Does Kansas have a Stateline

We continued southwest to a little campground, All Seasons RV Park, outside of Wichita. 

This campground is an old KOA, from the days long gone. I think we are in one of the biggest sites in the campground. 

Happy anniversary to us... #36. We decided to go out and celebrate once we settled in for the stay. There isn't much in Goddard, so we headed into Wichita... a whopping 10 miles away. We ended up at one of our favorite places, a steakhouse, this one is called 6S. There is an advantage to liking an earlier dinner... no reservations required... it was great.

When the hungry patron comes into the restaurant they are greeted by their aging beef steak locker. The beef is aged for 21 days before serving. After we passed the beautiful steaks on hooks, we were met by the hostess, and seated. Tonight was to be a different night, Carol had a steak, I had seafood.

I had sea scallops on a bed of butternut squash risotto, and Carol had a ribeye steak with sauteed mushrooms and a roasted bulb of garlic. Both meals were excellent. The restaurant also provided a dessert for celebrations, and here is ours:

The dessert was a butter cake, scoop of ice cream, and the words "Happy Anniversary". Fireworks comes with the dessert.

There a few attractions to see in downtown Wichita... so off we go. Our destination for this day was the Old Cowtown Museum. The museum is not your ordinary walk through a building, it is a walk through 40 buildings from the late 1800s. The starting point of the self-guided tour begins with the Native American Indians.

Eastern Kansas was the home of the Osage Nation. This area was a trading hub for the Indian nations because of the environment. What was to become Wichita is located at the fork of the Little Arkansas and Arkansas rivers. What was once the home of the Osage Nation, became home to almost 30 other Indian nations that were moved from the east, thanks to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Some of those nations included: Cherokee, Chippewa, Delaware, Iroquois, Sac and Fox, and Shawnee. Most of the nations that were moved to eastern Kansas were later moved to Oklahoma, by 1854... and put on reservations. Sadly, the western Kansas nomadic tribes that followed the buffalo, moved to Oklahoma, again thanks to a treaty, the 1867 Medicine Lodge Treaty.

Besides the Native American Indians, Europeans came into the area to trap, hunt, fish, and trade. Some of the first Europeans considered this region "a desert" region, but as time went on, it was claimed to be the "breadbasket" of America... and all Indians were moved to Oklahoma Territory.

Time to look at the growing of Wichita. There are two names that stand out regarding Wichita, Jesse Chisholm, and J.R. Mead.

Meet Jesse Chisholm, a freighter, trader,  guide, and interpreter... and considered the "Prairie Ambassador". Jesse was born 1805, in Tennessee, and is of Scottish-Cherokee heritage. By 1820 he was part of the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), living near Fort Gibson. 

In his youth he was part of a gold seeking expedition along the Arkansas River, in the area that is now Wichita; he helped blaze a trail between Fort Gibson and Fort Towson; took part in an expedition that made first official contact with Comanche, Kiowa, and the Wichita.

Jesse was fluent in fourteen dialects, which helped in his trading ventures, and treaty negotiations. One of those treaty negotiations took him to Washington D.C., where he was the interpreter for President Polk.

After the Civil War Jesse Chisholm spoke with a friend, Black Beaver, who was a guide for the military during the war, regarding a route from Texas ranches to the Kansas rail spur. The route that Black Beaver recommended was the same route he guided the military on... the one that is now known as the "Chisholm Trail". In 1868 Jesse Chisholm died, and was buried in Geary, Oklahoma.

This gentleman was J.R. Mead, a hunter, trader, naturalist, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He came to the

Kansas Territory to trade with the Native Indians. The trading post that he and his wife opened at the mouth of the Little Arkansas River in 1864... is known as Wichita today.

In 1868 James was elected to the state legislature, and was a great influence in naming of Wichita, after the Wichita Indians.

Both of these men were considered honest men in their dealings with others.

* https://www.washburn.edu/reference/cks/mapping/mead.

* https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CH067 (easier to type in Jesse Chisholm).

