A year with my sister, a lesson in survival, sanity and/or stupidity: Kansas continued

Leaving Oklahoma we did a U-turn and headed north to take in the eastern side of Kansa before checking out Nebraska. We had a later than planned start due to an electrical fault with the 7-pin connector between the pickup and the fifth wheel. Minor repair job sorted, all swearing stopped, good humour restored and we were on our way.

Our first port of call was Big Brutus in West Mineral. Getting to Big Brutus turned out to be a bit of mission. We entered the NW 60^th Road from the western end however between us and Big Brutus was a railway overbridge that was too low for us to go under ergo we had to reverse back up the road (negatives: gravel, up a hill, narrow; positives: not raining, no other traffic) and find a turn around spot. We did and, undaunted by the deep drainage ditch either side of the driveway, expertly (a bit of license here) backed into it and turned around. I’m sure the train driver backed the train up especially to see our flash manoeuvres. Sadly (for you) no photos of that but these ones of Big Brutus will go a short way to make up for it.

Look closely for two teeny tiny people down by the crawlers -
that's Jean & Sue

If I just move this over here I can scoop up all the tourists

The only way to access Big Brutus once he was operating -
one very small elevator. Not for claustrophobes.

This old dumpy in slightly better nick than
some of the ones Sue has operated

We were hoping to get to Topeka but with our late start and unscheduled detour we stopped overnight in the town of Iola. Love those Walmart car parks. Drove past this house in Topeka. The story has it that the hydrants were put in to stop the neighbourhood dogs peeing in the yard – must be a lot of dogs in that neighbourhood.

Dog heaven - a hydrant every few steps

Matrot Castle

Visited Matrot castle. Actually a house built in the design of a French chateau. The current owners no longer run the tours, something they hope to change in the future so had to make do with the reception area and the outside. The original owners even had an escape tunnel from the cellar but that has since been filled in and the turrets original use were as gun ports – the owners were French political refugees and paranoid about assassins following them from Europe which is why they built in the middle of USA. Will have to earmark that one to revisit one day. Would love to see the whole house, what we saw was just a teaser.

Interior of Matrot Castle

Leaving Topeka we headed to Kansas City (Kansas City here we come, they got some crazy little women there … you have to know that old song to understand that line but we either added to that number or introduced a little sanity. You know us, you decide).

Ever wonder how they get the coloured swirls inside marbles? Keep wondering. We know now but we ain’t telling. Visited Moon Marble Company in Bonner Springs where Ernie gave us a demonstration on marble making. He makes it look so easy. Check out these tasty little numbers too but mind your dentures.

His name was Ernie ... and he made the fastest marbles in the West

Mmmmm, chocolate

From Bonner Springs it was a quick hop into Kansas City to have lunch at Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant where the meals are delivered by model train. This restaurant started in 1954 – I remember reading about it as a kid in one of the old Valiant Annuals in the 70’s and thinking “Wow!” at the time. So amazed that it was still operating so of course we had to go there. We weren’t disappointed.

Pick up the phone, order your meal then await the fun

Take your order out of the box and munch away
- drinks are still delivered manually though

Inner child completely satisfied we then ventured from Kansas City, Kansas to Kansas City, Missouri. Clearly the inner child wasn’t 100% satisfied as we had to visit such sights as a DC3 taking off from a building, a hair museum, a whole city block of giant books and a large concrete soccer ball. Then and only then was the inner child completely satisfied … for that day anyway.