Highway 281 Milespost 1043 - 1379

Oops!  I forgot my log book and map in the car and I am already settled in my hotel room with my shoes off and I don't feel like getting dressed again to get it!  So tonight, you get narrative and photos without mileposts.

Left Great Bend, KS this morning and my first stop was at the Saline River where the water had cut through the stone to expose these cliffs.  This is similar (but not the red stone) that I mentioned in yesterday's blog with the silver colored stone layers.

Am I beginning to hallucinate or what?  Yesterday I saw shark fins in the field and today.....the Statue of Liberty?  Yes, this fair lady sculpture was put on the roadside by the Kansas Boy Scouts association in honor of our freedoms and liberty.  Nice touch!

Next I found some Longhorn Cattle to show you.

Just a mile off Hwy 281 and north of Lebanon, KS is the geographic center of the continental (Lower 48) states.

It was so peaceful there, no other people.  Even had a small 6' x 8' chapel if you wanted to meditate.  I felt so blessed to be able to be in the center of the USA and so centered in my life and on this journey!

In Nebraska, I am seeing more crops and irrigation systems

Near Ayr, Nebraska, I crossed over the Oregon Trail and the Pony Express trail.  This time I did not see any ruts to walk in.  

Did you know  that the Pony Express only lasted 18 months?  The railroads kept growing westward and put the Pony Express out of business.

My main stop today was the Stuhr museum in Grand Island.

The museum has so many items pertaining to the plains Indians and cowboys from the late 1800's and early 1900's collected by a local resident.  The variety and quality of the items was superb.  Here is a stirrup made with a heart on it.  Must have been a lovelorn cowboy who created this pair. :)

Besides the museum, they had buildings brought in from surrounding countryside and towns and set them up to resemble "Railroad City, Nebraska" in 1894.   Most of  buildings had guides dressed in period garb and and gave info and answered questions.  Excellent place to visit!

Here's an old bathtub.

How would you like to type on this everyday?

They even had a Lutheran church that they moved to this site.

Some states (like Texas) have a lot of "Historical Markers"   If a person were to stop at each one, it would take weeks to just drive through Texas.  Now, I have noticed that Kansas and Nebraska have very few markers along 281, so when I see one I have stopped.  If not, I would have missed the Oregon Trail marker and I would have missed this one.  

I have seen several signs along the way stating "American Legion Memorial Highway."  However, I thought it was just one state that had designated this highway that way.  Here, I find out it's a national designation.  Maybe I should see if I can sell my Highway 281 story to an American Legion periodical.  Hmmm!

Tonight I rest my head in O'Neill, "The Irish Capital of Nebraska."  :)

Highway 281 Milepost 710 - 1043

Sorry about this long post covering 300+ miles.  I finally did get into the blog last night, but it took almost an hour to download one photo, so I gave up!

Milepost 710   Went to the Museum of the Great Plains in the morning.  This is getting to be like the movie, "Groundhog Day."   I had typed on my itinerary that museum opened at 8:00.  Wrong!  They open at 10:00 and so I gave another person my "sob story."  She agreed to open up the galleries if I could give her until 9:00 am.  I went out side and took pictures of the fort they had recreated out there. 

Reminds me of the old westerns!

Inside the gallery.... an display of making saddles.  A lot of tools & time.

A lot of interesting displays

Milepost 774  Binger, OK  "Home of Johnny Bench"  Who is he?  Johnny Bench played for Reds from 1967 - 83 and was nicknamed the The Binger Banger.   Don't you just love Google?   :)

Milepost 778  Red Rock Canyon State Park

 Took a couple of hikes...one to the top of the rocks to see the ruts made by the wagons going on the California Trail.

The darker sections are the wheel ruts

Also found a hole in the rocks 

Milepost 787   Took a side trip down Route 66 to Weatherford, OK to the Stafford Space Museum.  Tom Stafford, hometown boy, was a celebrated NASA astronaut on three outer space missions.  Here's a jump suit he wore for training.

There was soooo much in this museum.  One of the things that surprised me was that Tom Stafford's tool of choice to bring on missions was a good old Swiss Army knife!  

Milepost 880   All of sudden the terrain changed from rolling fields to gullys and wash-out exposing red rock with gray layers.  It was very interesting and I wanted to take a photo, but the highway 281 was very narrow then and no place to pull off. I figured this terrain would go for a while and sooner or later, I would get a photo.  Nope!  Lasted about 2 miles and l never saw that again  (so far).  Good thing I took a picture in my mind!

Milepost 890   Little Sahara, OK   I thought it was a joke, but then in the distance I could see sand dunes and lots of 4-wheelers out there.  