Old Cowtown is an assortment of buildings from the region, and represents what it may have looked like in the late 1800s. Cowtown was the junction for trading furs from the Indians, and manufactured goods from the white man in the region. You may be wondering why I keep referring to this town as Cowtown... it is because that was what Wichita was originally considered before the farmers arrived to harvest the land. 

The third photo provides a look into how a frontier cabin may have been built. Because trees were not always nice and straight, a lot of filler material was required, and in the case of this cabin, wood and small stones were used before the mud coating. Cabins this size could have as many as six people living in them. 

Wichita Fun Fact:  Pizza Hut was founded in 1958 by Dan and Frank Carney. Pizza Hut later merged  with PepsiCo in 1977.

Before walking the main street of Cowtown visitors can stop in the Indoctrination Center to watch a short video about Wichita.

The center also exhibits information about the buildings in the town. Beside businesses there are several residences, and a farm. Our first building was the church. Apparently there were several denominations, due to the diversity of the region.

This church started out as a Presbyterian church, built in 1870. This congregation started with 13 members, meeting in a dugout in he livery stable. The congregation found it unacceptable meeting there, and raised $1,500.00 for this wood structure building. Think like you were living in the 1870s, and you need materials to build the church. Unlike today, these folks had to travel days to get the materials they needed. When the congregation grew, the church was sold to the Catholics, and they eventually sold it to someone that turned it into a boarding house.

Wichita Fun Fact:  By 1876 cattle drives had ended, Wyatt Earp ends his service as Peace Officer, and the county population is around 13,000 residents.

Wichita Fun Fact: It was 1874, and a grasshopper plague descends on Sedgwick County. All field crops, gardens, and clothes hanging on the line were eaten.

This is the Hodge family dwelling, built by Wesley Hodge between 1878 and 1885. Wesley was a blacksmith, a true blacksmith... he was black. He and his family comprised part of the 3.2% of the city's permanent population, and 10% of the counties permanent population.

You haven't seen this building yet, at least not from the outside... this was the First Presbyterian Church. The Hodges acquired the building, and turned it into a boarding house that served the black patrons, and functioned as a meeting center for black organizations. After Wesley died, Millie apparently sold the business, but eventually bought it back. Changing the name from the Lindlewood Hotel to Centropolis, and continued services. In 1890 guests or diners could get a "square" meal for $ .25, and a weekly rate of $3.00 (board and lodging) for boarders.

The house was the home of the only female school teacher, Rebecca Duff. She arrived in Wichita, from Illinois, in 1878. Her single status only lasted until 1880, when she married Charles Philip, a Wells Fargo representative. After their marriage she assumed the role of wife and mother, raising their four children.

These buildings represent the growing Cowtown into the agricultural city of Wichita.  The Implement Company represented the growing business of farming

The livery stable represented the world of the cow punchers who drove their herds to the stockyard in Wichita for shipment by rail to points elsewhere. The livery stable also served other residents and visitors to the town.

The railroad was not only for shipping beef cattle, it provided transportation for human cattle as well.

Wichita getting the railroad was a political maneuver. The politicians of Wichita offered to trade their votes on a bond issue with Newton, KS, giving Newton their own county seat. 1872 signaled the arrival of the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroad. The local newspaper proclaimed, "we are now within the bounds of civilization".

Another sign that Wichita was changing from a cow town to a city was the grain elevator. With the land being so rich, farmers could grow just about anything. 

Buildings like this scale house were an important part of the process for the farmers. They would pull their wagons onto the scale (wood platform) for the first weigh, then return for the second weigh, this provided the weight of harvest brought to the grain elevator. We were talking with one of the workers at the museum, and he told us a cute story about the scales. Cowtown is a field trip for the school district around here. In the days gone by they would weigh an entire class, then they would weigh them again, this time without the teacher, and the students had to figure out what the teacher weighed... needless to say, this does not happen anymore. 

We strolled down a dusty road to a farm that was typical of the era. 

