Written by Kim
Before leaving Omaha I wanted to stop at the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge. It is a 3,000-foot long walkway stretches across the Missouri River connecting Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa. You can stand at one point on the bridge and have one foot in each state. Pretty cool!
Our drive today was a bit longer about 5 hours but I also added a slight detour, We got to a new state – Kansas but there was no state welcome sign just the town so I had to poach a Kansas sign from the internet. We are coming down the homestretch completing our states. Alex has 3 left (white below) and I have 4 (white & blue). We’re on day 33 of our trip and have been to 23 states including several we visited prior to this trip.
Our drive took us through a town called Beattie, KS. I thought of our friend, Mrs, Beattie who has been following our blog. We noticed that windmills for power must be a state by state decision. We didn’t see any in Nebraska but lots in Kansas. Highway 99 in Kansas is called the “Road to Oz” we saw one sign but I missed it. 🤨
Our stop along the way in Wampego was the Oz Museum. I didn’t want to visit Kansas without seeing Oz and had read about this from a FB group.
It was a hokey little museum with lots of costumes, props and other memorabilia from the movie. I went in while Alex took a nap in the car.
Did you know that Dorothy was named after author, Frank Baum’s, niece who died as an infant while he was writing the book.
Here’s a bit of trivia for you – did you know that Buddy Essen, from Beverly Hillbillies was the original tin man, The makeup they used was clown white face covered with aluminum particles. Buddy got very sick from inhaling the aluminum and was put in an iron lung so they cast Jack Haley and changed the makeup to a paste.
Did you know that the name Oz came from a filing cabinet whose drawers were A-G, H-N and O-Z?
And yes across the street was an alley called the Yellow Brick Road.
It was a quirky little stop but makes Kansas memorable for me. I don’t buy a lot of souvenirs but I bought a yard stake that says “There’s no place like home” that I thought was appropriate for our front yard.
We enjoyed the Mets victory in Game 1 of the Wildcard round in our hotel room prior to heading out for dinner.
We ate in Old Town in downtown Wichita. If you’re ever in Wichita we highly recommend The Pumphouse. It was excellent and quite inexpensive. We had 2 grilled chicken salads, wings and Alex had 2 beers for $40. Wish they had this restaurant in Myrtle!
Tomorrow we head to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Until then…..
