Giant Buffalo Bill and Buffalo

  The statues are located on a small hill at the Buffalo Bill Cultural Center. The cultural center is really just a visitor center with  Kansas state maps, brochures, and a  gift shop but it’s one of the nicest ones that we’ve seen, featuring plush seating, free WiFi, and free coffee. A large interpretive panel outside has historical information about Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley.

  The visitor center and the interpretive panel are accessible.  A long ADA compliant ramp climbs up to the base of the statue.

The parking lot is large enough for any RV. Cultural Center  39.12682, -100.86917

Winona City Park

   Another little city park. This one doesn’t have signs identifying it as a campground for travelers but I found a couple of comments on the internet about staying overnight so we decided to try it. Long haul truckers park on the road closet to US 40 so we stayed on the opposite side of the park near the grain elevators. This may be a noisy place at times but we spent a peaceful Saturday night and went on our way the next morning. Winona  39.05759, -101.24524

Downs City Park

   As we drove across Kansas we noticed that almost every little town has a city park right along the highway. They all are similar in design - a road looping off the highway and running for about 1000’ before returning to the highway. They have trees and a rectangle of grass with picnic tables. Some have electricity. Some are free, other have a small fee.

  Downs City Park has restrooms, picnic tables, a playground, basketball court, volleyball court, Little League field, and free electric hookups. We plugged in to the electricity on the power pole and spotted more outlets on the fence posts. Stay limit is three days. Park  39.50899, -98.54148

The World's Largest Ball of Sisal Twine

      Apparently there’s a quite a competition to have the largest ball of twine, however, Cawker, Kansas will always be the winner because people can walk right up to Cawker’s ball of twine and, most importantly, they can add more twine to it! In fact, every August the town sponsors a "Twine-a-thon". :-D

  The shelter that houses the ball of twine is accessed by steps but the ball can be easily seen without leaving your vehicle.

  The parking lot is large enough for any RV. Don’t miss the restored gas station across US 24 from the ball of twine. It’s a one room hotel!  Twine  39.50921, -98.43381

Cloud County Historical Museum

       Arriving on a Friday afternoon, we found a locked door even though, according the the information online, the museum should have been opened.  Just as we were ready to drive away the curator came out and offered to give us a tour. The tour was a little rushed because she was involved in a big project but we managed to get a peek at most of the exhibits – lots of items donated by local residents including some from the WWII German POW camp located a couple of miles from Concordia, Kansas.

 

   A wheelchair lift accesses both floors of the museum.

   All of the parking is diagonal on-the-street. It’s okay to park across the spaces. Museum  39.57073, -97.65911

Marysville City Park

  The park has four RV sites and a large grassy tent camping area. All of the sites have electricity. There’s a dump station with a potable water faucet nearby. It’s all free with a stay limit of five days.

   The sites are just gravel areas along the side of the park road with a curb that must be hopped. We were surprised at how many RVs were crowded into the four sites. Since the RVs sites were filled we parked in the playground parking lot. Park  39.83784, -96.64633

 

Davis Memorial

    As a tribute to his wife after her death (or as rumor has it - to spend all the money they had saved together so that her family would not inherit anything when he died), John Davis built an elaborate memorial in the Mount Hope Cemetery, outside the little Kansas town of Hiawatha. Ten statues of John and Sarah Davis in different stages of life are surrounded by a high marble and granite wall. Sarah is missing from the last depiction of John with an empty chair beside him signifying her death in 1930.  John died in 1947 at 92 years old. The people of Hiawatha were angry that John spent so much money, estimated at $200,000, on the memorial when he could have funded community projects such as a hospital or swimming pool. Very few attended his funeral services.

     

The wall is so high that it’s impossible to see much from a seated position.

There’s a pull out adjacent to the memorial where RVs can be parked. Memorial  39.84913, -95.51598

Seward County Historical Museum & Dorothy's House

   A young tour guide dressed as Dorothy leads visitors through a small farm house furnished as it would have been in the early 20th century and explains what life was like before the invention of modern conveniences. The tour continues to the Land of Oz where Dorothy enthusiastically acts out scenes from the movie and ends in a room of artifacts – some real, some replicas.

   This is a very unpolished attraction from the humorously awkward plywood characters outside to the repurposed store mannequins and the almost unrecognizable tinman in the Land of Oz. Don’t expect a lot - it’s all part of the fun!

   The museum and Dorothy’s house are located next to each other. Go to the museum to pay admission and sign up for a tour of the house and Land of Oz. The museum features old photographs and donated historic artifacts.

   Dorothy’s house is accessed by a ramp but there’s a short step up at the threshold. The Land of Oz building has a step up at the entrance and down at the exit. The museum has a ramp and a high threshold at the entrance. The second floor is accessed by stairs only.

   The parking lot is large enough for cars only but RVs can be parked on the street or in the gravel lot north of the museum on East Cedar Street. House   37.03446, -100.91028

Davis Park

  The  camping area is a grassy lot on the southeast side of the park. There’s enough room for about eight RVs with four electric pedestals spaced out so that they can be shared. There aren’t any signs with rules and regulations so I don’t know how long of a stay is permitted.  Park  37.60716, -99.28304

Big Well Museum & Visitors Center

   For years Greensburg, Kansas’s claim to fame was the hand dug well, 109 feet deep and 32 feet in diameter, that supplied water for the steam engines that ran through the town. It was completed in 1888 but capped in the 1930s as trains were converted to electric and diesel power. In 1937 a successful campaign to draw tourists to town tempted visitors with the novelty of descending down into the well.

    Life continued peacefully for the small community of fewer than 2,000 people until May 4, 2007 when disaster struck. A 1.7 miles wide EF5 tornado leveled the entire town, destroying 95% of the buildings and killing 12 people. Today the town has been rebuilt as a green community with all city buildings following environmentally friendly standards. Only half of the people returned and there are many empty lots where houses once stood.

   A new museum was been built to tell the history of the town, the big well, and the tornado. Visitors can once again descend into the big well on a new spiral staircase.

  The museum is accessible. The staircase provides the only access to the depths of the well and the rooftop observation deck.

   Parking for RVs is available on the street. Well  37.60368, -99.29456

Botanica Wichita

  The summer flowers are gone but the walk through this small garden is still enjoyable. Don’t miss the children’s garden and the Japanese garden.

   The main paths are paved and accessible.

   The parking lot is large enough for RVs if parked through the spaces or lengthwise across the spaces.  Garden  37.69639, -97.3625