Manhattan – KS 2

GREETINGS FROM MANHATTAN, Kansas (KS) USA

After a long drive today we are now in the north east corner of Kansas in a town called Manhattan.

Not particularly notable in itself, it is a university town. However, nearby, is a museum  showcasing the thing that would most likely be the trigger to bring Kansas to your mind – The Wizard of Oz.

But I will come back to that.

We packed our kit and headed out of Dodge for the last time, on a quest for El Dorado – well not quite a quest – El Dorado, Kansas, was our first “marker” for our travels today before heading north.

In fact, the weather was not being kind to us again when we left so we actually cut across straight to Cassoday.

As I said yesterday, Kansas has been described as “flatter than a pancake”, lying in the great central plain of the USA. And for the first part of today you again wouldn’t have got much argument from us ! And we saw different straight roads with miles and miles of VERY flat farming land with vast fields of grain interrupted by small towns with huge grain silos. BUT for most of about the first 20 miles – to a town called Spearville – it was almost a forest of wind turbines ! In fact the welcome sign coming into Spearville says it is the Home of Windmills ! It was all a bit eerie really – at bit “War of the Worlds” looking !

Our aim at Cassoday was to join up with the Flint Hills Scenic Byway – another of the Eight Wonders of Kansas ! (In fact we have done a number of the Wonders in only 3 days !) With so much of Kansas now cultivated for agriculture, this area has been preserved as original prairie lands with the tallgrasses which have existed for centuries on the great plains. It is only a short section of road – about 50 miles between Cassoday and Council Grove – but the rolling hills and swaying grasslands was quite a contrast to most of our travels through the state. It is obviously a bit of a “touristy” area as well as the towns along the way seem to have been a bit better kept and with grander homes on display. At least by this stage of the day, the clouds had mostly cleared and we were under mainly sunny skies.

Regeneration of the plains tallgrass

Flowers – in this case sunflowers – were a major component of the prairie tallgrass

Last stop before Manhattan was Wamego which seems to have proclaimed itself the “Wizard of Oz” capital of the world. It is here they have the Wizard of Oz Museum which showcases vast amounts of memorabilia from the movie and broadcasts the movie non-stop in a small theatre. Whilst I may be biased/cynical (who ? me ?), Wamego has gone the “over-commercialisation” route – next door to the museum is “Toto’s Tacoz” and the “Oz Winery” is nearby. The “yellow brick road” down to the city park we couldn’t find when we walked around to look for it but when we drove around again we finally found it – tucked between a couple of buildings, and a bit faded !

Not quite the Emerald City !

It was then just a short hop to Manhattan. The town has undertaken a bit of a resurgence in recent years with a lot of new building and a refreshed “downtown” area. Much of that seems to be thanks to the city being the main campus of the Kansas State University. They are obviously a fanatical lot as nearly everything in town – buildings, flowers, number plates, people ! – is purple, the colour of the KSU Wildcats football team ! We had a walk to the downtown area and mall to stretch our legs after the long drive and there were lots of people out and about enjoying the Saturday sunshine.

Another long drive tomorrow as we head further east.

Today’s Trivia – Nearby Fort Riley was the cradle of the United States Cavalry for 83 years. George Custer formed the famed 7th Cavalry there in 1866. Ten years later, at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the 7th was virtually wiped out. The only Cavalry survivor was a horse named Comanche !