As much fun as we had in Kansas City we knew we had to eventually leave and today was the day. It was finally time to head west and cross the border into Kansas. Our city and stop for the day was the capital of the state in Topeka. As the drive was only a couple of hours from Kansas City we were there by lunchtime.
Kansas Capitol Building in Topeka
After a quick lunch in the van it was time to explore the capital building. Julie and I were both pretty excited to see this building as we had read that it was recently renovated (and the renovations were complete). Many of the capitol buildings that we had visited recently had been in the middle of their renovations. This generally meant limited access and lots of scaffolding blocking rooms or the outside of the entire building. As the renovations were complete we didn’t have to worry about much.
As we entered the building we were asked if we were going to do the building tour or dome tour. As we had done prior research we knew that we wanted to do both. The Kansas capitol building is one of only a few in the USA where you can actually take staircases to the very top and outside of its dome. A few others joined us on the tour and the guide took us up starting on the buildings top floor. From there we went through a few doors leading to stairs marked restricted and found ourselves on the top of the inner dome. Here we saw what they referred to as “historical graffiti”. It was pretty neat as it dated from the early 1900’s all the way to the 1960’s.
We took small flight of stairs after small flight of stairs and after each and every one the guide told us that if we did not feel comfortable we could turn around at that point. As nothing seemed out of the ordinary no one took him up on his offer until we entered the room that would take us to the very top. Once we entered the hollow inside of the top dome things got real. At this point Julie got a little scared of heights and did not want to go on any further. I pressed on however.
If you close your eyes this is what the room looked like. I was inside the huge top dome with the inner dome coming up from the floor and taking up the bottom 1/3rd of the room. A staircase that led up to this room was located on the very side with the stairs then going on top of the dome to the center. At this point the stairs went up to a small landing about 20 feet above the “floor”. Then went steeply back up another 200 feet to the center of the room (in mid air) where it was attached to a small steep spiral staircase that went up to the very top where you could access the outside. I’m not usually afraid of heights but even this got my heart pounding a bit. I was not expecting an adrenaline rush on a tour of the Kansas capitol building.
As no one moved when the guide said, lets go to the top, I took the initiative and followed him up. I tried to look at the stairs in front of me instead of over the railing and in a few short minutes I was at the top. As Topeka isn’t that big and it was a bit of a cloudy day the views could have been better but it was a pretty awesome feeling being at the very top of a state capitol building. In the 30+ capitol buildings that we have visited this was the very first one that offered this kind of tour. After a few minutes of looking around we were able to go back down on our own and I made my way slowly down, small staircase after small staircase. Finally I made it to the top floor and rejoined Julie.
We then took the normal capitol building tour, which was good too. Along with the recent renovations were new art pieces, which was very different than what we were used to seeing. One of the big things to see in Topeka is the “Brown vs The Board of Education” site and of the newer paintings depicting this. After seeing painting after painting in capitol buildings of 100 to 200 year old paintings it was pretty neat to see a newer painting depicting a scene from fairly recent times.
Topeka, KS
From the capitol building we drove around Topeka a bit stopping for a bite to eat and a beer at Iron Rail Brewing. Even though it was Sunday and not much else was going on in the town this place was busy. We sat down, had a beer tasting and an unexpected sausage tasting. For a small city both the beer and sausage were excellent! From here we drove a little south to our campground and rested for the rest of the night.
The next day we woke up to a beautiful and sunny day and it was time to hit the road. We would be going south and west to Kansas’ largest city of Wichita. The drive was beautiful and before we knew it we were looking for parking in the city.
Wichita, KS
In doing a little research we found out that most of the entertainment area in the city is in an area known as “Old Town”. Old Town is the historic district in Wichita that was remade into a shopping and entertainment area. We found parking and started to walk around. We found the central square of the area and lucky for us there was a small fair going on. There were vendors selling everything from shirts, to plants and coffee (Sunflower Espresso was a great vendor!).
As we were taking pictures and videos a group of about 50 women started to walk by us wearing some pretty funky stuff. Multi colored shirts, hoola hoops, just crazy clothes. We were intrigued and followed them and before we knew it we found ourselves walking into an area of Old Town that was about 10 feet lower than the rest of the surrounding area. It had an outdoor bar and stage with a band playing. The place was packed so Julie and I slowly made our way down to check the place out.
The women made their way to the front of the stage and kind of danced as we tried to figure out what exactly was going on. We think it was some sort of fashion show but we never really figured it out. Nonetheless we enjoyed the music for a bit before walking around Old Town for a bit more. We stopped at Third Place Brewing for a bit of a rest and to try some of their beers. They had good beers, comfortable chairs and a friendly staff. Not much more we could ask for!
From Old Town we drove to and walked around the Delano Neighborhood checking out a few shops and their cool clock tower. As it was getting late in the day we headed to our campground a little south of the city.
Looking ahead Julie and I had planned to head up to Nebraska the next day however Mother Nature had made some plans of her own. There were monster storms heading across the plains states (Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas) and most of them right in our direction. These storms had tornadoes, torrential rain and hail; all things people living in RV’s generally need to stay as far away from as possible. We had to make a move and had to do it quick!
Next up….Our 11 hour escape from the storms of the Plains States!