As a woodworker coming into a new era, this would have been like the coming out for cordless tools. What you are looking at is a table saw driven by horse power. The table saw would have been in front of the horse treadmill, with a leather belt running between them.

This is a modest home, with the 2nd floor containing the bedrooms, which were not accessible to visitors. From the house we moved out to the barn area, where they actually had a very large cow in one of the pens. Going inside the barn brought back memories of the days I owned horses, and the sweet smell of hay.

I still remember the days of bucking (loading) hay and getting home to unload it. Fortunately the bales I was moving around didn't weigh more than 50 pounds, these were probably somewhere around 4-500 pounds.

As we were leaving the farm they had a exhibit regarding sweet sorghum. When Carol and I first 

saw this crop, it looked like short corn stalks with a funky plume on top. Come to find out, its a big crop in Kansas.

Remember I mentioned that they thought Kansas was a desert, well, sorghum was found to handle this "arid" climate very well. Sorghum is not a mini-corn plant, it is really in the grass family. It wasn't really cultivated in America until around 1853, and predominantly in the southern Appalachian region.

So how did Kansas get to growing sorghum? Entering the story of sorghum farming is the Civil War. You see, trade with the south was cut off, which meant no sugar... oh what to do! Take 2-3 pounds of sorghum seeds and plant an acre of land, the cane stalks growing to heights of 8-12 feet, and now you have the start of sugar. Here in Kansas the crop isn't taller than four feet.

So how did they make their sugar, the same way other producers do,

they press out the juice and cook it.

10 gallons of juice produces 1 gallon of syrup. As a sweetener, it is used in making Jam, jellies, in cakes, pies, candies, and cookies. Kids and adults will skin a stalk back and chew on it, just like sugar cane. Like sugar cane, too much chewing will cause it to act like a laxative... if you get my drift. People today interchangeably use the the terms molasses and sorghum to mean the same sweetener, but that is incorrect... molasses comes from sugar cane, sorghum is from sorghum plant.

Advantages of a sorghum crop, one was the opportunity to use it for bartering. Besides it being a sweetener, it is also used as fodder for animals. Here is an example of how barter could have worked. A person gets sick, goes to the doctor, and after treatment the doctor is paid in sorghum. The doctor in turn pays for the care of his horse in sorghum to the livery operator.

Time to head into town for some shopping.

The first building we came to exhibits dolls, yes dolls. 

The dolls an display were made from porcelain, bisque,  and apples.

Apple faces like this are in the black couple. The faces were not carved until the apple was dried. There are two ways to dry the apple, either dehydrate the apple, or soak in salt water, or lemon juice.

The next turn found us in front of the blacksmith shop. 

Blacksmithing was a special talent, just like it is today... except there were no power tools. As a woodworker, I was intrigued with the repair of the wagon wheel. It is hard to see in the photo, but there is no pattern to putting it together, which meant that they cut the wood, drilled holes for the spokes, and build a metal ring around the hub.

Strolling down the street we stopped into the sheriff's office. One of the first signs a visitor might have seen entering the town was a city ordnance to turn in any weapons to the sheriff's office.

When the visitor came into the office, they received a tag, and their weapon was locked up, until they turned the tag back in. Now all people followed directions well, and they had to pay the price for their actions. Here are the steep costs for disobedience: 

Remember I said Wyatt Earp was a peace officer, and later left Wichita... it wasn't necessarily on good terms. In 1876, Earp had gotten in a scuffle with a fellow peace officer, so the new marshal fired Earp... "action unbecoming of a peace officer". He left Wichita for Dodge City, and by 1879, he was working in Tombstone, Arizona.

Wandering across the street, we headed over to the saloon for lunch. On our way past the hotel we spotted the opportunity to go bowling.

The saloon was built in 1885, an was located in El Paso, now Derby, Kansas. It was moved to its current site in 1966, and restored to represent Fritz Snitzler's Saloon, of the 1870s.

After our gorging on hot dogs and chips, we continued out to  journey through the rest of the town. Next stop is the accommodations for those not  

behaving. These are the accommodations for the drunk and disorderly, and weapon violators.