Milepost 921   Alva, OK  rest for the night.

Milepost 936   Kansas

The small town version of skyscraper are the grain elevators.

Milepost  942  Oil rigs right in the middle of wheat fields

Somewhere close to this I saw a pasture stock tank run by a solar panel generator!

Milepost  960   Medicine Lodge, KS  Home of Carrie Nation, radical Temperance leader

Milepost 991  Pratt, KS  Home of Hot and Cold Water Tanks??

Milepost 1000  Seeing crops other than predominantly wheat.

Milepost 1021  As I am driving up the road, I think, "Looks like shark fins in the field."  Then I saw the guy.....just had to turn around and take a picture of this LOL moment.

Milepost 1029  Took a long side trip to Larned, KS.  Stopped at the Santa Fe Center Museum describing the trail and its uses over the years.  Out back they had a recreated sod house.

Here's the inside. 

Then I went to Fort Larned, military post from 1859 - 1878.  Learned something very interesting (see below).  It should not surprise me how media (TV and Movies) have influenced our perceptions on what a fort looks like and what happened in the western movement.

The fort has all original buildings, to me that is awesome.  It was a beautiful day to visit the fort.

This was only a fourth of the buildings.  Below are the officers headquarters

This fort was put together so well and had so many exhibits and stories that you felt like you were there.  I spent almost two hours here, so much to see and read!

For my medical friends, here's an old stretcher.

The only buildings with port holes for guns were in the south buildings where  they may get an attack. 

Five miles from the fort was a preserved 10 acres that shows the ruts of the Santa Fe trail.  It is also home now to a village of prairie dogs.  

Next I drove up to LaCrosse to see the Barbed Wire Museum.  I went to the Chisholm (Cattle Drive) museum a couple of days ago and I learned that cattle drives were primarily stopped by farmers/ranches using barbed wire fences.  

Barbed wire is a farmer/rancher's friend that killed cattle drives and killed the cowboy.  With cattle being contained within fences, there was not the need for cowboys.

Did you know there are over 2500 patents for barbed wire?  Below is photo of just a few on display.

Milepost 1043   Great Bend, KS  home of Jack Kilby who invented  the microchip!  I learn something new every day!

His statue is in front of the county court house....beautiful white building!

Well, that's the past two days of travel.  I must publicly thank my husband for letting me take this trip....there are some men who wouldn't let their very capable and dependable wives do this for all the tea in China!  I have so enjoyed walking in the ruts of the historic California and Santa Fe trails.  There are so many more historic places that I plan to visit in Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.  Feeling so blessed and yet eager to see what's on the road ahead!

Highway 281 Milepost 590 - 710

Milepost 590  - Jacksboro, TX.  Arrived at Fort Richardson State Park at 8:01 am after eating half of my humongous cinnamon roll. The park opened at 8:00 am so needless to say I was the first visitor.  The "ranger" told me that the buildings in the fort did not open until 10 am, I gave out a big sigh!!!  Oh woe is me!  Another ranger said, "Let me get my paperwork in and I'll meet you up there shortly."  So I had a personal tour of Fort Richardson!  

Fort Richardson was active from 1867 - 1878, focusing on protecting the settlers coming into the area from the Indians.  "There were three major Indian campaigns and hundreds of scouts and patrols were launched, resulting in three troopers and an estimated 150 hostiles being killed in action."

There are five structures still standing from the original fort and another two or three recreated structures.   Below is the officer's barracks and the commanding officer's home in the background.

Below is the enlisted men's barracks with double bunk beds, designed for 2 soldiers on top and bottom bunks.

Here's a photo of the hospital, the largest building in the fort.

Below is brace for a broken collar bone.  They found it didn't work at all.  Imagine that?

The most interesting thing about the hospital was the indoor latrine.  

It has wooden drawers of sand under the holes.... when the job was done, there another bucket of "clean" sand that you take a couple scoops and put over your business.  Then they would put a chunk of charcoal in the drawer to take away some of the smell.  I have been to a lot of museums in this country and this is the first latrine of this sort I ever have seen. 

As I was entering the fort grounds I say some deer and I caught them on the way out.  The prickly pear cactus are blooming too.

Jacksboro also on the Butterfield Overland Stage route from St. Louis to California.  It was in operation from 1857 - 1861.

Milepost 594   Saw wind turbines on one side of the road and an oil rig on the other side. 

Milepost 624 First sighting of Holstein cows!  This area was a beautiful area of north Texas.  Small towns surrounded by farm land.  

Milepost 631  Found an old barn that just begged me to take it's picture (or two)!

