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!

Day 2: Salina, KS (part 1)

Our original plan was to head out early from Denver so we could go to the Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure in Salina, Kansas. But the previous night was pretty miserable. Despite (or possibly because of) giving the Bwun some Benadryl after dinner, he refused to go to sleep. Our Motel 6 room was every bit as little as we paid for it; the bed was small and creaky, and when I decided to give the Bwun my spot on the bed and go sleep on the floor, I found a big spider on the blankets. Yikes! Not a pleasant surprise, especially late at night. (A little while after I got back into bed, the Bwun did crawl off and wander around before finally falling asleep on the floor.) Anyway, I figured out that because of the time zone change, we’d have to leave Denver no later than 7am in order to visit the Wildlife Adventure the next afternoon before it closed. Not going to happen. Instead we decided to go the following morning (today). Another post about that next!

To replace that activity on Tuesday, I pulled off I-70 when I saw a sign for the Kit Carson County Carousel. On the way I also saw signs for Old Town Burlington, and they were easier to follow, so we stopped there first. Basically Old Town Burlington is an amazing museum and collection of historic buildings, with tons of antiques. The museum’s focus is on county history. They must have incredible funding – everything was in good condition and it was obviously well-maintained. Impressive! We recommend it.

Of course, we had to look in the law building. They had a cool desk that when open had two wings for incoming and outgoing mail. We also learned the origin of the term "black-balled." So worth the trip!

This was just one of many, many barbed wire displays. Apparently everyone had their own custom wire design - did you know this? I'd guess there were at least several hundred types.

I liked this gypsy-style wagon. I'd love to try their fine pastries, wouldn't you?

And I REALLY liked this 1929 Ford. The original magazine ad next to the car says it can reach 55 to 65 miles an hour.

Next we headed across town (not very far) to see the carousel. We learned from the operator that it was built in 1905 from hand-carved, hand-painted wooden animals; after some stuff, and some more stuff (I didn’t pay really close attention, sorry), it was in really sorry condition and they considered just burning it. Luckily someone established a carousel association and the carousel was eventually restored – today it’s fully functional and in great condition. Yes, of course we took a ride on it!

Have you heard the Bwun roar? He chose the lion to ride.

Ok, sorry, but the internet here is really slow and it’s getting late. You’ll have to wait for more stories and pictures! Goodnight!

Day 1 Pictures

Finally! I know you were waiting anxiously to see pictures from our trip, right? As I said, we drove from Provo to Denver on Monday.

Believe it or not, there was actually nothing interesting before this sign.

Our activity for the day was the Dinosaur Adventure Exhibit. This is a dinosaur skull. Supposedly.

There was an animatronic dilophosaurus that spit water (or what I assume was water) every few minutes. The Bwun loved it!

At first, the Bwun couldn't stop pointing at the dino ride and shouting, "Dote! Dote!!" (which usually means, "Look! Look!!"). But of course he almost burst into tears when I put in a quarter and had him sit on the now-moving dino. He was fine once it stopped, though.