Tag Archives: McPherson Kansas

Kansas to Wyoming October 8th, 2021

We were on the road before dawn on Friday October 8th, 2021 on our Land That We Love Tour. On this day we traveled 549 miles which took us approximately 8 hours. Our original plan was to travel north to Nebraska and then west to Cheyenne but because of some road issues we changed our plans to travel west on I-70 with a northern jog once in Colorado then a west jog and finally continuing north on highway 85 into Cheyenne.

It’s time for some true confessions on some travel failures that we realized once home and doing further research on this area of Kansas. The reason we got off the highway for a while in Hays was to find Joe Bob Outfitters which we did and Dear made a purchase there. We also used the Home Depot for a pit stop. Now come the discoveries we made after we returned home and another discovery just this week. It’s not about Bob Dole, either, although it is interesting that Bob Dole was from Hays. This weeks discovery was that Dear’s mother Verna went to college in Hays! I was going through some of Verna’s papers this week and there were her college documents from Fort Hays Kansas State College!

If we would have traveled north through Hays and then west on highway 36 we would have gone through a few small towns where Verna’s Aunt Matilda (Dear’s Great Aunt Matilda) lived, (Oberlin, Kansas) and where Verna taught in a one room schoolhouse in McDonald, Kansas! Oye, we are kicking ourselves for missing that opportunity.

Another border town that uses part of each state name as the border city.

We stopped for gas in Seibert, Colorado at the Travel Plaza. Gas was $3.499 per gallon in Eastern Colorado. We also turned north here to jog up to Highway 34 and west again to highway 85 and north on 85 to Cheyenne.

The roads we traveled to get to highway 85 were desolate.

Always a good relief to reach our next destination safe and sound. We thank God for that.

We checked into Spring Hill Suites in Cheyenne where we paid $161.70 for our room. We ate at Sanford’s Cheyenne paying $42.14 before tip for a California Club Sandwich, a Cajun Chicken Sandwich and two drinks. The food was good.

Our Saturday travels on October 9th included stops in the historical area of downtown Cheyenne before we left town for Billings. Lots of photos in my next post.

Back to the present…

We spent Sunday January 23rd at home. We planned to go to church but when we pulled out of our drive onto the road it was so icy that our car didn’t want to go straight ahead. Slip, slip, sliding along we decided against our original plan. We very carefully turned around and into our driveway and watched our church service online. For the record, in person church is far better than online church.

The difference a day makes. We traveled on Saturday to Spokane and back home with no road issues. Whatever weather happened over night Saturday into Sunday turned our road into a sheet of ice. Monday the county will probably do some sanding since the school buses travel our road.

Hope you all had a peaceful weekend.

Land That We Love Tour ~ October 7th

We start on our home stretch on our Land That We Love Tour.

After two and a half great days with our brother’s family we left Dallas on Thursday October 7th at O’dark’thirty heading north to Oklahoma and Kansas. I posted a short post on that day here. We got a few gallons of gas at Central Truck Stop in Oklahoma City at $3.199 per gallon. Later that day we filled up our tank at the Costco in Wichita, Kansas for $2.729 per gallon.

After our gas and shopping stop at the Costco in Wichita Kansas we continued North and noticed the sign on the highway about the Mennonite Heritage and Agricultural Museum in Goessel, Kansas. We took the exit and enjoyed our time on these backroads checking out the church and museum.

Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church

Here’s a link to the museum for more information. It is a well thought out museum with a great collection of history and historical artifacts and other objects that tell stories of the Mennonite people in Kansas.

When we walked into the museum we noticed the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Cookbook. Woohoo!

Schroeder Barn

One room schoolhouse

Goessel State Bank

It was quite warm on this day and we were parched after walking around the museum out buildings.

Back on the road we made our way to McPherson, Kansas where we stayed at Fairfield Inn and Suites. We used our accumulated points to stay here for free. We ate at La Fiesta Restaurant and ate well for less than we had at any other Mexican restaurant.

McPherson has developed into one of the most industrialized small communities in the nation. Centered in one of the largest wheat producing areas of the United States, McPherson is also ranked among the top agricultural centers of Kansas.

On this Thursday we traveled 416 miles for approximately six and a quarter hours not counting our shopping and time at the museum.