What else is in Kansas

 

Kansas has never been on my bucket list of places to visit, but as I am discovering about all the states I am running in, every state has something to see.  In Kansas, there was lots of grass!  One area of grass is designated as a national preserve.  It is called the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.  And it is featured on the National Park Kansas Quarter.  It is set aside as a remnant of the vanishing prairie.  One part of the trail had grasshoppers jumping in front of me as I walked and it reminded me of the grasshoppers in the Little House on the Prairie books.  And there was some grass that was as tall a me.  But it was brown this time of year and looked dry.    

The visitor center was closed due to the government shutdown

The one room schoolhouse on the prairie

I visited the tallgrass on Thursday, the day I arrived in Kansas.  I landed in Wichita and was able to get a great hamburger and even better fries at a local (at least it looked local) hamburger joint named Spangles.  

The Wichita Airport is called the air capital of the world because of how many airplanes have been built in Kansas.

I got to drive a red Kia in Kansas

I had been to Braum's before in Oklahoma and their milkshakes are great!

The race was in Salina and their downtown was super cute!  They had artwork throughout the town in the form of sculptures and murals.  And they had a really good pizza place for a pre-run dinner and a good Mexican restaurant for a post-race dinner.

I found another giraffe

A hummingbird

After the race on Saturday, I had the option of driving an an hour to see the largest ball of twine or an hour to see the Oz Museum.  Oz won out!  It was a small museum in downtown Wamego.  There was not much there other than that, but it was an interesting museum.  And they had lots of Toto's in town!  

The yellow brick road was not a yellow as the one in Boone at the land of Oz.

One of the Totos

 

I stopped at the Eisenhower Presidential Library on the way back to Salina, but it was closed due to the shutdown too.

One last stop on the way out of Salina on Sunday morning was a donut shop.  I was able to buy the last lemon filled donut!  I also bought a blueberry cake donut that was good to have on the plane ride home since I didn't have time to stop for food at one connection!  

That is my trip to Kansas.  Not a lot of overwhelming sights, but some good food and a good race and one more state crossed off my list.  I am officially done with all states that start with the letter K!

 

Mars the baby hippo

 

So the reason I picked Kansas as my next state and when I did was so I could see Mars the baby pigmy hippo!  If you have not heard of him, google him and see all the posts about him not going inside when he is supposed to.  He is so cute!  So I figured I could see him before he grew up and get a race in at the same time.  

Friday was my day at Tanganyika Wildlife Park. This is a small zoo that has a lot of animal experiences available.  Some cost extra, but many were free.  I did pay extra to get close to the hippos, but other feeding experiences like the rhino and giraffes were included.  Your admission also included meals.  I didn't eat breakfast there, but did eat lunch and snacks.  

The hippos are solitary and the male and female do not come outside at the same time.  I saw them in the morning.  Pluto, the dad, was outside first, and he was the hippo that made a painting for me!

I got to pet Pluto

After we petted Pluto, he went inside and Posie and Mars came out.  We weren't allowed to touch Posie or Mars, but were close to them.  The keepers fed Posie and offered food to Mars, but Mars is still mainly breastfeeding.  He doesn't have the teeth yet to eat things like pumpkins. But Posie really liked the pumpkins!

Posie and Mars

Mars

Posie eating pumpkin

 

Mars did not even leave teeth marks on the pumpkin

Posie took the pumpkin from Mars

Other animal experiences I was able to, well, experience, were feeding a giraffe,

feeding a rhino (you threw the food into their mouth)

feeding penguins, 

feeding a rabbit and a tortoise, 

feeding lemurs (you sit down and the lemurs come to the food in your hand and you are not allowed to pet them)

and birds.  This bird landed on my back unexpectedly!  It was quite the surprise!

I think he wanted more food!

There were some other animals that were neat, but the biggest surprise was the monkey exhibit in the bathroom!  The guys bathroom had a snake...I was glad to have monkeys!

This monkey seemed to be having a fight with another over the baby!  They were grabbing it back and forth.

All in all it was a fun day and the included lunch wasn't bad.  The one thing they did not have, though, were Mars/hippo ornaments.  I was able to get a sticker and didn't want a t-shirt.  But I really wanted an ornament.  Missed opportunity for them!  It was strange because they had panda and lion ornaments, but those animals aren't even at this zoo!

So would I recommend going to Kansas just to see Mars?  Well, I am just glad I had the excuse of running in Kansas in order to see Mars!!