Home by way of Dorrance, Wilson, Mushroom State Park and Coronado Heights

After good-byes to my daughter and granddaughter, I drove to pick up my friend Ruth.  We headed home towards Kansas.  Wait a minute, looks like we were headed west to the mountains!!  Wouldn't mind a trip to the mountains!  But Kansas is east.

So I turned around and took Airline Road east.  Wanting to go on a road I'd never been on before, we went south on the Kiowa-Bennett Road all the way to 86.

We could barely make out Pike's Peak.  I really enjoyed this road!  I will definitely plan to bring Allen this way next time we go to Denver!

We drove south to 86 and then west to I-70, north of Limon.

We were ready for a rest stop.  We saw a sign on the highway for a coffee shop in Limon that I'd never noticed before.

It is called Ahimsa Coffee and is on 6th St. just down the way from Taco Bell.  I think it is a Christian establishment.  Good coffee!  The barista knew our "long ago" friends, Ryan and Lindsey, who used to live in Newton, but have moved to a ranch close by!

At Goodland, we were ready for lunch.  We stopped at a Steak and Shake.  I have never eaten at one before.  It looks like a fast food place, but they actually seat you and take your order at the table.  Pretty good food!  We ordered kid size shakes!  Oh yum!!

The next "new" road I thought we could adventure on was to get off I-70 and drive into Dorrance on Old U.S. 40.

This old bank building, Dorrance Bankery, is a bakery now, and a museum, I think.  It was closed, unfortunately!

The safe in front of the place says "Free Dough".

Cute town!

The next town we came to was Wilson.  It promotes itself as the "Czech Capital of Kansas" because of the many Czech immigrant settlers here in its early history.

Simple Haven B&B

That looks like a fun place to stay!

Below is the Wilson Chamber of Commerce

The world's largest Czech egg

We continued on 40 past Ellsworth.

We took a dirt road to Mushroom Rock State Park.

Look how this tree grows right through the rock!

On to Coronado Heights.

Supposedly, the Spanish explorer, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado visited this area in 1541, looking for the Native American community of Quivira, where he was told that "trees hung with golden bells and ...pots and pans were beaten gold."

Ruth had not been to Coronado, nor had she been to the Swedish community of Lindsborg.  We didn't have time to stop or shop (it was past shop hours anyway), so we will have to have this adventure on another day.

A great travel day!  The normal 7 hour trip was done in 12.