Day 138: Kansas City to Wamego, Kansas (The Wizard of Oz!)

We left Fairway, Kansas and as we were driving back into Kansas City (the one in Missouri), we passed by huge mansions, which looked ultra posh and expensive! The stonework on some of these houses was incredible. We looked it up and Fairway and some of the surrounding areas are considered expensive places to live, so we were in a rather swishy part of town for the night!

The City of Fountains

Trivia time: Kansas City is known as the "City of Fountains" as it is second only to Rome, Italy for its number of fountains (Kansas City has over 200). We saw two fountains that wouldn't look out of place in Europe when we stopped to check out the KC Mural: one was at the entrance to the Country Club Plaza across the road, with carved dolphins, horses and other figures spouting sprays of water, while the other was a thin column structure with a cross on top, with several heads closer to the pool below emitting water from their mouths.

The KC mural is also great to see from across the street or at a distance, as it's a big mural painted on a couple of sides of a parking complex, with images of Abraham Lincoln, diverse faces, and the words "We're All in This Together" proudly emblazoned on the concrete wall.

The World's Largest Shuttlecocks

On the lawn of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, lie are four large shuttlecocks, suggesting that a game of badminton has been played, using the museum building as the net. We only saw one of the shuttlecocks on the side we were on. Not far from the shuttlecock there's a striking and haunting artwork, called Standing Figures (Thirty Figures) by Magdalena Abakanowicz, of 30 humans without heads. Magdalena witnessed the Nazi invasion in her native Poland as a girl, so some believe that these headless figures are victims, but there are various interpretations about what these bronze sculptures mean.

The Hallmark Visitors Center

We've definitely been hitting up more museums over the last few weeks, as the number of National Parks we've been going to has correspondingly decreased. The museums have all been very curated, and have all offered something unique with their slice of American history and culture. And of course, it's given us a chance to escape the relentless heat and humidity on what's already been a very hot summer!

We visited the free Hallmark Visitors Center, downtown Kansas City, Missouri, that details the company's 115+ year history, starting as a modest postcard company to the still family-run, billion-dollar corporation that it is today. Up until recently, we didn't know that Hallmark was headquartered in Missouri!

Even though it's a multinational corporation, the museum doesn't blatantly try to sell at you, and is tastefully put together, starting off by detailing the company's humble beginnings, how it almost went under after a fire affected its inventory, but it survived after borrowing more to actually expand and create its own cards (let this be a lesson in entrepreneurship: often there is no gain without a lot of pain)!

The museum also features exhibits including its collaborations with Disney, Maya Angelou and others to create unique cards, the J.C. Hall giant Christmas tree collection (with themes including folk art, the 12 days of Christmas, and even one with filled with ornaments made out of bread dough!). There's also a section about its international expansion and cards created for global audiences, and the Hallmark Channel movies (you can pose with an Emmy award). One of the fun exhibits at the museum was a machine to create a free bow, which we could see being made for us before it gave it to us!

Another tidbit we didn't realize is that Hallmark now owns Crayola, the famous crayon brand, and Hallmark cards today can be customized so that the recipient scans a QR code to see a personalized message from the sender. Maybe we'll try it one day. And it seems that bit of marketing could have worked on us, after all!

An Abandoned Castle

Still in Missouri is the Kansas City Workhouse, an abandoned prison castle that was built in 1897, putting inmates to work, including constructing the jail itself. The castle was abandoned in 1972 and not much has happened to it since, so it sits here as a curious relic of the past. It seemed that the castle is also an area that needs a bit of TLC, with houses also looking pretty forlorn in the area. Interestingly, the brewery across the road, Vine Street Brewing Co, also has similar stonework; it looks rather funky inside with a big entertainment space and artsy graffiti on the walls, so maybe this place is an up-and-comer in the near future.

On the same side as the Workhouse, on the corner, is another historical building: Kansas City Fire Station No. 11. In 1890, the first all Black fire company was established for the Kansas City Fire Department, and it stayed here until 1908. There's still a great mural on the garage door of the building too, showing 5 Black firemen enshrined in what looks like cool white flames. The area has a lot of Black history, with many awesome murals, and the Negroes League Baseball Museum nearby, which is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African American baseball.

Delicious Kansas BBQ

Since so many sights seem to be along the state borders, we went back into Kansas side (again), battling atrocious bumpy and pockmarked roads that were in a dire need of repair. We visited Jones Bar-B-Q, which made headlines for its vending machine where customers can buy BBQ items like beef sandwiches, chicken, turkey, ham and sauce 24/7. We arrived around lunchtime, so there was nothing in the vending machine. The people who worked there were absolutely lovely, giving us water on yet another hot day, asking if we'd been here before, and welcoming us warmly.

One of the BBQ items that is Kansas is specifically known for is "burned ends", a barbecue dish made from the fatty point of a smoked beef brisket, and charred to give it a crispy, smoky flavor. Michael ordered one on a sandwich with a side of baked beans. While we enjoyed the Joe's Bar-B-Que yesterday, Michael hands down declared that Jones Bar-B-Que was better. The BBQ was rich, scrumptious and deep in flavor. And while Lisette ate around the meat bits in the baked beans, she agreed that the baked beans were incredibly yummy as well, which were soaked in a delicious sweet sauce. 10/10 recommend to go out of your way to come here.

Truckhenge: A Quirky, Accidental Attraction

We had been planning to visit Lawrence, a city in northeast Kansas, but upon further research skipped it to and headed toward Topeka, Kansas' state capital. On the outskirts of Topeka is Truckhenge, an accidental tourist attraction that started when a judge told Ron Lessman to remove various junk vehicles, most of them trucks, from his farm. Ron responded by pouring cement into each vehicle and sticking them up at an angle, and decorating them with political and social graffiti. From here, Truckhenge Farm, a play on England's Stonehenge, was born.

