Heading from Wall, South Dakota, we stopped and stayed in Valentine, Nebraska. As we were eventually going to wind up in Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit Julie's close friend from high school; they've kept in touch all through the years. But to get to Tulsa, our routes had us traveling south, then east, then south and east again.
Follow Me
Road construction was everywhere, no matter where we were or where we were going. This picture above was taken on the way to Valentine. We're used to a traffic person equipped with a walkie-talkie... the flow of traffic functions where one side of the road is allowed through, then as the last car drives by, the traffic people communicate and then let the other side go. Not true here. We had to follow the "Pilot Car" for several miles on the left hand side of the road. Seemed simple enough until we saw mammoth dump trucks hurtling towards the pilot car and then at the last second, veers off onto the other side of the road. Between the Auk and Puffin, the dump truck would have won the game of chicken and we would have been gumbo.
Eventually we wound up in Valentine. It's a very small town (Population under 2,800), but it is located in Cherry County (Nebraska's largest), boasting over 6,000 square miles There's an awful lot of ranching that takes place and our landing spot was a campground situated on a working ranch. Fewer than 1/2 dozen campers shared the grounds, of which most were there to work on the ranch. It seems the wind followed us. Like our experience with wind in South Dakota, Nebraska was no different.
We took a day and wandered Fort Niobrara National Widlife Refuge. A lot of prarie land, roaming Bison and the Niobrara River. The center of Valentine is small, just a few blocks, but interesting nonetheless.
We headed for Broken Bow and spent the night at The Kinkaider Brewery & Kitchen.
We ate there, drank there and had fun there. The crew at Kinkaider Brewery & Kitchen were busy getting ready for Octoberfest and actually asked us to stay another night. We thought about it and were tempted, as everyone was all about having a good time and the food was very tasty. Although this would have been an easy decision to stay, we kept moving to get into Kansas. We ate breakfast at a restaurant owned by the brewery, which was also cool that specializes in "CroNuts". It's a cross between a doughnut and croissant. Julie says it was fun to try, but she's not going to go shopping for them. Good decision.
Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny, WTF is WaKeeney
Valentine was small, but if possible, WaKeeney is smaller. The population was under 1,800 people with a lot of unincorporated land. We stayed at a Harvest Host, Shiloh Vineyard & Winery. It's located off of Interstate 70 and to reach the property, you have to drive over 4.5 miles of unpaved, dirt and gravel roads.
There's a lot to say about Shiloh and the owners. The site was a family farm dating back to 1921. Proprietors Kirk and Treva transformed an old chicken coop into the wine tasting room, converted an old barn hay storage structure into a wedding and event center. Chris & Kym, also family, joined the business that continues to produce excellent wines. Kirk was a farmer for a lot of years and then decided to grow grapes and start producing wines. He knew the soils in Kansas and knew about growing crops - an extensive knowledge of experience and science that yielded some really good wines. Yeah, we bought a lot of bottles because they're excellent.
But that's only a part of the story, because they're just down to earth, friendly people, who made us feel welcome when we first showed up. There was a wedding the day we arrived and we got to watch and sip wine through the entire ceremony. It was great fun. The next day, after visiting nearby Hays, we stopped at the wine tasting room for a glass. Understand that these people bust their butts to take care of the visitors who stop for wine tasting, in addition to the wedding guests. We imagined that they were all pretty tired, but they stopped to join us for wine and conversation on their patio. We were there for well over two hours and had the best time. This is a place we'd go back to and heartily recommend for the wines and the people.
Downtown WaKeeney is fun, as there are attractions... Julie took pictures of the north pole, which stays up all year long, but goes nuts during the holiday season. WaKeeney goes all out for Christmas and people come from all around to enjoy it.
We drove the Smoky Valley Scenic Byway, that is a self guided tour to the south of WaKeeney. School houses, churches, the Cedar Bluffs are all fascinating. We also visited Cedar Bluff State Park that has some really great RV sites, although not all have services and it's a fair distance to groceries and shopping. Still beautiful, especially if you want to be off the beaten path.
Our last night in WaKeeney, we ate at Rosie's Bar & Grill. The site of a former nursing facility, The Prarie Rose Inn has been completely renovated. They offer B&B rooms, Harvest Host RV (hookups coming soon), and a restaurant that makes really good food. We met and spent time talking with the GM, Will Hirsch, who was funny, entertaining and a pretty good ambassador for the establishment.
Our next stop was to spend a few days in Salina. It's quite a bit larger than WaKeeney or Hays and has stores, malls and a GMC dealership where we took the Auk for some software updates. While we waited for the service to be done, we ate lunch at Gella's Diner & Lb Brewing Company Food is really good and it has a college vibe. Maybe because there's three large colleges in Salina.
Julie wants Ruby Slippers
We've visited a lot of beautiful places so far and also some interesting sites. But we really needed to see The Oz Museum in Wamego. Not quite the Jolly Green Giant experience, but surprisingly fun to do.
Julie and I had no idea what to expect, but while Wamego is a small town, the museum leaves a big impact. We found a lot of original movie posters, costumes, biographical information about the actors, Judy Garland and L. Frank Baum. You could spend hours here, because there's so much to see and read. Afterwards, we spent some time walking about, but a lot of stores were closed.
For the people we met and talked to in Kansas, they left a big impression. Good times and great memories. Tulsa, here we come!
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