Custer State Park Drive - Custer, South Dakota

We took a nice drive through the Custer State Park on the Needles Hwy and Wildlife Loop with John and Terri. We stopped at Sylvan Lake and the Eye of the Needle where Rick and John climbed the rocks up to the point above the tunnel.We also stopped at the "Hole in the Wall" (not related to Butch & Sundance).

Scenes from the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park.

Fort WeLikIt Campground - Custer, South Dakota

After a nice drive up from Nebraska and through the Wind Cave National Park, we arrived at Fort WeLikIt Campground around 12:30pm. We were immediately greeted by our friends John & Terri. It turns out that a previous acquaintance from Eagle Nest, Dale Finley, is also staying in the campground.

We got the trailer situated in our site and everything set up. We noticed a propane smell outside after I turned on one of our tanks. It turns out we have a leak in the secondary regulator. I turned off that tank. Paul, the campground owner, said a local RV repairman is already due to be in the park on Monday. We will have him look at the regulator.

As Terri had previously told us, the AT&T phones do not work in the campground. However, they do work on the main road and in town.

One thing we have noticed, people drive too fast in the park and create lots of dust!

Harold Warp's Pioneer Village - Minden, Nebraska

We finished our stop at the Excel Service Center this morning. We received excellent service as usual. We said our goodbyes to our new friends Richard & Bonnie Korp, and drove over to Minden, Nebraska. Today, we decided to catch up on some laundry and tomorrow, we will spend all day viewing the museum.

Update for June 25th: We spent five hours touring the museum. It is amazing on how many items there are in the many buildings! There were several quonset huts full of cars, trucks and tractors. Check the website for a complete history and building-by-building description of the museum.
For grandson, Tyler...here is the original Thomas the Train.

We also saw one of the first, homemade motorhomes. Click on the letter below to view the motorhome's itinerary.

Excel Service Center - Smith Center, Kansas

We are back in Smith Center, Kansas at the Excel Service Center. We found a few issues after our last visit in April that need to be corrected. Our appointment begins at 6:30am on Monday. Hopefully, we will only be here for a few days and then onto South Dakota to visit with our friends John & Teri.

Wilson Lake COE Park - Wilson, Kansas

We left Hutchinson this morning and drove over to the Wilson Lake COE (Corp of Engineers) Park. We had reserved a large, pull-thru site (see picture below). We sat out and enjoyed the sunny weather. Around 6:30pm, the winds picked up and the thunderstorms rolled in. We had some "pea-sized" hale for a couple of minutes. We will hang around here for a few days, then onto Smith Center for a few more repair items on the trailer.

Kansas Underground Salt Museum - Hutchinson, Kansas

Today we visited the Kansas Underground Salt Museum which is part of the Carey Salt Mine. The mine is still active, though not in the area of the museum. The salt is used for roads in the winter, tanning of hides and in some animal feed.The tour starts with a elevator ride down to the 650' level. During the elevator ride you experience absolute darkness. Once at the bottom you notice it is not like any other mine...the ceilings are tall (9 feet) and the rooms are large. We boarded a tram and were taken around to various sections of the mine. We then disembarked the tram and continued with the self-guided tour through the museum area which includes old mining equipment, videos describing the mining process and other informative dioramas.



The Underground Vault and Storage Company maintains a facility in the mine. It is a secure storage facility for anything valuable, including corporate records, computer backups, medical records, etc. Many of the original copies of movies are stored in the facility, including the original copy of "Gone with the Wind". Other movie memorabilia is stored in the facility. See pictures below of the "Noisy Cricket" gun from the movie "Men in Black" and the Batman suit worn by George Clooney in the movie "Batman and Robin".

Cosmosphere - Hutchinson, Kansas

Today we visited the Cosmosphere. It includes a Hall of Space Museum, planetarium, IMAX Theatre and Dr. Goddard's Lab Live Science Show. The museum tracks the history of space flight and includes several actual artifacts, including the Apollo 13 command module, Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule and a flown Vostok spacecraft. The Dr. Goddard's Lab show features rocket science experiments with plenty of fire and explosions for the kids.

"Roots" - Hutchinson, Kansas

We arrived in Hutchinson around 2:00pm and set up at the Kansas State Fairgrounds. I (Rick) was born in Hutchinson, some 50+ years ago, when dad was stationed here while in the USAF. I had not been back to Hutchinson since my birth. I wanted to find the hospital where I was born and the house where we lived.

I "Googled" the name of the hospital, Saint Elizabeth's Mercy Hospital, and found a reference to it being closed some years ago. Another reference stated the building still existed and approximately where it was located. We found the old hospital (click on the photo to enlarge). The building is for sale. It most recently was an apartment building and office building.
I then called Mom and asked if she remembered where we lived. She remembered "9th Street", but no address. I went back through some old photos that Y had scanned, and found the two below. The one with Dad and me, I could barely make out the house numbers by enlarging the photo. Y and I jumped in the Jeep, put in the address, 1212 East 9th Street, into the GPS and off we went.When we arrived, the following pictures are what we found. It's the same house! Notice the windows in each of the photos. In the present picture, you can see the original concrete porch under the existing deck. In the second new photo look at the roof line and position of the vents. Click on the photos to enlarge.

Gage Park & Zoo - Topeka, Kansas

We drove over to Gage Park and visited the zoo. We saw the normal animals: elephants, lions, giraffes, but there were a couple of animals with some strange habits. We saw an orangutan that liked to chew and "pop" gum and a bear that spent a lot of time in trees stripping off the bark and leaves.
After the zoo, we went out for a late lunch, then returned and rode the train and carousel. I can remember riding them when I would visit my grandparents here in the 60's. As you can see from the bottom photo, I started "real young".

Siteseeing - Topeka, Kansas

First things first. Today is Mom's birthday...Happy Birthday, Mom!

We drove downtown to the First Presbyterian Church to view their Tiffany "Windows of Comfort". They were installed in 1911 by Louis Tiffany. Favrile glass was the invention of Louis Tiffany. It is a glass made without paint, enamels or stains. Colors were produced by additives such as cobalt, gold and copper.

We then drove over to the Old Prairie Town at the Ward-Meade Historic Site. Anthony Ward bought 200 acres from Indians in 1854. The original cabin, built by Ward, along with their larger home still sit on the property. The Old Prairie Town has several historic buildings that have been moved onto the Ward-Meade property. There is also a botanical garden on the property.


The final picture is of Grandpa & Grandma McCaffrey's old home on Buchanan Street. They owned the home from the late 1920s until it was sold in the mid 1990s.