After a restful week at Colorado Springs we continued on eastward on I-70 until we came to Wakeeney KS. Home of the world-famous Rosie’s RV Park. Okay, it’s not world famous. It’s not even famous in Kansas. But they do have an F-14 Tomcat parked out front in their veteren’s memorial park. It’s a combo motel/restaurant/bar/RV park. Pretty much the only game in town. But it was good for an overnight stop.
From Wakeeney we continued on I-70 and made a quick stop 30 minutes later in Hays KS, home of Rans Aircraft. I stopped in at the factory where my Rans S6ES kit was made and talked with Michelle Schlitter as her husband Randy was out flying with a customer. They are both the owners of Rans and are wonderful warm people who will drop what they are doing to talk airplanes with you. She even remembered me from when I first met her at Oshkosh some 10 years ago.
We continued on and ended up staying near Topeka KS. I didn’t get any pictures of the RV Park or of Topeka. There really wasn’t anything I wanted to take a picture of. But Topeka is where I discovered Scooter’s Coffee. It’s a drive through that serves up deliciousness. Anything from milkshakes, to coffee, to Red Bull mixers. One of their concoctions had Red Bull, blue raspberry syrup, whip cream, and gummie worms on top. I’ll take the caramel machiatto please.
From Topeka we ducked south a bit and jumped on Hwy 68 east to miss Kansas City. We ended up on Hwy 7 until we got to Clinton MO and then took Hwy 13 south to Springfield MO, and then Hwy 65 down to Branson MO. I really enjoyed driving on the local state highways rather than the interstates. You really got to see the character of the states.
In Branson, again, I didn’t take very many pictures. It was all very touristy and I didn’t really see anything I wanted to put in a photo album. We saw the show David at the Sight and Sound Theater. That was an amazing show with live actors, animals, and sets but also incorporating projection behind the sets. The stage also wrapped around the audience on the left and right. It was hidden before the show so you couldn’t even tell there were stages until the curYou felt like you were in the middle of it rather than watching.
We spent a few more HOT days in Branson (98 degrees, 75% humidity). I took Cristy to some factory outlets to let her engage in retail therapy and we took a walk along Branson’s river walk until it got too hot.
After our stay in Branson we had to backtrack a little and head back north towards Kansas City. I actually booked a Harvest Hosts location near Higginsville MO. That was the closest accommodation I could find near Hardin with electrical hookups for the trailer. It was still very hot and the air conditioner had been running almost non-stop every day of the trip. We stayed at The Red Brick Farm House B&B which also had several RV spots WITH electrical hookups. The hosts were very gracious and accommodating. He asked where we were heading and I told him we were there to visit my parent’s graves up in Hardin. He was very familiar with the cemetery. He also had heard of the Schooling’s but not the Van Artsdalen’s. 🙂 No shocker there.
After a night to rest up we drove up to Hardin the next morning while it was still cool. I got turned around a couple of times but we finally located the cemetery. And finally, after 7 years I was able to lay flowers at mom’s grave. I planted a flag for dad. I felt like a summit had been reached on the trip and in my life quite frankly. I pondered on how brief life is. So many memories of being a child and family went through my head. With the busyness of life out of the way, standing there in the quiet cool of the morning next to my parent’s grave, I realized how much I missed those older times. When my brother and sisters actually talked to one another rather than texted. And I am the most guilty of all of not calling to stay in touch.
I took some time and visited Uncle Jim’s grave and the aunt I never knew but heard my mother talk so much about. She talked a little about her mother but her father I never heard her talk about.
