EPIC ROAD TRIP: Day One, Part One: In Search of Tulips and Tacoz

After a delicious breakfast of cereal and fruit and English muffins and assorted other complementary breakfast foods, we hit the road once again for Wamego, Kansas and their annual Tulip Festival, which we were eagerly looking forward to!

Upon arrival, we noticed something a little...odd...

No, not whatever it is Nikki's doing in this picture.

THERE WEREN'T ANY TULIPS IN BLOOM!!

We just laughed and kept driving to downtown. So there weren't tulips at the sign. Maybe they had some good ones blooming in town. Maybe they had had some imported for the festival.

Nope. Just disappointment.

And melodrama from Nikki, of course.

Some of the flowers were SO CLOSE to blooming! We kept coaxing them to grow suddenly, but it didn't work.

The tulips seemed like just an excuse to have a festival though. The whole town of Wamego (and a lot of tourists like us) were out in the sunshine selling and buying crafts, playing games, eating delicious food, and experiencing everything that the park had to offer.

The large pond in the middle of the park offered visitors serene, gorgeous views. I bet you could get some model boats or something and zoom them all around in the water. If only we'd had one with us; I'd love to go yachting!

There were historic statues like this one around the park too. We looked at the outdoor ones and visited the Historical Society's museum (in next entry). It was so neat seeing how a town like Wamego used to be!

We started our tour of the grounds by supporting small businesses and SHOPPING!! First stop: a tent that was filled to overflowing with different kinds of jellies, jams, and quick bread mixes, all homemade.

That Peerless Pear was AWESOME. They sold spicy versions of some fruit jellies too! All were a little too spicy for my taste, but I have a sensitive palate, so don't discount them because of my review.

The business is called Sticky Spoons, and good news!! THEY DELIVER!! There were so many flavors, as you can see. As I mentioned above, they also sell bread mixes in cute little fabric sacks. OH! And they use old sugar bags as their shopping bags instead of just a plastic bag! How cool is that?! 

Here I am with the owner, rocking my "best friends" ring that Lauren, Lisa, and I got at Carlos O'Kelly's the night before. (None of the rings fit Nikki's fingers, so she didn't get to be best friends with us. NYAH!)

We also visited a tent where a gentleman cut wood pieces into really cool picture frames for people's names and for pet names! Lauren was surprised and pleased to find a frame for her dog Sneakers, who's the unofficial mascot of her dog-walking and dog-sitting business Pawsitively Pooches. (Nikki and Steve use her and her employees to walk Eva twice a week, which is great, because that's 20 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday that Tasha and I get to nap without Eva wanting to play/hog all the covers.)

The company, called Name Frame Place, is run by Kevin & Deb Ledford.
They make custom frames too!

AND!! Their business card is made of wood!

Another great vendor we bought things from was a woman named Amanda who sells chain mail jewelry! We all bought rings, but she also sells bracelets and earrings and fairie wings, and "clothes"! You can buy her awesome stuff here: http://www.etsy.com/amandalynnchainmail. Everyone should buy something from her and her husband! They make chain mail stuff together while watching TV and snuggling in the evenings. It's TOTALLY ADORABLE.

Nikki: "OMG! I'D BE THE PRETTIEST OF FAIRIES AT FAIRIE FEST!"

Hanging out with Amanda's husband, who's wearing an AWESOME outfit with the Punisher's logo on it!

After we finished spending all of our money, it was time to GET. SILLY.

Gymnasts!

Keep it movin'. Nothin' to see here. Just an armadillo on a riding mower.

Let's go knock down a building so I can scoop up the debris!!

No, Lisa!! I'm not debris!!

They had some historic re-enactors at the festival who showed visitors how settlers at the time would make clothes and go hunting for food and procure other necessities. They also had some fun games that people could play. The most popular one was throwing an axe into a block of wood:

You got about three tries to hit the wood, I think.

Lauren, Lisa, and I vehemently denied Nikki the opportunity to play the game.

Nikki: "But if an 8-year-old can do it, I can too!"

Lisa: "That's the worst idea I've ever heard."