Milepost ???   Wichita Falls, TX  Oops! Forgot to write at which milepost I was.  Finally found the "World's Littlest Skyscraper." Apparently built as a "marketing" ploy.  If it is 10 feet wide, I'd be surprised!

Milepost 666  Oklahoma!

Milepost 710   Lawton, OK.  Took a detour to Duncan (30 miles east) and toured the Chisholm Trail Museum.  Lots of information on the trails and a lot of interactive displays for kids and adults too! I saw two grown men in the whole western garb including boots and hats doing some of the activities.  I have to admit I did the activities too.  The best part was an IMAX-type  of film on the cattle drives.  I came out of that with two thumbs up saying "Totally awesome!"  But then again, I love my westerns!

Below are the seven families of long horns, as you can see some have straight horns and others have curved horns. 

The cattle driven along the Chisholm trail came from various areas of Texas, however the Rio Grande Valley (where I live) was one of starting points in the USA.

Next stop was in Lawton at the Commanche National Museum.  There was "no photography allowed" there, but it was so interesting.  The Code Talkers were Commanche Indians from this area that served mainly in WW II as radio men. They would speak in their native language to avoid being intercepted by the Germans.  The museum did a great job of giving a background on these men, as well as the Commanches.  The Commanches were the super horsemen and build their tribes and strength by using the Pinto horse.  Here's the statue in front of the museum. 

Another museum to see in the morning and then it's on the road again! Now, I can go over to the casino next door, ah, for dinner  ... my husband gave me "permission"..... since I've been "so lucky" on this trip! 

Highway 281 Milepost 300 - 590

My decision to wing-it in getting motel room might have bit me a bit!  :)
Just got connection to my blog now and it's time for bed.  I think I was still so excited about this trip last night, but I slept very poorly.  Even got up at 3 am to look at map!

Milepost   365  Johnson City, TX  - the hometown of President Lyndon B. Johnson.  Toured his boyhood home, learned a lot about his family and saw a great film about his presidency.  Here's a few photos from home. 

Lyndon's mother was a college graduate and did quite a bit of tutoring in their home.  Here's a photo that was displayed in their home.

Quite gruesome looking, isn't it?  Now take a look of the close-up of the same photo.

Now do you see the lady looking in the mirror?  Mrs. Johnson kept this on  display to always remind her children that things are not always what they seem at first glance.  Wise woman!

Johnson's four plus years in office were very busy for him.  The civil rights law was signed in 1964; Medicare and Medicaid went into effect in 1965.  In his first two years in office, he signed over 200 laws that affected the environment; foreign affairs; arts and humanities; space program; health; consumer protection and civil rights.  I have already seen his ranch about 15 miles west of Johnson City, also very interesting.  

Milepost 387  Marble Falls - A long-time friend, upon hearing about my trip, told me "you have to get 'the largest cinnamon roll in Texas' at the Blue Bonnet cafe."  So I got there about 11:40 am and there was already a waiting line.  I ordered lunch and a cinnamon roll to go.  If you can, look at the photo on facebook.  I will have this roll tomorrow as this motel does not provide a breakfast.  Looking forward to that treat.  

Milepost 402 New Road!  I have traveled Highway 281 up until this point, now I'm truly in new territory!

Milepost 411  Saw my first dead armadillo on the side of road.  

Milepost 420   Ranch gates are created unique to the owner and I have seen a lot of different gates in our travels. Below is one that is not very ornate, but the scene was beautiful to me.

Milepost 457  Evant, TX   This row of storefronts were right along the highway.  They look so empty, forlorn and rejected.

I passed through intermittent rain storms most of the day and I took this photo of the back end of the storm after I got through it.

So excited, still  a lot of wildflowers in the ditches!  

Milepost 510  Stephenville, TX
Very nice town with a small park dedicated to old (some recreated) buildings.  You didn't think I could go a day without taking a few photos of buildings, now did you?  After the rain storms, this church with the blue sky looked so beautiful to me.

Here is one of log homes.  I liked the reflection in the window.

Milepost 525  Saw my second dead armadillo.  

Milepost 555   Mineral Wells, TX.  From the size of this town, I expected a lot more than deserted buildings and a very run-down downtown.  Sad!  They did have signs on the lampposts, "Keep Mineral Wells Crazy - Stop, Shop & Stay."  I figured it was a copy-cat version of Keep Austin Weird!  But then I remembered that Crazy Water that bottled the mineral water for years was part of  this town's history.

Milepost 590  Jacksboro, TX  Another friend suggested I go to a Mexican restaurant (Casa Grande) here and I did  for dinner.  Very good! 

So now I'm stuffed to the gills and need to get sleep so that I can eat my cinnamon roll tomorrow!  And I still have half a bag of Twizzlers left.