Over the years, Ron and his wife Linda have added more pieces to the farm, including Boathenge (the boat equivalent of Truckhenge), Beer Bottle City (hundreds of beer and whiskey bottles that emit almost musical sounds when there's wind), and what Ron jokingly calls "Lost Souls" (a fence lined up with shoes, so maybe it's "Lost Soles").

We hadn't called in advance, hoping that we'd be lucky and Ron would be home. Ron was indeed at home, hanging out in his garage with one of his childhood friends, although we didn't know if it was him at first, as he wore a worn green t-shirt with "STAFF" scrawled on it in black Sharpie. The farm is a bit off the beaten path, and we tried to back our RV into his home to no avail, but parked around the corner of the house.

While the farm may be a bit overgrown in places, over the years Ron has made it a full-fledged operation, with a website, social media presence, and printed brochures. Beyond seeing all the different artwork made of various scraps (he had more paintings inside, and sculpted wooden faces from tree stumps at the front of the house, for example), Ron's farm--which has been in his family since the 1870s--is also available for camping, fishing, and outdoor events. Apparently he gets thousands of visitors a year from all over the world, and we weren't the first Aussies to stop by his curious attraction!

There's no fee to visit Truckhenge, although Ron accepts donations. We didn't see Linda and aren't sure if Ron has perhaps had some illness befall him in the last decade, but he's definitely less sprightly since this video of him and Linda from a decade ago. He's a bit more difficult to understand, and shuffled slowly as he gave us a tour of his farm. Fortunately, he hasn't lost any of the same humor and creativity he showed in this video, and he invited us to return with spray cans to contribute further to the messages painted on the vehicles in Truckhenge.

Topeka: A Huntoon, Murals and the Equality House

We planned to drive by Topeka and see some of the highlights. It was clear when we arrived that while there are some streets that look family friendly, with lovely big blocks with well-maintained houses, even a few blocks away there's an overt income gap, with other streets looking sketchier and more rundown.

The US and Australia definitely have a love affair with "World's Largest"-style sculptures, and we stopped by the world's largest wren, which was once high above the city of Lawrence's radio station, called WREN (geddit)? The wren is now in Topeka's Huntoon Park, near a busy traffic intersection, but we were able to stop not far from it and take a few photos.

Atlas Obscura had also recommended The Great Mural Wall of Topeka to us, which wraps around the corner of a grey concrete wall, showing images from the city's past and present. We have to admit that the photo in Atlas Obscura looked much better and more vibrant than what we saw in person. It had some lovely scenes on it, but needed to be reworked to have it beam again.

One of the most unusual places we passed, however, was the Equality House, which is painted in the Pride Flag's rainbow colors and is a symbol of compassion, peace, and positive change, serving as the resource center for all Planting Peace human rights initiatives. But that's not what's odd about it: it's bravely across the road from the Westboro Baptist Church (note: link is to the Anti-Defamation League, we're not linking to this "church's" website), a hate group that is violently homophobic and anti-Semitic. It's widely condemned, so much so that there's no option to leave a Google Review. You can, however, leave a positive one about the Equality House, and how it's withstood vandalism and bullets from the hateful folks and its supporters from across the road. Next door to the Equality House, there's now also the Transgender House, now called Mott House after Stephanie Mott, one of Kansas' most influential transgender activists.

The Oz Museum

One of the most enduring movies of all time is the Wizard of Oz, released in 1939. It's set somewhere in Kansas (although it's not clear exactly where in the state), so naturally Kansas is home to The Oz Museum, in the town of Wamego. It has over 2,000 artifacts, including the original book, costumes, props, and promotional materials from the movie, as well as subsequent adaptations.

There's a path (missed opportunity: it's not a Yellow Brick Road!) that guided us to see all the exhibits, and we loved seeing the life-sized figures of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion, while learning more about the behind-the-scenes of the film, and checking out all the costumes, props and memorabilia. One thing that's notably missing is Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers--it turns out that there are four pairs: 2 are at museums (including the Smithsonian), one is with a private buyer, while the last one was stolen, found, then sold for $28 million(!) at an auction last year to an unknown buyer. The museum also has a small theatre where you can sit and watch the entire Wizard of Oz movie for the day.

Across the road from the Oz Museum, there's an archway to the Yellow Brick Road (yay, we didn't miss it!) which has Wizard of Oz artwork all along the walls. It leads to a little bakery that is adorned with all sorts of ruby red shoes and slippers. What's also adorable about Wamego is that there are lots of Toto sculptures around the town, painted in all sorts of colors and designs. The streets were also lined with US flags, gearing up for its 4th of July parade tomorrow.

The Worst Water Dump Design

Leaving Wamego, we dumped our grey/black water at a Sapp Bros. Travel Center, a truck stop. By far the worst RV water dump design, as the sewerage was ABOVE our pump, which meant that the dump didn't just flow straight down the drain. Plus, there was a hole in the drain, which meant that the dump water was leaking a bit, coming toward us! Ughhhhhh... It was the slowest process to have to periodically lift and jiggle the pipe to get everything down the drain.

While we appreciate having free water refill and dump stations, what's interesting is that just because you can dump somewhere, doesn't mean you can get potable water refills at the same place, and vice versa. We ended up driving for another 32 kilometers (20 miles) to the next truck stop, where we refilled on potable water and stayed for the night. There was an RV park right next door, but we didn't need any hookups, so we stayed for free! The only downside (besides the heat, always the heat these days), was that as it's Independence Day tomorrow, people were already setting off fireworks in the evening. We'll have to make sure we stay well and truly away from the celebrations tomorrow night.

Route Map