May 3, 2011. Our family adventure to explore the wild west of America was rapidly coming to an end. Since we went north to get to Colorado Springs Colorado, todays adventure would lead us to the corn fields of Kansas.I expected todays trip to be fairly boring because, well, Kansas doesn't exactly have a reputation as a party state. Normally when people think of Kansas they think of two things: Flat farmers fields, and the Wizard Of Oz. I never saw a wizard (or the tornado that provides a gateway to Oz) but I did see a lot of farmers fields. They were not that flat tho.
The trip did turn out to hold some interesting points of interest tho, and lucky for you I will tell the tale... wait, come back!
The first point of interest was in Goodland KS. They have what is possibly the worlds largest Van Gogh painting on record. The "canvas" is 30' x 20', and the easel is bigger than that.
We ate lunch basking in the glory that is the Kansas art scene, and then hit the road once more.Our next stop led us into history. Recent history for most of us, but ancient history for this geocacher, for lurking at this destination is the worlds oldest active geocache, called Mingo.
The cache was hidden on May 11, 2000, only 8 days after the very first cache ever placed. The cache is on its 4th log book - and I mean book. Most caches has a small piece of paper or a small spiral notepad as a logbook. Mingo had a 100 page hard cover notebook as a logbook, and its on its 4th book. Over 2000 logged visits to this location. Lots of history here.
Our next stop brings us to Victoria Kansas, and the Cathederal Of The Plains, which is exactly what it sounds like, a large cathederal on the plains of Kansas. This cathederal is huge, and reminded me a great deal of the cathederals in Europe (aside from being built out of brick, and not stone like the European ones).
Salina KS has a burger joint called Cozy Inn, which has some amazingly tasty sliders (think White Castle, but with flavour). After downing a couple sacks of burgers we bedded down for the night in an Econolodge, and stored up energy for the next days adventure.
