After Colorado we wanted to check out Kansas prove yourselves wrong that it wasn’t just flat land full of corn, sunflowers, tornados, and lawless cowboys. Turns out all true, but also some other pretty cool stuff!
As we drove from Colorado we visited the western portion of Kansas first. Pretty flat, lots of windmills, and small towns marked by maybe a water tower if they were lucky. Our first pit stop was Holcomb, Kansas, the site of Truman Capote’s non-fiction real life crime novel In Cold Blood. If you read it, it’s probably one of your favorite books. If you watched any of the movies about it you probably are thinking about the murder of the Clutter family right now. Unsettling, right?
Besides the Tyson poultry plant, there is nothing else there and Capote described it to a T. There is the high school, where Nancy Clutter was popular and well liked before we was murdered. Across from it now is a park in memory of Herb Clutter and Family.
We drove on Main street, turned on Oak Avenue and made our way down the dirt road. Their house was the last one on the street, but today it is closed off with a private property/no trespassing gate. Being there alone was unsettling and not sure seeing the house would have resolved that feeling. We got back on the made road and continued on. If you haven’t read it, go read it now. Truman Capote is a genius.
Ok, time to do something fun. We made it to Dodge City but it was about 7pm by this time. So we checked into a hotel and planned to go to Boot Hill in the morning to enjoy it instead of rush through. The Boot Hill museum is not just a museum about the “wild west” it also is a block of store fronts that transports you back to the 1800’s. Dodge City was once home to Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson and was called the queen of the “cow towns”. Our favorite building was the tavern with the old time piano player.
At 12:00 noon the living history re-enactors had a gunfight on the front lawn right in front of us. It was extremely entertaining.
We made our way through the rest of the buildings before heading outside. In the evenings they have dinner shows but we would not be there long enough to participate in that. However the museum and all of the buildings were pretty entertaining.
We walked up around the block to the Boot Hill Distillery which is in at the site of the old cemetery, public school, and later a municipal building.
Played a quick round of cards with Wyatt Earp before we got the heck outta Dodge!
Next we drove about an hour to Fort Larned. Kansas is full of forts and this one is preserved so well. Unlike Bent’s Old Fort in Colorado, Fort Larned were all original buildings and were set up to look just like they would have at the height of operation.
We spent about an hour walking around the fort and learning about how instrumental this fort was during the western expansion on the Santa Fe Trail but also during the Civil War.
Less than a mile from Fort Larned we came across a Casey’s general store. We found these in Iowa in 2015 and loved them. I guess it’s like the mid-west version of a Sheetz or Wawa, however they make the BEST gas station pizza. We each grabbed a slice.
We didn’t quite make it to Topeka on our second day so we stayed in a town called Manhattan, KS. It is home to Kansas State University, as well as the Tallgrass Brewing Company that we went to for dinner that night.
The next morning we were only about an hour away from Topeka, but we stopped in a town called Wamego, KS after seeing billboards for the Wizard of Oz museum and winery. This small little town totally embraces the Wizard of Oz acclaim. Their restaurants and business establishments have names like “Toto’s Tacos”.
We stopped into the Wizard of Oz museum. For a few bucks you could feel what tornado force winds feel like. Surprisingly John said it was similar to the Sand Dunes we climbed in Colorado.
Instead of going into the Oz museum we opted for the Oz Winery and enjoyed a few samples. Their wines had adorable names like “Drunken Munckin”.
Back on the road to our main destination in Topeka, the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historical Site. Located in the old Monroe School, which was once a segregated black elementary school, the museum does a fantastic job of taking you chronologically through not only school desegregation, but also the greater and lasting civil rights impact this had.
It had a few artifacts such as one of the baby dolls used in a Mamie Clark- Claredon County study showing damage done to black children after branding them with the inferior status implied by segregation.
This site is definitely worth the stop in you ever find yourself in the Topeka/Kansas City area. It leaves you with a lot to think about as you walk out of the doors. Still so much work left to be done.
Its been a full day already and its not even lunch. We continued to Kansas City, Kansas and stopped a place called “Joe’s Kansas City”. So it’s a rib joint that is attached to a gas station.
But hear us out, it’s on Anthony Bourdain’s list of the 13 places to eat before you die. So the line that wrapped through the restaurant and into the gum aisle of the adjoining gas station would totally be worth it.
Oh and it was. John got the half slab of ribs and said they are easily the best he has ever had. Danielle got the Portabella Z-man. The fries were seasoned with their in-house seasoning, and the spicy coleslaw could stand-alone.
Fueled up we headed across the border to Independence, Missouri just in time to make it to the Harry S. Truman Presidential library and museum before they closed. (Yes I realize this really isn’t Kansas anymore but it just outside so it still counts).
The museum was loaded with great artifacts. Our favorite were: “The Buck Stops here” desk sign, the Bible he took the oath on after FDR died suddenly, the only written acknowledgement of Truman’s decision to use atomic weapons on Japan, and a copy of the misprinted newspaper misstating Truman’s lost to Dewey.
Also check out the Purple Heart and letter they found in his desk. Sent back to him from a soldier’s family and not as a compliment: 
In addition to the museum, there was a beautiful courtyard that was also the gravesite of Truman, his wife, his daughter and son-in law.
The museum was very well done and covered his presidency, as well as more about the man he was before/after.
We travelled back into Kansas en route to Oklahoma the following day. Not before our first oil change of the trip! Thank you Wal-mart of Wichita!
Overall Kansas did not disappointed. It proved some light-hearted fun, good food, and thoughtful reflection. However, it was hot. There is a fine line between the “dry heat” of the southwest and the “humid swamp” of the southeast. It was over 100 degrees both days and definitely Way more swap than dry!
Dietz Summer Road Trip 