The window is one of the two for each cell, and my guess is that the one in the hall provided a light to the cells at night. There is another cell that has a solid wooden door, with a small window in the door, this cell is for the troublemaker requiring isolation. This is the actual jail that sat at Market and 2nd Streets.

I never really paid attention to buying clothing in the late 1800s.

The lighter color building is the Millinery, clothing for the woman in town, and the Dry Good Store made clothes available for men.

Down the street one could find a drugstore that could sell them any remedy for any ailment. The drug store exhibited here is no different.

The last photo had us wondering which prescription the whiskey was used for.  Some cities were coming into the future, offering the soda fountain.

The first record of a soda fountain in Wichita was in 1871, when Ola Martinson bought one for his bakery business. Soda fountains were becoming a mainstay in drugstores too. An increase in soda fountains and soda water in Kansas happened because of a prohibition law Kansas passed in 1880.

In some towns you could find the doctor or dentist above the drugstore.

Depending on which door you entered from the waiting room, determined what your need was.

What do you think your prescription would have been if you had rheumatism... that would be oil of geese, wolves, bears, or polecats. Suffering from consumption... fried heart of rattlesnake, or skunk meat. Only hives... tea from the scrapings of stallions hooves. Heaven forbid you have smallpox... carry an onion in your pocket. What about shingles... hot blood of a chicken. Try keeping some of those items in your medicine cabinet.

This general store would have been similar to the one that Mr. Mead would have established when he arrived.

With all this livin', death isn't far behind. Services weren't fancy, but they were respectful. From the funeral parlor, the deceased would be carried to the outskirts of town for burial.

This town was phenomenal, and we would highly recommend spending a day in this town.

You can see a little more at: https://www.oldcowtown.org.

BACK HOME ON A BREAK

Wichita was a time for looking at the past. As a child my parents would let me come to Kansas to visit my grandmother, here in Wichita. In an earlier blog I mentioned my trip by train, another year was a plane ride. We finally moved to Wichita... and this is where the story begins today.

I was in the sixth grade when we decided to move to Kansas, and I had the opportunity of learning about public schools. We moved into a house not too far from the school, and I was able to walk to school.

Our house was on Chautauqua Street. My fondest memories of this house,  making my own fried bologna sandwiches for lunch, and the handicap ramp into the basement. The house was a different color in my day.

Here it is, my sixth grade school, Sunnyside Elementary. Today the school is a historic building made into an apartment complex. I could not walk inside, they have access control.

After I finished elementary school, I moved on to junior high school. Before I started school, we moved to another home, a bit further away.

When we lived here 55 years ago, there was an abandoned two-story duplex on that empty lot. Being the fire lover I am, I tried to burn the duplex's garage down... unintentionally. I was playing with my cars, and decided to have a fiery car crash. I doused my cars with lighter fluid, and lit them on fire... I didn't pay attention to all the dead grass laying on the floor, and it started to ignite. I did put the fire out without any damage to the structure. Another memory I have pertains to that driveway. One year we had snow and the driveway was icy. My dad tried to back our car down the driveway, and it slid into the retaining wall, leaving a deep crunch down the side of the car. During the summer I would walk to downtown Wichita, and I'm guessing it was somewhere around seven miles one way. The junior high and high school are somewhere else these days.

All this reminiscing built an appetite, so off we went looking for food. We found the Wichita Brewing Company (WBC).

This whole area didn't exist back in the day of course. This eatery is like others that are a brewery/sports bar. The menu reminded us of Urban Pizza, in El Cajon. We sat down and ordered our drinks and food.

We ordered a flight beers and hard ciders, and while we were enjoying the flight we waited for food. The foods here... and it looks good.

We splurged, and had two pizzas. these are 12 inch pizzas. Lunch pizza was a taco pizza, dessert was a cinnamon dusted crust, drizzled with raspberry and chocolate syrups. It was a fun day, now back home.

This stay was a shorter stay, next stop is Oklahoma.

