Day 2: Salina, KS (part 2)

The Bwun became more and more uncertain as the ride went on.

So he came and sat with me...

...while the Romgi took over the lion.

Sorry for the bad lighting, but this is the view from my seat inside the carousel.

Other animals included: horse

zebra

camel

After our ride, we ate lunch in a little gazebo near the carousel. I think the town of Burlington, CO turned out to be a great stop for us! It wasn’t far from the state border, so before too long we saw…

Welcome to Kansas!

This is what most of Kansas looked like, except flat. I think the camera angle adds a lot of interest.

We kept seeing signs on the side of the road for “SIX-LEGGED STEER” and “WORLD’S LARGEST PRAIRIE DOG.” There were a lot of other animals listed, but wouldn’t you be sold just on those? I was, so we stopped in Oakley to visit Prairie Dog Town.

The Romgi knew when we pulled up that it might not be as cool as advertised.

Warning! May be disappointing inside.

We walked into a dingy gift shop smelling strongly of formaldehyde. To go see the critters cost us $8 apiece (the Bwun got in free), which made it more expensive than all of our adventures in Burlington combined. How could it possibly be worth it? The cashier told us to go out the back door – so we basically went out into the hot sun to see someone’s collection of farm animals. Stinky farm animals.

But there were some surprising animals, it’s true.

Like a raccoon.

A six-legged AND a five-legged cow.

Some foxes.

A bobcat.

A coyote!

My personal favorite, a badger.

And, of course, prairie dogs. Did you know they chirp?

As for the “world’s largest prairie dog,” it was just a big fake cardboard thing. Laaaaaaame. We looked around the stinky gift shop when we were done, but most of the gifts involved bathroom humor. If we hadn’t gotten to see a badger, I probably would have called it a complete and utter waste of money. Because of the badger, though, it was just mostly a waste of money.

Not much else to say about our drive through more of Kansas. We stayed overnight in Salina, and although our hotel room cost about double the price of the Motel 6 in Denver, we got a very comfortable king-sized bed, a spider-free room, and best of all, the Food Network. And HGTV. We need a cable package at home that just includes those two channels, and we’d be set! For dinner we ate at a local Italian restaurant that was well-reviewed. It was impressive: baked ravioli appetizer (one of my favorites) was almost a meal in itself, the Bwun’s spaghetti and giant meatball (at least half the size of his head) was a big hit, the waitress graciously took my dish back when it came out covered in shredded cheese (ok for some things, but not what I wanted on my tilapia and linguini with vegetables), and the service was excellent. Who knew you had to go to Kansas for all that?

I’d like to say we called it an early night, but the Bwun wandered around for a few hours while we watched the Food Network. (Alton Brown was on. Can you really blame us?) Fortunately, the Bwun fell asleep quickly once we finally put him down, and he slept the whole night in his crib – which meant no one else had to give up their spot on the comfy bed. Hooray!