws look like a pet goldfish!


Once we exited the tunnel, we were back among the main museum exhibits.  We got to see lots of fossils (mostly of the sea-faring type) but there was also information about Africa, natural history, weather, and geology.  Of course, my interest was mostly in the fossils, so that's where we spent the most time! My favorites included:

The famous "Fish-Within-A-Fish" fossil.  Mmm, lunch! 

A nice mosasaur specimen. I like mosasaurs, because they're one of the biggest, most "dinosaur-like" fossil that you'll find in Kansas.  I am even the proud owner of a real-live (dead?) mosasaur tooth! 

These crinoids were very cool, all fossilized together at the bottom of the sea.  It looks like something from an alien planet!! (It would also make a cool desktop wallpaper, no?) 

Then we moved on through the geology exhibit,  admired the mammoth skeleton, then viewed the "Peanuts" exhibit on weather... old cartoons with Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the gang and their take on weather and other natural forces. 

We left the museum to return to the airport and were just in time!!  South of Hays, near Dodge City, was a nice little thunderstorm popping up.  It was out of our flight path, and about 20 miles away, but it was interesting to watch from the window.

Then as we flew along, the airplane's radar displayed little rain showers popping up all over the place!  We were afraid we'd have to put down somewhere short of Wichita, but we made it in and the rain never even reached the airport!  Whew!

Välkommen to Lindsborg!

"King Oscar" the Wild Dala Horse

Welcome to the first of my entries about travel, and to "Little Sweden, USA"!  Known for its Swedish heritage, its painted "wild dala horses", and its warm, small-town friendly culture, it was the perfect destination for a short, romantic get-away.

My husband and I traveled to Lindsborg to stay over in one of the local bed and breakfasts in the town and enjoy the local flavor. On the way we detoured to Coronado Heights, a small outcropping of bluffs overlooking the Smoky Hill River Valley.  The view was, for Kansas, pretty cool... and the castle (built in 1932) was fairly good reproduction of someone's idea of a Spanish Conquistador's fort.  (Well, there wasn't ever a real Spanish fort, here after all!) 

Apparently in 1541 Coronado himself led an expedition into the great plains of America searching for a mythical wealthy civilization called the Quivira. His guide was likely trying to lead him astray, however, and took him on a wild goose chase!  He ended up in Kansas, finding a people he believed were the Quivira, (likely a native tribe such as the Wichita or Pawnee), but did not find the mythical cities of gold he'd been looking for.  Evidence suggests that the people he wrote about lived near the Lindsborg area, in the Smoky River Valley.  So it was quite  likely that, this being the highest point in the area, the soldier would have stopped here at some point to survey the surrounding area. (Thanks to Wikipedia for most of this info!) 

 After our stop at the Heights, we continued to Lindsborg itself.  The town was very picturesque, with your traditional main street lined with shops and painted dala horse statues.  Our reservation was at the Swedish Country Inn.  It was a nice little hotel, modeled after the inns you might find in Sweden itself, in a kind of European style.  We checked in, but headed out right away to eat dinner.

We strolled along main street, stopping to eat at the Jalisco Mexican Restaurant- just around the corner from the inn! The food there was excellent; I had a combo platter with an enchilada, a burrito, and a tamale, all of which were wonderful, though the tamale was a little spicy to my taste.  For anyone who's never actually eaten "authentic" Mexican food (as most of the restaurants in the US are more geared towards "Tex-Mex" rather than true authenticity),  it can be a surprising experience once you do get the chance to try it.

I'm sure it varies from region to region in Mexico (just as food preferences in different states here can be wildly different) but in my experience (which was near the coast on the Yucatan Peninsula) it was actually not as spicy as I would have thought.  The meat was seasoned maybe with a little onion, some salt, but not with the chili powder and other spices common in Tex-Mex.  And the sauce on top... mmm!  It's a red sauce, but again not spicy.  It is almost sweet, kind of like a marinara sauce but without the Italian seasoning.  So I enjoyed the same kinds of flavors at Jalisco.

