Evidently we have not had enough of driving lately, so we set out this morning to see a couple of local attractions.
Sixty two miles northwest of Salina, we checked out the Worlds Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, Kansas.
In 1953, Frank Stoeber stumbled over some loose twine and gathered it up to burn. Twine is a useful commodity on the prairie, so Frank changed his mind and wound it up, starting a ball. OCD Frank has a ball 7' 5" in diameter by 1956, weighing 1,035 pounds. In 1961, Cawker City celebrated its centennial and Franks' Ball is brought to town for the parade. It's left on display next to the post office for the year. In 1973, The Guinness Book of World Records awards Franks Ball the title of Worlds Largest.
Immediately, the Wall Street Journal wrote a scathing article about Kansas tourism and singled out Franks Ball for particular ridicule. Unfortunately for WSJ, the article sparked more interest in the ball and tourism in Cawker City increased dramatically. In 1978, Francis Johnson of Darwin, Minnesota contested the title of World's Largest Ball of Twine and wins. By 1982, an annual "Twine-a-thon" had increased the size of the ball to 40' 3"and it regained the title of World's Largest.
Across the street from The World's Largest Ball of Twine is a cool old gas station, now used as the entrance to a motel!
A bit west got us to the hamlet of Downs, where we turned south on Kansas 181, to see some of the most beautiful prairie we've yet seen.
As we stopped beside the road to soak in the complete silence (except for the chirping of the red-winged blackbirds), we noticed a slowly building rumbling kind of noise.
With a wave as he passed, the operator zoomed by us!
We stopped for a quick lunch at a roadside rest area showcasing the limestone double arch bridge at Spillman Creek.
The bridge was constructed in 1908 of quarried limestone from the area. The south arch is 20 feet in diameter and the north arch is 24 feet in diameter. In 1993, the state moved the roadway to the west to remove sharp curves. It was in daily use until that time, a testament to it's construction.
In Wilson, the Czech Capital of Kansas, we pulled up in front of The World's Largest Czech Egg! Czech eggs are painted or embellished and exchanged at holidays or Easter as a symbol of good things to come, friendship, and love.
Wilson's Czech culture began in 1874, when it's first Czech settler arrived. Thousands of his kinsmen and women had already settled in the plains, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and Francis J. Swehia used Czech newspapers across the us to spread word of a "Czech Settlement" offering cheap land, rich soil, access to water, and building stone. Wilson is in Rock County, and the ready supply of limestone was used in many of Wilson's buildings. The sod houses first used by new arrivals soon gave way to stone houses.
Smaller decorated eggs are scattered around downtown. We found several.
One of the downtown limestone building has not successfully stood the test of time....
Wilson has a large cemetery that has not been in use for a long time, but has many elaborate monuments to Czech immigrants. Out of respect we did not photograph them, but this memorial to Civil War casualties was so well done, we had to get a photo.
On the way back to the motorhome, we remembered that a friend had asked us to stop at Jenni's Liquor in Brookville, KS. The attraction is the wall branded by local ranchers and signed by most of the store's customers"s.
Back at camp, 227 miles later, we settled in for a comfortable evening. The Salina KOA is a nice enough rv park, with many trees that would be welcome in the hot Kansas summer. Kinda shaky for the satellite antenna, though. We've had a bird friend that seems to think that his/her reflection in the chrome motorhome step is a lifelong companion. There is a bit of mess to attest to that!
So I guess we took a draw and came up three of a kind. Nice day!
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