Epic Road Trip 2017 - Day #1

Today we started our summer 2017 adventure.  We have been planning this trip for quite some time and we were very excited to get started.  Until we got in the car, that is.  Up until we left, we had been at our new house in Berryville and had our things delivered to the house.  We were busy putting some things where they belonged and enjoying the finished house.  When it came time to leave this morning we both were a little more hesitant than we expected.  Likely a lot of this feeling came from knowing that the majority of our trip would be across the flatlands of Kansas.

Despite the initial lack of enthusiasm, as the day went on we became more excited for what was ahead.  We got back into our "extended road trip" mode pretty fast.  We played the license plate game, and "cows on my side" game, with a "manatee" twist (cow in the water).  We took a few breaks, including one in the town of Salina (shout-out to the Linvilles!) where we had some sushi.

We also kept Katy caffeinated, which greatly improved the "blah" day we were having.  I drove more than I usually do so that Katy could knit on her sweater.

Another thing we always like to do is take a picture with Tucker the traveling bear at state signs, national parks, and anywhere else we think is cool.  We stopped at the Kansas border and snapped a quick picture.

Something new for this trip was that we wanted to highlight something that we learned each day.  Today in "What We Learned" we discovered the Basilica of St. Fidelis in Victoria, Kansas.  We had been on a particularly boring stretch of highway for a while when Katy said, "That's a castle!"  As we got closer, it did indeed resemble a castle, but was actually the aforementioned Basilica.  It was a Catholic church that was built from 1908-1911, and recently elevated to the level of a minor Basilica in 2014.  The most interesting fact I read was that all members of the town of Victoria 12 years and older was asked to pay $45 and contribute six wagon-loads of stone for the construction.

Bonus "What We Learned" - Wilson, Kansas is home to the world's largest "Czech Egg" at 22 feet.

We stopped for the night in Colby, Kansas at the Comfort Inn, and were looking forward to heading to Rocky Mountain National Park the next day.

For the day we saw license plates from 1 different states and from the Cherokee Nation.  We traveled 561 miles.