Day 31 - Shuttlecocks and the Santa Fe Trail, KS

Whilst we were in the hotel bar in Kansas City, Lee notices a picture with some really large shuttlecocks on a lawn. After a bit of Googling, it turns out that they are located not far down the road at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art so we headed over there to take a look.

There are 4 shuttlecocks in the museum grounds and they are the largest shuttlecocks in the world! They are laying in positions either side of the museum to look like how they would have fallen in the game, the grounds are the court and the museum itself was the net. They did look pretty awesome and it was free to visit them!

We then headed over the state border to Kansas and to the Santa Fe Trail.

During our trip, we finally spotted a Chick-Fil-A billboard with the cows that were made at Mardi Gras World in New Orleans. I know we shouldn't get so excited about advertisement but it was cool to finally see the cows they were building on the roadside and in a different state!

The Santa Fe Trail is an old transportation route that linked Independence in Missouri with Santa Fe in New Mexico, before the railroad was in place. Wagons would ride up and down this route for trade and transporting people in search of a new life. There are a few markers along the route explaining some of the history of this route, it was a relaxing drive with few other people along the road and lots of opportunity to pull over and take a look.

We stopped off at a town called Council Grove. This is one of the last towns on the Santa Fe trail and has an old tree stump in the middle of the town called Council Oak. This is where in 1825 representatives of the president met with the Native Americans and agreed a treaty to allow Americans and Mexicans safe passage along the Santa Fe Trail. The oak blew down in 1958 but the town still protects the stump of what is left.

We wanted to stretch our legs a little so walked up and down the high street, then grabbed a drink in the Hays House Restaurant. This was such a find! It was built in 1857 and used initially as a trading post on the Santa Fe trail. It then became a court, post office, theater, tavern and a hotel. It is now a restaurant and bar but is open to the public to walk-around and view the many collections and artifacts. A couple of our favourites were the original news paper cutting following Lincoln's assassination and the original Council Oak agreement between the government and Native Americans.

The final stop before our campsite was Marion Reservoir. The main reason for stopping was that we both needed a comfort break but it was actually a really pretty area and had we had more time, it would have been a lovely place to walk around.

Our campground tonight was Kanopolis State Park but you'll have to wait for the next blog to hear about our stay.