After dinner, we walked up and down Main Street, ate ice cream cones for dessert, and returned to the inn for the evening.  Our room was quite pretty, definitely continuing the Swedish theme and country-style living.  There was a little tv in one corner, nice wooden shutters over the windows, and a good sized private bath.

One drawback became apparent as we turned out the lights and prepared to sleep, however... the air conditioner had something wrong with it's compressor and would kick on loudly for about 10 seconds every 2-3 minutes!  It did this throughout the entire night, making sleep very difficult!  Then, once we rose in the morning, we were ready for a hot shower and when I turned the handle... no water!! We were concerned that we would have no shower, but luckily my handy husband figured out that the shower head had a valve lever on it that was in the "off" position.  Whew!

Showers taken, we ate breakfast at the Swedish breakfast buffet included in our stay.  It was pretty good (the waffles were to DIE for!!) and we left feeling pretty satisfied.  Overall the Swedish Country Inn was nice, but I would recommend checking the room out for loud air compressors or malfunctioning faucets before you get stuck for the night!!

Lindsborg Del Två

Upon leaving the inn, we proceeded to the Smoky Valley Roller Mill.  This mill was built in 1881 and then updated in 1898 to the newest technology of the time, steel rollers (rather than stone disks).  It was one of the reasons Kansas became a top producer of wheat and flour! (Well, not this mill by itself, but it and other mills like it.) According to the local newspaper of the time, "everything from basement to garret has been overhauled, making it one of the best equipped roller mills in Central Kansas.  No one can scarce believe that such wonderful improvements have been made, they must see for themselves in order to realize the wonderful change." (Source: http://www.oldmillmuseum.org/millhistory.html)

 The mill museum included a brief video of the history of the mill, along with a general museum of the area including wildlife, art by a local carver, and information on the journey of Swedish immigrants to the midwest. There were even some dioramas of common rooms in a traditional Swedish home. I just love history!  Especially when it's laid out to see as it might have been hundreds of years ago. And old buildings...?  Oh, I tell ya what, walking into the mill itself... well remind me to do a monologue some time on how the odor in these dusty old relics can take me back a few hundred years... I love it!!

Anyway, we toured the museum and the mill itself.  There were three stories, plus the basement, full of machinery.  In some areas you could barely squeeze through, I can't believe that grown men were able to work in that environment!  And the heat... it was 9 in the morning, probably about low 80's outside, but already climbing to the upper 90's indoors.  But it was still educational and fun, a great combination!

Across the street from the mill is Heritage Park, a collection of historical buildings and antiques.   Many of the buildings were in need of repair, but they were still interesting.  There was a room full of antique tractors and farming supplies, an 1800's bank, store, and barn.  There was also the "Swedish Pavilion", built for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Lewis.  It was built in Sweden, dismantled, reconstructed in St. Lewis, then moved again to Lindsborg.  Inside were displays of traditional Swedish clothing, the Swedish royalty, and other Swedish-themed displays.

All in all, Lindsborg was a quaint, friendly little town, with good food, interesting historical locations, and a touch of Sweden in the heartland! I highly recommend it!

Welcome to My Wanderlust!

Greetings fellow travelers!  Let me welcome you to my brand new travel blog!  I have been travelling all my life... in fact I took my first airplane trip when I was 5 months old!  I've traveled within the United States, gone on 7 cruises, and visited Canada, Spain, and England.  All this before my 30th birthday!

Having such a background in travel and a love of the adventure, naturally I married myself a man with the same enjoyment of sightseeing and adventuring.  As an added plus, he's a pilot! Not of the large airliners, but a private pilot.  We can rent little airplanes that hold about 4 people and go on trips all over the place!  While it's not a fast as a jetliner, and, on long trips, can be much more expensive, it gives us the freedom to take weekend jaunts to places we would otherwise need a long vacation to reach.

So I started this blog to highlight our travels, both near and far, with trips long and short.  I plan to add some pages highlighting different aspects of travel, such as my "picks" for FBO's (for other general aviation users), recommended hotels or bed and breakfasts, or even a list of places I would not recommend.

So join me on my jaunt, and satisfy your wanderlust!!