Order of business today: Brother Steve (my cousin)’s birthday. We ran through some practice sign language “Happy birthday to you” and then recorded it. Paula sent the video to Steve! He texted later, “It made me smile.”
Continuing west on Hwy 56, we found several historic markers and added to our knowledge of living and travelling along the trail.
We learned that most museums and informational centers are closed on Sundays and Mondays. Therefore most of the day included driving by, pausing, taking pictures and moving on. It was also raining on and off. Some sites we will be able to catch on the way home.
Pawnee Rock is a tall natural limestone landmark which stood 80 feet above the prairie, and was well known and used by the Indian tribes. Later people mined the rock and the height dropped 20 feet. We drove around in in an upward spiral to near the top, and we got out and walked up to a statue there on top. There was also a second, open story with stairs to walk up, to the height to give us the chance to look out and all around as if we had been there at the time of the wagon trains. We got all cold and wet as it was raining, but worth it.
Being well past needing a rest area and lunch; we stopped at the city hall in Kinsley. We also needed help finding the halfway point sign between New York and San Francisco. The very nice lady in city hall, explained the directions to get to the sign, and mentioned it had a museum with seasonal hours. She also unlocked the door to get me into the restroom, yay!!!!
Her directions were perfect and we arrived there in about 10 minutes. Turned out the museum was opened an hour earlier, first day of the season, lucky us. It was huge and inside a sod house was built. After spending time looking over all the historical things there, including a doll collection, farm implements, tools, dresses, furniture, set up rooms, primarily all from three local families. I asked her about wagon train ruts around there, and she gave me directions to the Hillside Cemetery. I then asked her about places to eat. Only place open was the Deli, and she gave us directions there. We took our photos in front of the sign.
First things first, we headed to a very tasty lunch at the deli, then drove to the cemetery. At the back fence we could see the swale from the wagons. It is not easy to recognize them.
From there we jumped back onto the highway and continued the drive. Not finding a hotel/motel on the highway, we jumped off and settled in for the night in Liberal Kansas.
Photos from today:
