We've now been to KS and OK and that's about all I can say about that

As I've mentioned a few posts ago, one of our goals is to visit all 48 states.  We knew that we had to find something in KS and OK to do.  In line with another goal, we sought out National Parks to visit.  We hit a few, but amazingly took pictures of none.  So here were the highlights of the 3 days we spent in "almost"-KS, KS, and OK.

Our first leg of this journey was to get on the west side of MO in order to stage ourselves for our trip across KS the next day.  So, what better place than Kansas City, MO.  There was to be some cool stuff downtown, so we spent the morning and an hour or so after lunchtime travelling across the state of MO to our campground outside of KS-City, MO.  After unhitching, we proceeded downtown to the old central station, which still is a functioning railway hub.  There was a nice overhead gateway to the shopping mall and LEGO land.  We didn't go into legoland because the one hour of remaining open time didn't justify the entry fee.  Nevertheless, our kids spent about 30 minutes in the LEGO store trying to find what to buy.  Mason wanted everything.  Parker, as usual, couldn't decide what one thing to buy.

So the highlight of this trip was where we had dinner.  Andrea consulted her trusty Yelp app and found a gourmet pizza place (http://www.yelp.com/biz/spin-neapolitan-pizza-kansas-city).  GPS got us there and we didn't want to leave.  Beautiful wine selection, wood fired pizza, kids' menu, ...  We ordered a salad and a pizza, kid's pizzas for the kids, a carafe of the house red, and proceeded to the patio.  There needs to be more places like this.  The kids even got a gelato with their meal.  We waxed European and sat on the patio for about 2 hours enjoying the weather, food, and wine.

So the next day was the KS tour.  We had a number of stops planned and had an itinerary to keep to make sure we could get to all places while they were open.  First up (no pictures...grrr) was Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site.  You can do the research yourself on the place.  Basically, I thought is was very well done.  The rangers were excellent.  We've been skipping the Jr. Ranger stuff lately due to mom & dad having to complete more of it than the kids, but the rangers suggested we try it and were awesome in motivating the kids and telling the history at a kid's level.  Might have helped that we were there on a weekday morning, too.

Moving on, we visited Tall Grasses National Preserve.  This place is "under construction" at best.  The visitors center was in a state of construction.  The grounds were in a state of construction.  Basically, if you wanted to hike in hot, windy weather; then this is the place for you!  Two kids, two adults in sandals, an itinerary to keep, and wide open grass land...not so much.  So we had a quick look around, lunch under a shade tree in the parking lot, and back on the road.

Next destination: underground salt mine museum.  Wouldn't have been my choice, but Andrea found good reviews for it.  It doesn't look like much from the surface, but in the end...was well worth it.  You get to go down into what is still a functioning salt mine.  About 600ft down, I think.  You get the full miner setup including an emergency respirator just in case something happens.  There's the museum down there, mining equipment and such.  A plug for the storage company that puts old movies, files, etc. in temp. controlled storage in the mines, a mining train ride, a golf-cart train ride.  Pretty neat, really.

After the salt museum, it was off to find our campsite for the night.  We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere so we found what was billed as an un-attended self-serve campground.  First, we had to battle the sand storm going on outside, though.  The was nasty.  I'm very comfortable towing pretty much any trailer, but the wind in KS made it a white-knuckle trip for the only about 15 miles to the campground.  The campground was everything we expected.  No frills whatsoever, but $15 in a drop box for full hookup.  Only 3 people there that night.  I really needed a drink from the drive, but there was an impending Tornado front on the west side of the state that we were watching on the news that kept me from my usual consumption in case we had to pull up anchor and move in a hurry in the middle of the night.  All of the forecasts for our area said there was nothing to worry about.  I guess the Ohio vs. KS mentality about tornadoes is a little different.  As it turned out, never a drop of rain at our site and in the morning we moved on toward OK City.

Our main purpose to go to OK City was to say we had been to OK.  We weren't really sure what to do, so we found a resort-style campground and opted to visit the local science museum.  I wanted to visit the OK City Bombing National Historic Site and Memorial, but I called ahead after viewing the area on Google Maps and inquired about parking a truck + camper.  I was pretty much told that I wouldn't be able to park.  The nice (and honest) person that I spoke with said that I could probably gets enough spots if I was lucky, drove around long enough, and was good at parking.  I've got the latter down pat, but the former two...not so much.  Also, it didn't seem as though there would be much to interest the kids there, which means mom and dad don't get to take in much, either.  So we hit the science museum.  Overpriced, as usual for these things.  This one was especially not good, though.  50% of the "exhibits" were broken or otherwise non-functional.  Those that did work were something that my parents would have used in a high school science lab.  The best part of this place was a newly built indoor multi-level "tree house" and a Segway driving track.  We made the most of these two and decided to split to the campground to use the pool.

Lastly for this wordy entry since I was lazy with the camera...the campground.  This was, by far, the highlight of the stop in OK City.  It truly is a resort.  A bit pricey as campgrounds go, but excellent value given the condition of the place and the amenities.  Although, I highly discourage use of the mini-golf.  It's nearly $30 for a family of 4 to play (in addition to the campground fee!) and the course sucks.  For $30 it better be awesome!  Some of the greens were not even kept up, had puddles, debris.  You could tell this was someone's "fun idea" that didn't pan out well.  It would be better off removed and the pool / splash area expanded.  Don't get me wrong...I'd surely stay here again if in the area, just wouldn't play mini golf.