The Basilica of ST. Fideiis, Victoria KS

                                                  June 2017
     The Cathedral of the Plains, one of the 8 Wonders of Kansas is in Victoria KS. If passing thru KS. on interstate 70 it is only a short couple of miles to the cathedral.

 We came in from the south as we were traveling on US 183. I read about it and as Linda was scanning the map she saw it was only a short distance from our route. So we turned off onto route 40, a narrow road but easily doable. But be aware when turning on cathedral avenue  there is a 13 foot overpass.
The parking lot is not to big, but we were able to make a "u" turn in the lot. If there were cars in the center of the lot this could be a problem.

There are many business at the exit off I 70, you may be able to unhook an RV and drive down with you car or truck. It is worth the trouble. We lit a candle and sat and reflected. Then we had lunch in the parking lot and afterwards headed to I 70, them to route 183 north.

As we approached the church

You can find a lot more information at www.stfidelischurch.com.  June 2017

Hutchinson Kansas, The Strataca Salt Mine, June 2017

          Strataca Salt Mine, Hutchinson KS June 2017

    Our next stop after Branson MO was Hutchinson Kansas, a trip of 356 miles. It was one of the longest trips we traveled in one day. We did a lunch stop and a few stops for gas etc. But was that a long day. It was a Sunday so traffic was lite.  We used mostly the blue routes or secondary roads. Blue route meaning the blue line on a map, but who uses maps any more with GPS and phone mapping. Well, we do. It is hard to see several states or a whole state on a phone. A good example is looking at the north west US all at once to plan a route you want to take. That's why we use maps. I like to see my options.
     Our reason for stopping in Hutchinson KS was to visit the Strataca salt mine.  The mine was one of Kansas's "8 wonders of Kansas". We also visited the town of Yoder, a Amish community. A little disappointing to us when we lived so close to Lancaster PA, a very large Amish community by comparison. We are spoiled I guess.
     Back to the mine. It is a museum 650 below the surface.


 It is a mine tour you walk the gallery and see several videos along the tour.

 There are two short train rides. The "dark train" ride was very informative. Our guide on that part of the tour was super. It was amazing how dark, dark really is with no light whatsoever. When all lights were turned off you could not see your hand in front of our face.

I think Linda has her eyes closed

Mike Rowe of the discovery channels "Dirty Jobs" did one of his "jobs" here at the mine.

 Most of the salt mined here is used for road salt.

The storage facility is used because of constant temperature and humidity. Thousands of movie reels are amount the many items stored here.

This is our sister city when we lived in Pennsylvania

Bob looking for that perfect souvenir

You can see more about the mine  at www.underkansas.org

Road trip and update and where we are at

                                          Hutchinson KS to Missoula MT

      This is a long road trip. While in Hutchison KS we decided that if we wanted to get to the west coast and have enough time to explore the area we better get moving. We left FL on the 14^th of May and here it is the end of June and we are only maybe half way there.  We decided to get moving. So we plotted a course mostly using interstate highways. We like taking the secondary roads to better “see” the country. We were on secondary roads through much of KS at this point when Linda spotted one of the 8 wonders of KS it was just a short detour from where we were.   It is a short detour to Victoria to the Cathedral of the Plains. It won’t take long and we do need lunch. Then we could go a couple of miles to I 70. Then along I 70 for about 10 miles to route 183 to route 36 to Prairie Dog State Park for a overnight. Wrong. This park is so nice we stayed 3 nights and only left because all sites were reserved for the 4^th of July weekend. Then we took route 83 to North Platte. We will write more about these stops in a later blog, we are just trying to get you up to date where we are now. So we gave in and started to hit the interstates and travel 3/400 miles a day. I 25 to I 90 to about 10 miles east of Missoula MT. Then the unexpected happened, we had a blow out on the driver side rear inside tire.  The blow out broke the gas fill line and some gas leaked out of the fill pipe, maybe about a quart. But before Good Sam roadside service would send out an emergency road service truck we had to call the fire department to come out. It took them about 20 minutes to get to us. By the time they arrived the gas evaporated. They just took the information and left. About that time the emergency tire truck arrived. Half hour latter and we were on our way. We found the nearest RV Park and called to see if we could get a spot for the night. Yes come on in. About ten miles latter we pulled in. Of course this is 4^th of July eve. You guess right, no tire stores open till Wednesday. We did get a new tire and will be leaving here on Friday morning. We are headed to Spoken WA.  We were lucky as there is very little other damaged. During the night something stated to vibrate the RV and woke us both. Hannah started to bark. It seemed to last at least 30 seconds. Later that morning we found out we were just 75 miles from the epicenters of an earthquake. See our latest blog here    bobandlindasrvtravels.BlogSpot      if you haven’t been following along

Escapees Turkey Creek RV Park

             I am going to try and get back to the way I used to write my RV review. Please bare with me, I'LL try to keep up to date. I write these reviews for my reference and any

                                Turkey Creek

Name; Turkey Creek, an Escapees park, Hollister, MO

Date; June, 2017

Staff; Super friendly, went out of the way to help.

Price; I am a member of the Escapees and the the price as a member was around $16. Don't remember the exact amount. Non club members is higher.

Site; our site was gravel, full hook up, 30/50 amp, back in, we had a picnic table.

Big rig friendly; yes, most sites are, but can be tight when rows are full. Many roads are narrow and sites are on the smaller size.  There were many big rigs present when we were there.

Amenities; club house, clean restrooms, laundry

Laundry; yes, very clean

Dog Friendly; yes, lot of area to walk a do plus a large fenced in off lease area

Phone/TV/Wifi; good Verizon service, OTA TV poor to sometimes good, Wifi in clubhouse, not sue in park, I didn't use so can't report on service. We use our jetpack

Night; low lighting, some train noise, some road noise but neither bothersome to us

Security;  no gate

Book exchange; yes, small in clubhouse

Bonus's ; Very close to downtown Branson and the Landings and all the area has to offer. About a mile from  the College of the Ozarks, one of our favorites.

Opinion; We would stay here again, we enjoy the area. Disappointed they no longer have cable. An older park in need of upgrades. Roads and sites are gavel.  Can use more pull thrus.

 

The  club house