Toto... We're in Kansas Now

 If you remember from the earlier post, I said we picked up camp and ran to another campground, and that campground is Slough Creek C.o.E., in Perry, Kansas. Getting to this park was interesting, thanks to Garmin. As we drove down the highway I saw a sign indicating the turn to Perry Lake... but Garmin had other ideas... 20 miles out of our way, down a very curvy road, and back to the street I should have turned down earlier.

This is our first site upon arrival at Slough Creek for four days, before we moved into our original spot for a week.

You guessed it looking at our second site... there's a tree hanging over the site. I made an effort to position the trailer so that the falling acorns landed on the middle of the roof, instead of the solar panels. Both sites had a good view of the dam and lake.

SUNSET OVER THE DAM

A few years ago this campground was partially flooded when the reservoir crested 32 feet above normal level, closing the campground for the following year. A lot of trees were destroyed during the high water... those trees became free firewood for the campers. When the trees were cut down, they were piled in locations at each loop.

For those unfamiliar with Kansas, Perry is located between Topeka and Lawrence. I took a drive to Lawrence to pick up repair parts, and passed the town of Lecompton, which apparently has history. After I returned from Lawrence, Carol looked up what the museums in Lecompton offered.

What looks different about the Kansas territory? If you said one could visit Pikes Peak in the territory... you're right. After the territory became a state, the border was changed.

Lecompton, Kansas played a big part leading up to the Civil War. When Kansas was working on moving from a territory to a state, the territory was split between slavery and "free state". 

Constitution Hall was the center of a state constitution that would make Kansas a slave state, and there was a lot of heat over this constitution. Lincoln and Stevens debated it, which caused Lincoln to lose the election for an Illinois Senate seat... to Stevens. Making a long story shorter, the U.S. Congress rejected the constitution, and sent it back to Kansas for a vote by the people of the territory. Kansas did enter the Union as a free-state.

Constitutional Hall is the oldest standing building in Lecompton, and held many important meetings:

This was  the only building spared from a major fire in the 1800s. Here it is as an undertaker's parlor:

The stairs at the back left side of the photo were moved inside, and the entry on the side was located about middle of the side of the building.

When the Kansas-Nebraska Act was approved in 1854, the territory was created, in 1857 to 1861, a land office opened in Lecompton. Having a land office is great... if the area has been surveyed... which it hadn't been, causing disputes amongst land owners. In its early days the Kansas territory was known as Bleeding Kansas, because of all the violence. Part of the violence was from criminals that were staying one step ahead of the law, the other part came from the fighting between pro-slavery and free-state people... this was before the Civil War.

Lets get back to the Lecompton Constitution (pro-slavery). The constitution was created in 1857, and the Lecompton Constitution Convention was held in 1857, its president was John Calhoun. Because the state was split on slavery, it also split the Democratic party. That split became important during the next presidential primaries, when the Democrats put up four candidates, and the Republicans offered up Lincoln. We all know what happened once Lincoln took office.

From Constitution Hall we headed to Lecompton Historic Museum.

Go to: https://lecomptonkansas.com.

In 1855 state congress voted to make Lecompton the state capitol, this was the artist's rendering:
The builders only laid the first three layers of brick before the job was stopped. The building was completed, as you see it, by builders and it became the Lane College. Lecompton was the fifth territorial capitol. Topeka became the state capitol when they accepted as a state.

This building is more about the general history of the region. The first floor has a room displaying friendship quilts and era specific  sewing machines, a room dedicated to the history of Lecompton's part in pre-war decisions, and an area dedicated to the local high school. One of their football team members made it big in the NFL, playing for the Pittsburg Steelers... and that was Marv Kellum. He only played a few seasons in the NFL, but made the most of them, winning TWO super bowls with the Steelers.

The basement was broken into domestic artifacts and farming equipment.

This was a form of cash register, the money was kept in the bottom drawer, and the daily receipts were kept in the top section. They also have a vintage 1913 Harley Davidson on display... don't get too excited... it is displayed n the original condition it was found.

