Consummate Tourist

Today was the day that gives family vacations in the station-wagon a bad reputation; I visited two sites which I had planned to see and stumbled upon one just by luck. First, I drove just north of Lebanon, KS to the geographic center of the contiguous United States. It is off a small road surrounded by farm fields and marked by a large stone obelisk with nice landscaping and great views. As I drove away from the site, I observed a large snake in the road. I attempted to get a photo but it was just too quick and disappeared into the tall grass; it was a non-poisonous Glossy Snake. Then, it was off some twenty miles to Cawker City, KS to see the world's largest ball of sisal twine;

this huge 43' ball was begun in 1953 and has over eight million feet of twine and weighs over twenty thousand pounds. I would have thought that I would be the only person at the site, but amazingly there were a dozen people from at least three different groups. And, as if this were not a big enough day, on my drive back to the campground on US 281 I spotted a roadside replica of the Statue of Liberty; it was on a high rise and had a towering view of the surrounding countryside and dates back to a 1951 Boy Scout project.

You just have to love Americana!!