Burning up the back roads

Today’s adventures started with the Big Ball of Twine as our first destination.  En route, we went through Phillipsburg to see the town square barn quilts and Smith Center to see the big windmill.  Along the way we saw lots of wheat and alfalfa (ok city girl didn’t realize hay comes from alfalfa) and a replica of the Statue of Liberty. 

The World’s Largest Ball of Twine is in Cawker City. Any time another ball of twine approaches its size, they just add more twine.  

In Cawker City, there are two old gas stations that have been converted to single room motels. There’s one across from the Big Ball of Twine and then another up the road.  We stopped at the one up the road to see if we could see anything through the windows and totally got busted by the owner. He told us we peeping Toms were usually at night…he was totally cool and even let us take a look inside. He and his wife bought the buildings and through research found out they used to be a gas stations so he restored the outside and made the inside into rooms.  He has several properties in town and showed us another that was next door. The gas station motel we went in goes for $85 a night and the one across the Big Ball of Twine goes for $75. The old Revenue Manager in me told them they should totally be charging more for the one across from the Big Ball of Twine as that was a prime location!

Next stop was very interesting…The Garden of Eden. The house and all the yard art is made of concrete. The founder and his wife are in the mausoleum in the back yard and he is actually mummified and in a glass topped coffin so you can see him. He’s been dead 85+ years and was definitely looking rough (we couldn’t take pics in the mausoleum).  S.P. Dinsmoor was a retired Civil War veteran (from the “other” side) and started building the house in 1904. He was married twice and his second wife was 60 years his junior. They has 2 kids and his oldest son served in Vietnam making them the only father and son in history to have had a father in the Civil War and a son in the Vietnam War. He was VERY eccentric…he even had it written in his will that he was to be mummified and placed in the coffin so people could see him for eternity. 

Around the corner is the Giant Toilet so of course we had to stop! The outside artwork looks like a giant toilet with a mosaic lid and bowl and is complete with a giant concrete roll of toilet paper.  Inside are two artistic bathrooms free to all to see and use. 

Driving to our next stop, we came across the gang from The Wizard of Oz and more alfalfa, wheat and oil rigs. 

After an awesome lunch at a roadside cafe, we went to The Cathedral of the Plains. 

My uncle’s family has a couple oil rigs so we got an up-close look at one. After the oil comes out of the ground, it goes into a tank battery.  Water and oil are mixed so the tank battery heats it up to separate them and the oil then goes in another tank so it can be picked up by a truck. 

We also got an up-close look at wheat and dried alfalfa/hay. Once the alfalfa is cut, it must dry before it can be baled. If the hay isn’t dry before it is baled, it can catch fire or get moldy because once it is baled, it creates a lot of heat. 

After  dinner with my cousin, Jonathan, my aunt drove us around town a little more. Another great day seeing the country and spending time with family.