What Carol and I found interesting was what looked like a second tire on the rear, but it is smaller than the one that traveled on the road.

Today's homemaker is spoiled with all the contraptions that help with cooking and  cleaning. For those homemakers that like to make bread in their bread maker, how about making it in one of these portable ovens:

How many of us have a drawer full of socks? that probably wasn't the case for families in the early 1900s. For the family that did not have a lot of cash flow in the household, it was probably mom or grandma that made the stockings and socks. It doesn't look like it was hard, just a long process.

If you look closely, you see a weight at the bottom of the photo. This weight is pulling the stocking down as the maker is feeding thread around the machine. I'm thinking that wearers were not going to get the fancy socks we see today, especially like the ones I wear, with sharks, chickens, grills, and Pink Floyd album covers on them.

Are you the gardener in the family, I can help you with a great device to rid you of the pests in your yard. 

Every family should have two of these... the gopher gun. Today I am offering a special... buy one, get the second one FREE... just pay separate shipping and handling charges. PRODUCT DISCLAIMER: this product does not come with gopher, you must find your own... in your yard. I caught a gopher once when we lived in our townhouse in Chula Vista, but I don't recommend my process... I reached into the hole, and the little bugger latched onto my finger. I got wise the next time I had to face gophers. In El Cajon I flushed him out using the garden hose, waited for him at his only extra, and hand tooled the gopher.

Let us move up to the third floor of the museum. When the building was still a college, there was a chapel, and there still is.

Looking at this chapel one wouldn't think it was anything special... alas, it does have some history. Some folks my remember a guy that served as the commanding general in Europe during WWII, and later becoming president... well, his parents were married in this chapel. 

This couple started out as students at Lane college, their names were David and Ida. David and Ida fell in love, and got married in the college chapel, and became David and Ida Eisenhower... that's right mom and dad of Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

The last room on the third floor is the music room, full of instruments of the era.

After walking the two museums we strolled over to the little cafe in town for lunch, and then back home.

NAP TIME - TAKE A BREAK

Todays journey takes us into Topeka for a visit to the Evel Knievel Museum (https://www.evelknievelmuseum.com). When Carol and I first arrived, it looked like it was a small museum, unbeknownst to us, we parked in the Harley-Davidson store parking lot.

We walked into the store and was surprised to see there was a small restaurant as well as the motorcycle showroom. There was a sign near the restaurant pointing downstairs to the parts, service, and museum. Surprise number two, the museum downstairs was about Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

The Harley museum was a small museum with a few bikes. At the beginning of the museum is a short history of one of the best dirt track bike racers, then visitors get into the motorcycles.

Some of the bikes were in rough shape, and left that way intentionally. The little orange motorcycle was probably for beginners. They had a couple that were police cycles on display. 

How many of you out there remember your childhood when you bought a soda from:

For all you out there that never had the opportunity to walk down a hot street in the middle of summer... these are soda machines... drop your coins in the slot, open the door, and pull out an ice cold soda. I was a Dr. Pepper kid.

Exiting from the main exhibits, we came upon a couple more surprises. One of those surprises was a Russian Harley-Davidson.

This is a 1942 WLA "Russian" military model. The Russians outfitted their Harleys with sidecars. Fortunately in the 70s, this one found its way to America. Have no fear, America was not left out during WWII, our troops saw the American version of this motorcycle.

Here we have the same 1942 WLA, only in our fine Army drab green. These bikes were equipped with blackout head and tail lights. When this motorcycle when into production, all other models ceased to be produced. For those of you that wonder how the soldiers from both countries received their bikes... 

Some assembly was required... just open the crate, and follow the installation manual... couldn't be simpler.

We finally made it... out the door, 100 feet, around the corner... and we were there.

We all know that Robert "Evel" Knievel was born in Butte, Montana... right? Bobbie dropped out of high school in his sophomore year, and started working in the copper mines. His job in the copper mines was short lived, he was fired for making the skip loader do a motorcycle style wheelie. He may have only received a reprimand... the problem... he took out Butte's main power line, leaving the town without power for several hours.

