LAMONI IOWA TO LINDSBORG KANSAS WITH A PARK WARNING IN SALINA!!

It was a reasonably warm night so we didn’t have to fire up our blue flame heater.  Can’t even remember the last time we used the furnace in the rig to keep warm.  The Legacy blue flame heater does a fine job….& dancing flames look nice.

THIS 8 MILE STRETCH OF INTERSTATE WEST OF TOPEKA KANSAS WAS THE FIRST PIECE OF ROAD LAID IN THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM
We were hooked up by 6:50 a.m & rolled on out of Split Buff County Park with a beautiful Iowa sunrise casting it’s early morning rays across an old Amish farmland.  Buggies in the yards, clothes on clotheslines & we saw one small Amish girl leading a horse from the barn while a second smaller girl filled a water trough.  Chores before school. 
  
KELLY WORKS ON A DEER PARK RESERVATION, TAKES A WORK RELATED CALL, PROGRAMS GARMIN GERTIE FOR TOPEKA TRAFFIC & TYPES AN EMAIL RESPONSE TO RETIRED ROD IN KANSAS CITY.  ME?  I JUST DRIVE THE RIG & GRUMBLE A LOT!!
Four miles back to the town of Lamoni & we were southbound aboard I-35 on a direct collision course with Kansas City.   As readers know, I will go miles out of my way to avoid the traffic chaos & madness of large cities & I had already poured over my maps Tuesday night for an alternate route.  Plus, I much prefer the quieter pace & rural scenery of secondary roads any day.
        
HAVING A GAME OF ‘STICKS’ WITH MAX, CHECKERS & THE MOTORMOUSE AT A REST AREA……ME & THE LITTLE MOUSE
Just north of Kansas City we hung a right at Cameron & picked up highway 36 west to St. Joseph.  We underestimated St. Joseph & failed to employ the help of Garmin Gertie.  We missed our southbound turn for I-29 & blew through town on 36 west.  Weather has been good so we just stayed on 36 to Fairview & hung a left on 75 down to Topeka Kansas.  Picked up I-70 & pointed the nose west for Salina.


THIS IS THE PARK IN SALINA KANSAS WE DID NOT STAY AT!!
Saw a lot of billboards for the ‘Oz Museum’ so we knew we were probably in Dorothy & Toto’s neighborhood.  That old Wizard & I have some things in common you know:}  Easy to see how that big Kansas wind twisted itself up into a blustering Tornado years ago & blew Dorothy & her whole house off to the land of Oz.  The heavy wind gusts coming out of the south all day were trying to blow us somewhere as well, & it wasn’t straight ahead.
  
TONIGHT’S OVERNIGHTER SPOT IN LINDSBORG KANSAS
The Escapee Club ‘Days End’ book we use to find places for overnighter’s is 5 years old & that may have caught up with us today.  Kelly had found a County Park in the city of Salina so about 2:30 this afternoon, after a short Wal-Mart grocery stop, we headed for the Thomas County Park.  It’s near the interstate & what a great find it was with all it’s trees in a nice peaceful park setting.   Well, that is until we talked to a young local couple sitting on the tailgate of their pick up truck.  They warned us about the park being a night time magnate for homeless people & Gays.  They said the Park gets ‘Bad’ at night & didn’t recommend staying there!!  So, we heeded their warning & left the Park poste haste.  I think it’s about time we got an updated ‘Days End’ book & we may have to pick up our Escapee’s membership again to do that.  We dropped the membership about 5 years ago for no particular reason that I can remember.  I think they frown upon Cursmudgeons!!

Didn’t take Kelly long to find us another park via our outdated Day’s End book of course & before long we had moved a short 10 miles south down 135 to the small Swedish flavored town of Lindsborg.  A quick stop for directions soon led us to the McPherson Co. Old Mill Picnic/Campground about 4:30.  Small park with a gravel ring road, washroom, water nearby & electric.  We didn’t bother with the electric.  Verizon signal is great & we’ve pulled in 6 clear channels with the rig’s antennae.  Nice little Park but it wouldn’t be everybody’s cup of tea.   Good enough for us gol darned bunch of Bayfield Bums though.
Haven’t looked at my maps yet to see where we’ll end up tomorrow but for sure it will be somewhere southwest of where we are now.  It has been really nice using a different route this year seeing things we have never seen before.  Love the rolling hills across the Great Plains.  Not as flat as coming across Texas.
Finally made contact with my Doctor today regarding some tests before we left & his office said, have a good trip & call us in the Spring:]  Also, the winds of change are blowing in Arizona & our travel plans may be shifting gears shortly.  Stay tuned……………

SORRY ABOUT ALL THE PICS OF THE RIG & JEEP BUT IT’S ABOUT ALL I HAVE SOME DAYS RIGHT NOW
GROANER’S CORNER:{  From the following list of 25 items, count all the ones that you remember -- not the ones you were told about! How to score yourself is at the end.

1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar-water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda-pop machines that dispensed bottles
5. Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P. F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. Telephone numbers with a word prefix (e.g., Olive - 6933)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45-RPM records ... and 78-RPM records
15. S&H Green Stamps
16. Hi-fi systems
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19. Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Rollerskate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-in theaters
24. Studebakers
25. Washtub wringers

If you remembered!
         0 - 5 = You're still young
         6 - 10 = You are getting older
       11 - 15 = Don't tell your age
       16 - 25 = You're older than you think!
-----------------------------------------------------------------