And it is turning out to be a somewhat more interesting place than we expected. Of course our expectations were quite low, since you expect to see nothing but flat and cows in this state after you pass Kansas City.
We “snuck” into the state via US 50, I-470 and I-435 instead of the usual route from St. Louis of I-70. This was mainly because we stopped in Sedalia, MO for the Missouri State Fair (a great state fair). We love state fairs of all kinds and this was a chance to go to a real western one, not one of those wimpy eastern fairs, like the Big-E, where you have to get 6 states together to have one decent sized fair. No, this one had real cowboys.
Anyway, this put us 16 miles south of I-70 and close to US 50, so we opted to follow US 50, which put us closer to I-70 after crossing over into Kansas. Then we rejoined it and continued. When we got to Lawrence, KS, we stopped for lunch. We went all the way into the downtown area and found a BBQ place. We had to take up 3 parking spaces but the meter rates were reasonable. After lunch, we walked around downtown a bit and did some window shopping. Then back on the road.
We stopped again in Topeka to see the Brown vs The Board of Education National Historical Site. It was in an old school house which was one that the black children had to attend instead of the one closer to their home. The case was filed in Topeka to avoid deep south politics and because, in Topeka, the schools were separate but they were more-or-less equal. In that way, the case would clearly test whether segregation of schools should be constitutional. As we all know now, Brown vs. Board of Education was just the first step in the long (hard fought) path to end segregation in this country.
When we parked at a KOA in Salina, right off the highway, Ellyn discovered that there was a hamburger stand in downtown Salina which had sliders since 1922 in the same location. The story made then sound very good so we had to unhook the car and go check it out. They were yummy.