Bobby enjoyed his motorcycle, which got him in trouble periodically. A good example was in 1956 during a high speed chase, he crashed his motorcycle, was arrested for reckless driving, and thrown in jail for the night. This night would be the beginning of his illustrious career. The night jailer came on duty and conducted his check, noting two cells occupied, Bobbie Knievel, and William Knofel. Mr. Knofel was also known as "Awful Knofel", because awful rhymed with Knofel. The jailer decided to call Bobby "Evil Knievel". Bobby later changed the spelling to EVEL, to eliminate any ideas he was evil.

Evel Knievel was a thrill seeker, if you were unaware, he sought thrills via the rodeo and ski jumping, where he won the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1959. Being from snow country, he also played hockey.

As visitors move through the museum, they can read stories about his various jumps throughout his career, as well as see some of the motorcycles he rode to accomplish those jumps.

1967 had its ups and downs for Evel Knievel. In 1967 while watching a light heavyweight championship fight, he saw the fountains of Caesars Palace, and decided he was going to jump them, the only problem was that he was denied permission from the CEO of Caesars Palace. This motorcycle is a replica of the cycle Evel used to jump the fountains at Caesars Palace. The CEO didn't just change his mind about the jump, there were a lot shenanigans on Evel's part. He had friends pretend to be lawyers, he faked a corporation, he made the CEO believe he was someone he wasn't, he had the CEO believing that ABC Wide World of Sports was interested in the attempt. Eventually the CEO broke down and agreed. If any of you saw the attempt, you know it was not a success... he crushed his pelvis, a femur, received fractures to his hip, wrist, both ankles, and a concussion, that put him in a coma.

I don't expect you to see all the information, but the basic gist is this... 168 jumps and 19 crashes between 1965 and 1980.

How would you expect him to get from event to event... I'll show you.

Working in concert with Mac Trucks, they created a vehicle that had a living space and trailer to haul required equipment. This truck has not been in the pristine condition all these years... in fact... it was found in a salvage yard in Florida, in really, really rough shape. The before 

picture was taken after they pulled the rig out of a bunch of trees and overgrowth. The picture also shows the last paint scheme for a particular event. The museum has an 18-minute video on the restoration of this legendary tractor trailer. 

The walls you see around Carol were the actual walls from the recovered rig. The restoration took several years from start to finish. What is funny is the fact that Harley-Davidson committed to doing the restoration, without having a clue how to go about it. They called in many experts from different fields to accomplish the task. A lot of the artwork was done by the same men that did the original paint job.

in the restoration process they tried to reuse as much of the original items as possible, they were able to save a lot of the cab interior, with the exception of the headliner. Due to weather damage over 40 years, most of the coach furnishings required re-manufacturing. This tractor trailer is a sight to see.

Going upstairs, we stopped in the theatre which was running a couple of shows from the past, one was George Hamilton play Evel Knievel, the other was Sam Elliot playing Evel, in a series that was never released. After the short clips, we passed all the toy products that carried Evel's name. Think about it, Evel was the only humanoid that endorsed toy products, everyone else was either a cartoon, or an idea from someone's brain.

The intriguing exhibit was the: 

X2 Skycycle. The Skycycle was designed to jump the Snake River Canyon. 

Like a few of his planned jumps, Evel had a premonition that he would not make the jump, but continued as scheduled. Have you ever seen the launching platform for this stunts?

The Skycycle is sitting at the bottom of the ramp. As many folks may remember, he did not make the crossing, he landed in the river. There have been a lot of conspiracies as to what went wrong. When visitors watch the video of the launch, it can be seen that the parachute opened upon launch, slowing take-off. Further investigation by the engineers determined that the parachute did not handle the G-forces of take-off.

Carol and I definitely recommend visiting this museum, but check for its new location, they have scheduled a move to a new building. Do look at their website... I haven't yet... I was there. We are not done with Kansas yet, one more stop near Wichita.