Lauren: "If there's something you should NEVER do, it's throw an axe."

Me: "I can't believe you think we'd let you get away with this."

Disappointed, she huffed away towards the petting zoo, which the girls had wanted to visit anyway.

The petting zoo was hosted by the local 4-H club, the kids showing off their rabbits, goats, llamas, and sheep. I was distracted from the get-go by a GIANT pooch in a cute tee shirt. Turns out...HER NAME IS CLAIRE!! She's the second Claire I've run into on my adventures.

We were all very happy to make our acquaintances. :)

Lisa had been freaking out (in a mature, adult way) all day about going to the petting zoo and petting the goats. She's NUTS for goats. She took a bunch of pictures and was all smiles.

I bet she'd TOTALLY be that crazy hippie lady that raises goats in her house in the city. They work really well as lawn mowers. They'll eat anything.

After such a busy day, we were starting to get HUNGRY. The food trucks were offering delicious-smelling things - barbecue, hamburgers, sausage, hot dogs, chicken...basically nothing Lauren could eat. They also had funnel cake, and I REALLY campaigned to get funnel cake, but the second point of going to Wamego was to go to Toto's Tacoz and eat some Wizard of Oz-themed Mexican food.

 Nikki's tee-shirt says, "the taco is the most versatile fruit". Lisa has a matching one, but she forgot to bring it.

The line to get food was understandably long, so we spent time looking for all the little Totos they had hidden around the restaurant. Can you spot them? (Note: Some are easy to find, and some are hard!)

There were murals all over the restaurant. It was a really bright, fun place!

This one's pretty easy to find! ;)

Three amigos!

Flying monkey!!

Lisa and Nikki each got a Toto's taco; Lisa got hers with ground beef, and Nikki got hers with pulled chicken. SOOOOOOOOOOOO good! Lauren got a cheese quesadilla with salsa that she really loved.

It looks sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good! And it was!

Nikki rated it highly on Urbanspoon.com so other people would know how great it is. Right before we left, we HAD to do a Wizard of Oz-themed photo shoot!

I'm Toto!! Lisa's an excellent lion. And Lauren looks like she'd be MUCH less annoying than the real Dorothy.

We got back on the road shortly after lunch and headed southeast towards Oklahoma City. Before I share THAT adventure with you though, I'm going to write an entry about the Wamego Historical Museum, which had a TON of really cool antiques in it...so many that I felt it deserved its own entry!

EPIC ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG YOU GUYS I FINALLY GET TO GO ON A LEGIT ADVENTURE AGAIN I'M SO EXCITED!!!

Nikki, me, and her besties Lisa and Lauren are going to 4.5 states in 2.5 days. No one thinks we can do it, and we probably can't, to be honest, but it's gonna be SO AWESOME to try!

First stop: Wamego, KS for their tulip festival and Wizard of Oz themed food/wine stores.
Second stop: Oklahoma City, OK because Lisa's never been to Oklahoma; we're also gonna go to a blues bar and eat barbecue
Third stop: Amarillo, TX to see Cadillac Ranch where this dude PLANTED CADILLAC CARS and then got all artsy with them
The half-state: We're gonna drive through New Mexico to get back to
Fourth state: Colorado, where if we have time, we're gonna stop off at this place named "Cimino Park," just like Nikki's family's name!

We got a new camera, because Nikki's fancy one stopped believing that its lens was attached to it when IT TOTALLY WAS, so we'll be able to document all the awesomeness of what we're doing.

See you when we get back!!! <3

Kansas Tried to Kill Us

Eventually, Kansas got a little boring. VERY VERY pretty, but occasionally boring. I think "car fever" (like "cabin fever," but in a moving vehicle) was starting to set in, because as we drove down that long, long stretch of I-70W, it started looking like the road was driving into nowhere, into the horizon, INTO A NOTHINGNESS SO PROFOUND THAT MY TINY ARMADILLO MIND COULD NOT COMPREHEND IT.

(Click on photo for full nothingness effect. Photo credit Steve.)

