Boondocking on the way home

After the Strataca tour, I began my journey back home to Maryland. Decided to try boondocking at parking lots, mainly because I could not find good campgrounds along the route. The plan was to spend the night at a Cracker Barrel parking lot because they allow RVers to park there. The first night was in Independence, MO but the restaurant's parking lot was too quiet. At the same time, inclement weather was predicted after midnight, with the possibility of strong winds, hail, even a tornado. So I got back to the driver's seat and started driving again, looking for a 24 hour gas station that may provide shelter if a tornado were to strike.

That was how I ended up spending the night of April 12 at a Pilot gas station parking lot, next to the store and relatively sheltered from the wind. There were other vehicles parked, and on the truck side of the gas station, a number of trucks were parked for the night as well. I felt pretty safe and slept well that night!

April 13 was a day of straight driving. There was nothing interesting I wanted to check out and the weather was cold and rainy. I stopped at another Cracker Barrel near Columbus, OH for dinner. Again the restaurant parking lot was very quiet, it was right next to a number of motels, just off I-70. Instead I went across the road to the Walmart that was surrounded by other big box stores, including a Home Depot on one side. There were also a few big trucks and an RV parked at the edge of the parking lot. I parked right next to the RV, went inside Walmart to use the restroom, bought some produce, then went to sleep in the minivan. It rained heavily during the night but I had no trouble getting a good night's sleep.

April 14 - the weather has improved - I made the drive back to MD, stopped by an Asian grocery store to do some shopping and got back home by 6 pm. Whew, what a trip! I have been away for about 1.5 months and it was quite an experience!

And now, on to planning the next trip to Winnipeg, Canada, in June.

Strataca Underground Salt Museum, Kansas

Checked out of Lake Scott State Park in the morning, headed to Hutchinson, KS to visit the Strataca Underground Salt Mine and Museum. This is also a working mine, producing road salt only, not table salt. I bought the ticket online, arrived an hour before the 1 pm tour and found that I was the only one scheduled for that time slot. I donned a hard hat and was escorted to the mine shaft elevator which took 90 seconds to descend to the mine (in darkness). There were a few other visitors already in the underground museum which offered a self-guided tour. The exhibits and videos placed through the tunnels gave a history of the mine and the process for extracting salt from it. At the end of the exhibit was the train ride through parts of the mine with narration to explain what we were seeing. This was followed by a shuttle dark ride where we passed artifacts, boxes of dynamite, old equipment and trash left behind from the old days. The shuttle stopped for a couple of minutes to allow visitors to take a few salt rocks for souvenirs (a small cloth bag was provided).

The photos above are above ground, the rest are of the underground museum. At one point during the dark ride, the tour guide pointed to the ceiling where a road sign was posted informing us that we were directly under that same road we had driven earlier to get to the parking lot of the museum. And yes, someone asked about the possibility that the ceiling will collapse on this: we were assured that this was not going to happen.

CO to KS: Monument Rocks and Lake Scott

After 10 days in Denver, it was time to head back to Bowie. I packed up Millie and started towards Kansas. I have a camping reservation at the Lake Scott State Park in Scott City, KS but wanted to check out the Monument Rocks Natural Landmark and the Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park which were close to the campground.

On the way there, I stopped by the Colby visitor center. The lady at the desk was very helpful, gave me detailed information and maps on how to get to the Monument Rocks which she called Pyramid Rocks. She also handed me packets of sunflower seeds (to grow, not eat), the sunflower being the state flower of Kansas.

The drive to the monument was interesting, and as she warned me, the road was unpaved and uneven. It was also very windy and dusty. I was driving through private land, but the owner had apparently allowed access to the public to view the landmark. It seemed like a long way off the paved road, but eventually after wide expanse of grain fields with the occasional petroleum pumpjacks, I saw some pillars in the distance. The road has become coated with white dust (i.e. chalk).

And then, there they were. The chalk-rock formations appeared so out of place, they also reminded me of Stonehenge.

It was pretty surreal, I was the only person there but another two cars came by later. I took a lot of photos, then drove on to New Jerusalem Badlands. It appeared that I would have to hike in to see the rock formations there. It was getting late and the park looked deserted: I decided to call it a day and drove on to the campground.

Lake Scott State Park was very pretty, but it was cloudy and windy with wind gusts blowing sand/dust around, making it difficult to be out of the minivan. There were few people camping that evening. I connected to electricity, and ate a take out dinner that I had purchased when I stopped for gas earlier.

Visit to Fort Collins, CO

We took a drive to check out Fort Collins. On the way there, we came across a very nice sculpture garden in Loveland, CO and stopped to take a walk around the park. I have never seen so many sculptures in one place!

We walked around downtown Fort Collins and checked out the stores.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

I took a drive to check out Colorado Springs. It is a lovely town, but I ended up spending most of the day in the Garden of the Gods. The park was very accessible although road work made it a challenge to get there directly. I started with the visitor center, went through the exhibits, watched the Geo-Trekker Movie ($6 ticket) and had lunch in the Bean Sprouts Cafe (my quesadilla was pretty good, prices were reasonable). The weather was warm and sunny but very windy; the landscape just blew my mind. I spent a lot of time taking photos, especially on the Central Garden Trail. I wish I have more time (and more drinking water) to hike the other trails!

I climbed to the base of this hill but did not tempt fate further up, since I do not have a head for heights nor good balance.

The last site I visited was Balanced Rock which hung over the road out of the park.

Wow, what a place and very aptly named!

Meow Wolf, Denver

My son got tickets to the Meow Wolf Convergence Station in Denver. I had no idea what to expect except that it was an immersive art experience. It was quite an experience, very creative, colorful and sometimes tacky abstract art and crafts that were in parts futuristic, fantasy, steampunk, out of this world and in some cases simply indescribable.

We went through the various rooms, halls, stairs and exhibits, often getting lost. After about 2 hours, I experienced sensory overload and was happy to sit outside the cafe in the cold! I found out that there is another Meow Wolf in Las Vegas but I am not sure that I would do this again.