Gotta Drive #772

Yesterdays day trip put an additional 221 miles on the car. Not enough. We left the motorhome this late morning intending to stay in Goodland and check out a couple of local interests. Our first stop was the High Plains Museum on Cherry Avenue. 

The museum showcases 100 years of high plains history and contains over 8,000 artifacts. One of the most interesting items is the first patented helicopter invented. The story goes like this: In 1909, six years after the flights of the Wright Flyer, William Purvis, a mechanic for the Rock Island Railroad in Goodland, watched some children playing with a whirligig and got an idea to build a machine that could fly low and slow to deliver freight and mail. The device utilized two counter-rotating paddles to counteract the rotational forces that occur with spinning blades and was mounted to a three wheel bicycle. Local lore has it that the Rock Island machine shop unknowingly contributed parts....

Two seven horsepower engines were obtained with donations from Goodland townspeople and a demonstration was planned in the town square. Depending on the folklore that you listen to, either of three things happened: The craft tore itself apart after lifting a few inches, or, the craft flew with Mr. Purvis aboard, but could not be controlled and soon crashed, or, Mr. Purvis was able to lift off, but flew directly into the town water tower, sending debris and water over the gathered crowd. Take your pick. Interestingly enough, just after the flight failure, the US Patent Office issued a patent for the rotary winged aircraft. 

The museum has a recreation of the craft, based on the patent drawings, and we wanted to see it. No Go. The museum is closed on Tuesdays!

Strike 1

Our next stop was the NOAA office just north of town. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency maintains a facility in Goodland that monitors weather throughout the midwest, using radar and sophisticated imaging systems.

Ok, the facility normally gives tours, but doesn't at the moment due to the 'Vid.

Strike 2.

A stop at Good Grounds for a cup of coffee (ok, a mocha and a salted caramel latte) to soothe our bruised feelings led to a thought of finishing the Sky to Land byway tour that we started yesterday. The 211 miles we drove yesterday evidently wasn't enough, so off we went south of Goodland toward Sharon Springs.

The terrain smoothed out and we remarked that we could probably see Missouri if we knew where to look!

Arriving in Sharon Springs, we saw why the town is so successful. It has two grain and fertilizer facilities!

Heading east on what is called the Western Vistas byway, we happened upon this lonely tree.

Going through the hamlet of Winona, Kansas, On US 40, we noticed this abandoned school? Church? It is a symbol of the decline of the main streets of so many of these midwestern towns.

In Monument, Kansas, just before we turned north on Kansas 20, we noticed an historical point of interest that details the Butterfield Overland Despatch Stagecoach Line that connected Kansas City and Denver through this area. Check it out.

Near the town of Colby, where we expected to intersect I 70, we caught a glimpse of the wind turbine enterprise in Kansas. It's said that a carpenter was asked how he carried a sheet of plywood in the average 15 mph wind. His reply was "what wind?"

Which gives rise to the famous anecdote that the only thing to stop the wind between the Arctic and the Gulf of Mexico is a barbed wire fence in Kansas.

I 70 is undergoing improvements (?), which are evident in the new striping on the road between Colby and Goodland.

So, after another 146 miles, we returned to the motorhome to do a few chores and some more laundry before leaving tomorrow morning. It's been a good stop.