Prarie Dog Town and Kansas Plains

Hello, faithful readers. Here is a long-awaited post of our adventures through Kansas!
We saw signs along the highway for "World's Largest Prairie Dog! Prairie Dog Town! 6-Legged Cows! Pet Baby Pigs! 50 Miles Ahead!" and followed them to a wonderfully cheesy roadside attraction/zoo. They had animals not commonly found in zoos, like raccoons and badgers, as well as lots of stuffed (as in taxidermied) animals, farm animals, and prairie dogs running free.

They had a stuffed Jackelope. I haven't seen one in the wild yet, but this is my bigfoot.

A pile of piglets! They were too small to play with, unfortunately. There was also one that was slightly out of place, with deer-colored fur and stripes!

These adorable coyotes were fiends for dog biscuits. Go Figure!

The obligatory goat shot. We probably fed them the most. We're suckers for goats, especially floppy-eared goats.

Prairie Dogs were peeping up all over the place

A very shy bobcat who kept hissing at us.

Sleepy foxes

Sleepy Badgers

The softest Donkey Face ever. He kept following us around looking for more treats. He liked dog biscuits, too!

Kansas had wild sunflowers growing all over the place. This bee decided to take advantage.

Here is the World's Largest Prairie Dog. It wasn't real at all!

A very pointy steer.

The prize of the place, a six legged cow. It kind of looks like a baby stuck in there.

And its neighbor, the five legged cow.

Finally, a nice shot of the plains of Kansas. It was the first state back in the midwest, so it was quite a sight to see after so many weeks of cliffs, canyons, oceans and mountains.

We didn't get a chance to go to the Wizard of Oz museum, but after playing the slots in Vegas I sure had a hankering.

Happy Birthday to Me!

A little late, but Friday was my birthday. Jim and I took our van out on its first trip, about 200 miles up to Windsor, Ontario to see my mom and sister. We stayed for two nights, sleeping in the van of course, and had a nice birthday dinner and some awesome presents.


As you can see, I got a 5 string banjo. I've been asking for one since before Christmas, so I was pleased to say the least. Now all I have to do is actually play it, unlike all of my other previous instrument attempts. Violin, Guitar, Drums...Although I often yearn to play all three, I can't seem to get the motivation to learn them. I think I have the motivation now, and I'll have lots of free time while on the road!) Now all I need is some overalls and a piece of straw. My mom also gave us a djembe, which has a rip in the head but still has a great sound, and it can double as a table since we don't have to worry about ruining it. Jim also has a Harmonica. Now we can be troubadours!

I also got some hand-knit warm socks for those chilly nights, some earrings my aunt made, a really sweet picture album chronicling my life with nice notes from my family and Jim, and some various odds and ends. And bubbles. Of course we got the van less than a week before my birthday so that counts too! All in all, one of the best birthdays yet.

Now we are back in Ohio, running errands to get the van up to (our inflated idea of) snuff before we hit the road, hopefully by the end of July! I can't believe it's June 22nd already. Things are going great. It's comfortable here but I can't wait to get on the road. Even if our summer travels are shorter than we thought they would be, I'm satisfied with how things are going. Ohio is a lot different from New York, and it is nice having a change of pace and a new place to rest for a while.

Also, I'd like to put up some pictures from the day we left New York for future comparison: