Kansas City was a good stop but it didn’t take long and we were heading to Gary & Sharyl’s place in Wichita. Gary and I served aboard HMAS Perth in 1974 and he now lives south of Wichita, Kansas. It will be our last stop before we head back to Townsville for a Xmas break leaving our car and caravan with them. This also was probably the longest stretch of road we’ve done since setting off from Florida 4 months ago. On the Historic Map photo I have circled KC, Wichita and another interesting spot, the geographic centre of mainland USA. To get to Wichita we have to cross the Flint Hills plains. It reminds us of a grassy “Hay Plains” of NSW. Miles of nothing but pretty just the same. Wichita was once the nation’s leading city in numbers of aircraft produced with the names Lear, Beechcraft, Boeing, Raytheon Aircraft, Cessna, Spirit, Bombardier and more all having a presence in the city. McConnell AFB is here also.
We made the house in good time and found Gary busy at work in his workshop where he does, amongst other things very nice wood engravings. It didn’t take long and we were on the back veranda catching up over a quiet drink (or two). We had about 9 days in Wichita until we flew out back to Oz and in that time Gary & Sharyl had a few things in line for us. One of these was a trip to a college basketball scrimmage. The team is the Wichita State University “Shockers”. A ‘scrimmage’ is a pre-season session within the club rather than a game against opposition. The scrimmage gives everyone (fans, team, cheer squad, hall staff etc) a chance to do a test run before the real season starts. Even so the event was well attended and pretty noisy. It would be deafening to be there with a full house and opposition to scream at. Check the video we took here.
On another day we did a drive around town visiting the confluence of the Big and Little Arkansas Rivers and the Mid-American Indian dedications there. The Indian statue there lights up at night when they light the fires surrounding it. Particularly interesting is the photo showing a demo “Indian Picture Story”. We also looked downtown and stopped at the “World Market” where we will be stocking up on Bundaberg soft drinks before we leave Wichita in January.
I think Wichita was happy to see us because until we got there they had little rainfall but we changed that. One morning we arose early to do a run to Hutchinson to see the Strataca Salt Mine and the Cosmosphere. The rainbow promised good weather and despite a low temp it did clear for us. That’s all well and good except we’d be underground for most of the day in the mine. On the way we stopped at Carriage Crossing for breakfast. It is a regular stop out this way and there were tractors and buggies with horses parked about the place as a number of Amish residents were also enjoying the early morning fare. (Their Cinnamon Rolls were huge but we managed to defeat them). On the road again it wasn’t long before the salt mine head came into view.
The mining itself takes place at 650 feet below the surface. Alternate layers of salt and mud are retrieved constantly in this still operational mine in much the same manner as coal mining. We got to tour past diggings with the only rule, “Don’t lick the salt”. What strikes you immediately you exit the blackness of the lift is the magnitude of the mine. It is huge at about 300,000 sq feet (2.8 hectares and that’s just the tourist accessible area). All up the mining company removes around half a million tons of salt per year from a salt bed measured to be 100,000 sq miles (Victoria is 92,000 sq miles). The tour is self-paced unless you request a guide and is very hands-on interactive. There are two different motorised trips worth the ride through areas unable to be visited by tourists on foot. Also in the mine is a repository of valuable items including many Hollywood memorabilia. Costumes and props from, Matrix, Men in Black, The Monument Men and even original Star Wars celluloid reels are locked in (but visible for your inspection) this low temp, low humidity secure facility. My personal favourite was a genuine copy of the New York Herald dated 16 April, 1865 in which there was a macabre but riveting, minute by minute record as noted by the doctor of President Abraham Lincoln as he lay dying following his assassination by John Wilkes Booth. If you are guessing that we enjoyed this tour then you are correct. It was mightily interesting and we can highly recommend it.
At the completion of the salt mine tour we proceeded on to Hutchinson to the Cosmosphere . This affiliate museum to the Smithsonian Institution began in 1962 and has grown to a wonderfully inspirational museum/planetarium. It houses many genuine artefacts and tells the tale of the space race in surprising honesty. I have never seen a museum like this so freely admit that America made mistakes and lagged behind the Russians in the race to space.
Again, like all good exhibitions, it knocks your socks off with an entrance that makes you take a step back. You are instantly required to duck under the fuselage of a flown SR-71 Blackbird which then causes you to look slightly upwards at the Space Shuttle Endeavour. After spending so much time in the salt mine we could only tour the museum/gallery which tales you from the early German attempts to make rockets (eg V-Rockets) to current day space exploration. There is much to see (I don’t know how a section of the Berlin Wall got in there but it is there!) and explore and we took several hundred photos here. I will leave you to view these.
The final 4 pics in the above gallery are of our last days with Gary & Sharyl and our departure from Wichita to Dallas then onwards to Australia. We are now home in Townsville for Xmas but will return on December 29th to continue our USA trip. Watch for the next blog which I hope to post soon. I will summarise the entire 6 months of this part of our tour and maybe even predict where we’ll head in future. Till then Cheers.
Garry and Shane.
Well I got to catch up after my short sabatical, a very good lead up to interval for this great journey. Have a good Xmas and look forward to the rest of the adventure……