A Full-time Life

LIBERAL

This FLASHBACK to our summer roadtrip is linked to SIGNS SIGNS.  Thank you Lesley for hosting!

As Dorothy remarked to Toto in "The Wizard of Oz", I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.  But we were there in June.  On last summer's roadtrip we stayed overnight in the town of Liberal....in the middle of Kansas, which is in the middle of the country. 

When we checked into the RV Park, the host/owner handed us this Chamber of Commerce pamphlet.  She said "Don't worry -- Liberal isn't named that because of it's political leanings."  I said "Oh, that's too bad, because that's why we decided to stay here."  (It wasn't really ... we just stopped because it was time to get off the road for the night  ... but I hated that she apparently assumed our politics would be conservative.) 

(The pamphlet explained that Liberal is named after an old friendly expression, where people instead of saying "thanks a lot" would say "that's mighty liberal of you."   I'd never heard of that expression before, but oh well.)

Liberal claims to be the town where Dorothy lived with her Auntie Em and Uncle Henry.  (Really, the town isn't named in the book or movie, all we know is that is in Kansas.)   Since both book and movie were childhood favorites, "we" had to drop by the town's theme park on our way out of town the next morning.  (Well, I had to and Bill had to drive me there.) 

 
I was sadly disappointed (I don't know what I expected from a tiny town out in the middle of nowhere the country) but I guess cardboard cutouts and yellow-painted bricks with sponsors' names on them just didn't quite live up to my expectations.   

So we were quickly off following our own yellow-brick concrete road on the way to the next stop.

ALONG THE SIDE OF THE ROAD

  When we're traveling, we take the back roads as often as we possibly can.  It's always more interesting than the freeway and sometimes you stumble across something so crazy-wonderful that you just have to jump out and take a picture.  How could you resist this record-breaker?  The world's largest ball of twine is on Main Street in Cawker, Kansas. 

I guess collecting string is as good a thing to do as any if you live in nearly deserted Cawker.      

Cawker is pretty close to the middle of the country.  But the actual exact center is in Lebanon, Kansas.  That's the marker on the left.

Here are a couple other interesting places for short stops.  Both are a little more touristy and a lot more well-known than Cawker.  But just about as kitschy. 

This is the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.  All surfaces of the building, including temple-like domes, are artistically covered with dried corn and other area crops.  There's been a different theme each year.  Except I recently read that last year they couldn't redecorate because of the terrible drought conditions of 2006. 

For some reason, until we visited, I'd always thought that the Palace was just a decorated facade, but it is actually a fully-functioning meeting/convention/entertainment arena. 

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/SDMITcorn.html

Wall Drug in Mitchell, SD, is a hoot.  Jackalopes, animatronic bands, western gifts, fake TRex, and all.  It was fun to read about this family business though.  The owner of this little country drug store wasn't doing too well way out here in the sticks.  His wife suggested he offer free ice water as a way to entice highway travelers to stop and through word of mouth, the business took off.  Now the store offers a lot more entertainment.  And a lot of things to buy that you wouldn't necessarily expect to see at a drug store.  But they still offer the free ice water.   Wall Drug signs show up all over the world.

http://www.walldrug.com/

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Spud Break!  This sign on the school grounds at Fremont, Idaho made us slam on the brakes.  We knew, of course, about "Idaho's Famous Potatoes" and we knew it was harvest time because the very air smelled like a potato cellar as we drove that day. We did not know that harvest-time is still such a big deal in the area that school lets out so the kids can help.