Last Adventures Before Flying Home

Day 10 - October 8

Before we went to bed, we made some decisions about today's drive. Dean had found a brochure about the world's largest ball of twine. We looked at the map and saw we could take a different route back to Denver and stop and see it. In addition, the road took us right by Nicodemus National HIstoric Site.

So off we went. On our way to the biggest ball of twine, we made several stops. We passed by a herd of goats. They were grazing and playing out in the field.

The next stop was at Honey Creek School 21, which was established in 1874. It was restored in 1976. Robin loved the big bell outside. 

We traveled on until we reached Cawker City, the home of the World's Largest Ball of Twine. The ball was decorated as a jack-o-lantern since it was October. After taking our photos, we walked back to our car and saw a sign for their Ball of Twine Gift Shop. It was closed, but it provided humor for the next part of the trip. Imagine what they could sell at their gift shop. Maybe they could sell starter kits for the grandkids...a long piece of twine with instructions how to get started. Maybe they could sell braiding kits...twine and instruction how to braid BEFORE you turn it into a ball of twine. The possibilities are endless!

We saw a very gingerbread looking building in Cawker City, KS. It was their public library and it, too, had a big bell outside as well.

Continuing on, we saw lots of corn fields. Dean played a trick on Robin as we drove. After we passed a mail box, Dean starts talking about the air mail box he had just seen. Robin hadn't seen it so she asked him to turn around and go back. He knew he was going to have too much fun with this one so he turned around and drove back. There were 2 mailboxes - one was up in the air. Robin was so gullible that she started asking him how the airplane gets mail in the box while the plane was flying. Dean was laughing hysterically until she finally caught on it was a joke.

We arrived at Nicodemus, KS. The historical marker gave us a little background information. Around the corner was the Nicodemus National Historic Site. This is the oldest continuously occupied town west of the Mississippi River, planned and settled by African Americans. We went in the Visitor Center, which was the Town Hall, and we looked around. We watched the movie and looked at the few exhibits. The Ranger gave us directions to drive to the other 4 buildings. There wasn't much to do there except to see the outsides of the buildings and read the signs. We did, however, learn some interesting things which we did not know before our stop.

Back on the road, we spied a herd of bison. We saw lots more fields, especially corn and hay.

We found Kansas' road signs to be unique. Since it is the Sunflower State, all state road numbers are seen inside a sunflower symbol.


We did follow the sign and drove back to Goodland. This time we went to Pizza Hut for lunch and were stopped for a train for quite awhile. We did go to the High Plains Museum since it was an "open" day. Robin wanted to see the first patented helicopter. There were lots of interesting exhibits in this museum. 

One thing we could see from the museum was that they knew the difference between bison and buffalo. We did learn a few more facts about the bison.

We left the museum, very happy that we had been able to go back to this museum. From Goodland, we drove back into Colorado.

We returned our rental car and traveled over to Denver International Airport. Our flight didn't leave until 11:58 pm so we had plenty of time. We arrived at Tampa International Airport early the next morning around 5:20 am. We were able to catch a little sleep on the plane, but we headed straight to bed once we got home. 

It had been a wonderful 10 days of adventure! We were thankful we were able to take this trip to help celebrate Rocky Mountain National Park's Centennial Anniversary.