Wrong Address and a Tornado

Today was an eventful day, as usual.  It's becoming a habit.  First off, this morning I had breakfast in the local diner because that's where the motel does free breakfast.  Next off I went to find the last existing Pony Express station.  I entered an address into the Garmin and off I went.  Well all of a sudden I am on a gravel road which was strange.  But it got stranger from there.  Next I was on a dirt road with calves escaping into the road from under gates.  There were muddy spots that I worried about getting through.  It just kept getting worse.  I even flushed a flock of wild turkeys.  The Toyota took it all.  We did have some almost out of control slipping but we made it to this out in the middle of nowhere address.  So I tried again by putting in the name of the Pony Express Station and got a totally different address, so off we went.  This time we made it.

I was early for the opening time so I sat in the car reading.  The opening time came and went so I decided to go to the Visitors Center next door down the road a bit.  As I was leaving I met a neighbor who told me that she had read that the caretaker had retired and they hadn't hired another one yet.  No sign about that, of course.  So a few pictures and I was on my way.

I was going diagonally across Kansas to the Barbed Wire Museum.  I ran into an amazingly heavy rainstorm.  It was so bad I couldn't see the road.  I finally found an exit and a MacDonalds at the bottom.  I stopped for lunch and while I was there we had sirens go off meaning a tornado was in the area.  We were all hustled into the very back of the store behind all the kitchen equipment, where there were cinderblock walls.  The tornado touched down several miles away so we held for awhile until the all clear came through.

Then I continued my journey to the Barbed Wire Museum which doesn't open until May.  I've done it again.  But everyone who was cleaning the history museum felt so sorry for me they got someone to open the museum for me.  It was well worth the stop.  The barb wire collection was fascinating!   The farmers were very creative and created beautiful patterns in the wires and connectors.  The tools used to work the wire looks vicious but it is working with sharp barbs.  If I could figure out how to load pictures to my blog I would show you some of the patterns.  Also every year at the fair they have a contest to see who can make the best artistic piece with barbed wire.  The winner last year was a Butterfly, it was lovely.

After all the excitement I headed to Hays where they had a Comfort Inn.  There were no motels in La Crosse where the Barbed Wire Museum was.  It has been a long day.