When we're not in an RV park we stay at individual people's homes that we find through boondockers.com. It's a network of people, mostly RVers, across the country that allow other RVers to stay in their driveways, fields, or yards for 1 to 5 days. Most have electric hookups, water and wifi. A few have RV dumps, which are basically septic tanks to dumps our waste tanks. Our hosts near Kansas City, MO were very welcoming and we really enjoyed our 5 day stay there. We left on Tuesday morning and arrived at our next stop in Pretty Prairie, KS. I know, right? Great name for a town!
Our hosts were Rod and Chris. They were wonderful people, very welcoming and friendly. They visited with us, we visited with them, and they even took Mom and Dad out to breakfast at a place called Carriage Crossing Restaurant in Yoder, KS. There were lots of farm tractors in the parking lot. Apparently, many Amish families drive around in their farm tractors instead of horse and buggy.
Our RV was parked out in their back 40 (I think there was more land than that though) by the pond and had the whole area to ourselves. It was very quiet and peaceful. Every once in a while we could hear the screech of a hawk that liked to perch on the power pole at the back of the RV. Mom was in awe at the beauty of the landscape. She took a video of what she saw.
Quite honestly, though, I don't know what she was going on about because this is all I could see. Just looked like dry grass in a field to me. Of course I'm short so I'm sure she had a different vantage point.
But the area did have it's unique beauty. Mom took pictures of some of the farm stuff on the prairie, as well as making friends with their pony, My Sugar.
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| Swing from a broken tree limb, supported on the left by a stump. |
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| A "hobbit" tree. The ladder inside goes up to another ladder and you can climb way up. |
While we were in the area we visited the Strataca salt mine museum in Hutchinson, KS. The mine is 650 underground. It takes about 90 seconds to descend on the lift, which is done in total darkness to honor the minors who used to turn out their flame lanterns while they were in the lift. Today, of course, all the hard hats have modern light bulbs, but the early lanterns posed a fire risk in a crowded elevator lift. Besides mining salt, the underground area is used by other companies to store records and historical artifacts because of the year round 68 degree climate. Plus being that far underground it's pretty secure from theft or natural disasters. It was a very fascinating and educational tour.
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| Supports like this keep the floor from rising up from the pressure of the earth underneath. |
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| This large salt block weighs about 6,000 lbs. |
If you'd like to learn more about the Carey Salt Mine or Strataca Salt Museum please visit their websites. There's so much information it would be impossible to tell it all here.
http://www.careysalt.com/history/
https://www.underkansas.org/explore
We left Pretty Prairie Saturday morning and arrived in Shamrock, TX. That's another story for another post.
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