After departing stormy Fayetteville and our powerless campground, we proceeded through Oklahoma to Tulsa where we hung a right (Right Turn Clyde – This was Ben’s contribution) and headed north through Wichita, past the signs for Hutchinson KS, the first stop on our married- around-the-world journey nearly 30 years ago, then we went on to Salina, KS for a night and then Goodland, KS.
The last time we came through Kansas, we hauled a mega day from Denver all the way to Salina, which is nearly 500 miles of STRAIGHT, NEVER ENDING highway. We learned on that adventure that anything over about 350 miles is a pretty long and tiring day when you’re hauling a camper and looking at nothing but windmills. You just have to be so much more alert to the weather, the traffic, the road conditions, the tire pressures, the engine and transmission tempos, fuel levels, and of course, potty requirements. Potty stops are significantly easier since we bring our own bathroom with us on the journey, we just have to find a place to pull over. Fuel is a lot easier as well since Ben added an onboard 60 gallon diesel tank, so we usually have 800+ miles of range. It is still an exhausting day though.
So, on this trip, we tried to break the drives in to smaller pieces. It would ultimately take us longer to go the same distance over the course of the trip, but we felt it was safer, and honestly, we are mostly retired, so what’s a couple days longer? That is how this 7000 mile trip stretched in to 60 days.
So following our guidelines for smaller drives, we arrived from Fayetteville into Salina, Kansas without event. Besides hitting the Salina Sam’s Club for the next few days of meals, we did absolutely nothing else but sleep, knowing we had power again and a fan to cover the noise of life outside the tube. And we desperately needed that sleep after surviving all the crazy weather in Arkansas.
It was unfortunate timing, but our road diet caught up with us a bit during our Salina stop. I won’t share names, in order to protect the innocent (Ben did it)(HEY!), but there was a record breaking potty incident, which tested the mechanical limits of the airstream bathroom AND the person who was involved in the incident. After hearing someone’s rumbling tummy and a great deal of moaning from the unnamed person, the cause of discomfort finally exited like it had two left elbows, bowed knees and was ready to give the campground septic tank a run for its money. Usually it’s Ann with all the GI issues, so she had plenty of empathy for the unnamed person. It took teamwork to fix the issue and in the end we decided just to replace the whole toilet. 🤭 and we vowed to not eat any more McDonald’s breakfasts. Another lesson learned, far too late in life.
Kansas is really beautiful country and it is part of our nation’s heartland and breadbasket to be sure. There is just a LOT of it and it NEVER lets up.
Just when we thought Kansas was getting a bit on the boring side, WHAM! World’s biggest easel and world’s biggest Van Gogh! And only 300 miles ahead in Goodland, KS! Oh baby, it’s ON!
That right there is the world’s biggest easel. With the world’s biggest Van Gogh (I’m concerned that it might possibly be fake or even worse a deep fake). Both TripAdvisor and Goodland, KS did not disappoint.
That easel was listed as the number 1 attraction in Goodland, for good reason. Walmart was number 2, also for good reason.
Here is the back of the easel. We did tour the local Walmart, but did not get a picture. So sorry.
Honestly, it was a good thing we called ahead and made reservations. Parking was a disaster.
We’re officially registered as visitors to the biggest Van Gogh. Hooray!
From here, it’s on to Denver!
TaterTotTales 