Just as I started realizing that there WAS an end to this road and not a complete drop into the end of the world, GIANTS WITH HORRIBLE, FLAILING ARMS CAME INTO VIEW AND SURROUNDED US!

Tasha was sleeping in the backseat, snuggled up on Steve's pillow, which was on the floor of the car behind the passenger side seat.

I don't get it. We'll be on flat land, nothing interesting going on at all, and she'll be roaming all over the damn car, meowing her head off like she's warning us the British are coming, but when rotating monsters in the horizon are preparing to attack, she sleeps through the whole ordeal. CATS.

Nikki finally explained to me that the giant things were "wind turbines," which the state uses to generate natural energy. So rather than burn a bunch of coal, which causes a lot of pollution, to make electricity, Kansas takes advantage of the fact that it's flatter than a squirrel on the double-yellow line and uses these turbines (like windmills) to get electricity. Knowing that they a) weren't trying to attack me and b) creatures being used for good calmed me down a bit.

 SUNFLOWERS!!! (Photo credit Steve. As always, click on the picture for a better view.)

So there we were, innocently driving through Kansas, admiring the beautiful and bounteous sunflowers that grow all over this part of the country. We had passed through Nothingness and Wind Turbines, and the future was looking promising....

THEN THE STATE TURNED ON US WITH A CLOUDY VENGEANCE!

Dark clouds began an epic assault on our soft, white, fluffy friends and smote them mightily. We were driving into something awful...

SOMETHING LIKE A TORNADO!!!!

The Wicked Witch was coming for me! She was obviously furious that Nikki and I escaped her trap in the poppy fields and was going to finish the job she started by sucking us up in a tornado and taking us back to Oz! Once the rain started falling, Tasha woke up (she HATES storms) and started meowing, so for quite some time, there was chaos in the car.

WILL WE SURVIVE?!?!?!? You'll have to wait for the next post to find out!!!!!

Just Click Your Heels Three Times...

First of all, Kansas is gorgeous. Picture proof in the next blog entry. This entry is dedicated to one of the coolest museums I've ever been in: The Oz Museum in Wamega, Kansas. Located in a little town about ten miles off of 70W, the museum houses an awesome amount of Oz memorabilia and is also affiliated with the Oz Winery and Toto's Tacoz. The small main street has a bunch of other cute shops and restaurants, plus....

THEY HAVE A YELLOW BRICK ROAD!!

Inside the museum, you walk into the gift shop first, where there's a "tornado simulator," a bunch of kitschy Oz-themed gifts and...

a giant statue of the Tin Man! Notice how tiny I am compared to it!

Also in the gift shop area (for sale nonetheless!): 

You enter the museum proper through a screen door, just like one that Dorothy would have at her aunt and uncle's house. Once inside, there were dioramas of the different characters, old toys, old copies of the original Oz books, and so much else to see!

 FYI, Dorothy: We're still in Kansas.

 ...You can't prove that it was me.

 What do the Scarecrow and I have in common? We're both stuffed!!

And I thought the *movie's* flying monkeys were scary!! (Click on the image to read the caption.)

 *sings* If I only had a heart!

 Fun fact I learned at the museum: the Lion's costume in the movie was made of a REAL LION PELT!! Plus, apparently, it was, like, the most uncomfortable thing to wear EVER.

 

Oh no!! The Wicked Witch of the West is trying to put a spell on me!!

 

 Poppies...paaaahhhhpeeeezzz...does anyone else feel sleepy?

 Glinda the Good Witch to the rescue!!

 One of the more random pieces of memorabilia in the display cases.

A movie theatre was showing the film! Nikki and I walked in just as Toto revealed the Wizard was really a little man behind a curtain. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

This was a really interesting display case about how a Wizard of Oz collector received some rare dolls from the Oz store in the World Trade Centers...after September 11, 2001.

 Click on the picture to enlarge and read the story.

 It's good to be the Emperor!!

 Nikki's usurping my throne!!! >:O

Steve and Tasha sat and waited in the car for forty-five minutes until Nikki and I were done going through the museum. They are WONDERFUL people/cats.