With our National Park visits behind us, we made our way to Limon, Colorado on Sunday, August 30th – another ‘layover’ stop for us in a place where there isn’t much to do or see. We try not to have back-to-back travel days, so we spent Monday in this very small town in Eastern Colorado, and visited their local history museum, which was surprisingly impressive! The town was originally a railroad work camp for the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific line, and today is known as the “Hub City” of the Eastern Plains because multiple highways meet there.

Tuesday, we finally made it to Kansas and our next ‘layover’ stop in WaKeeney, an even smaller town! Temperatures here are over 100 degrees – more of the crazy heat we’ve had this entire trip. We knew August would be hot, but even at the higher elevations, it was hotter than normal. Ugh.

On Wednesday, we drove to the slightly larger, neighboring town of Hays, KS to visit the Sternberg Museum of Natural History. It’s associated with Fort Hays State University and was a really nicely done museum, considering its size and location. Most importantly, it was air conditioned…absolute necessity with temperatures continuing to be around 100 degrees!

Thursday was another Eastbound travel day, to a county park in the Topeka area. We were hopeful a county park campground would have some shade, but we were disappointed to see wide open spaces.

On Friday, we ventured from Topeka to Kansas City, via an amazing sunflower field near Lawrence, KS. Kansas is the “Sunflower State”, and they typically bloom around Labor Day weekend, so our timing was absolutely perfect…we were surrounded by a massive field full of yellow. I would have loved to have walked further into the field for more photos, but again, the temperature was not on our side. The sunflowers were beautiful just the same!

From there, we ran some errands in KC and then went to the regional National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) office to see their “We the People” exhibit. It did a really nice job of explaining how the documents, photos, letters, and other items contained within the Archives’ files help to tell the American story. They showcased some particularly interesting or newsworthy pieces relevant to this part of the country.

Our next stop was an unexpected delight…the National Museum of Toys & Miniatures. It grew out of the private collections of two local women and is simply amazing! The assortment of handmade miniatures was so impressive and awe-inspiring. It’s incredible that people can make such small, detailed objects. My cousin Chris is a gifted miniaturist, and I have always been amazed by her talents; this museum really showcased what goes into this type of work. And, the toy collection was lots of fun and a stroll down memory lane for Mark and I. Definitely a fun way to spend some time in Kansas City!

And a glimpse at some of the toys housed in the museum (these are NOT miniatures!)…

Saturday was another scorcher, with a heat index reaching about 106 degrees. While there were a few outdoor things I wanted to do, we decided to stick to indoor activities. We visited our fourth state capitol of this trip in Topeka, KS. The building was completed in 1903, and is 17 feet taller than the US Capitol. The inside is full of marble and copper, and the rotunda is beautiful! I’m really enjoying seeing the state capitols – they are each unique and full of wonderful architecture with beautiful building materials. I guess we’ve seen about 5 or 6 total at this point…lots more to go!

We did a quick drive-by of the Overland Station which once housed Topeka’s train station; it’s now an event venue and wasn’t open to see inside.

On Sunday, Sept. 6th, we continued our journey East, to the small town of Marceline, MO…but unlike many of the other small towns we’ve stopped in, this one has something especially interesting to see…it’s the town where Walt Disney spent some of his childhood, and much of what we see on Main Street at Disneyland and Disney World was inspired by Marceline. The old train depot (where Walt loved to sit and watch the trains) houses the “Walt Disney Hometown Museum”, and for a huge Disney fan like me, it was an obvious stop for our itinerary!

Monday morning (Labor Day), we decided to check out some of the Disney-related areas of town. The museum itself is closed on Mondays, so that’ll have to wait until Tuesday. Our first stop was Walt’s boyhood home (which is a private residence) and his barn, plus the ‘dreaming tree’ which Walt called the birthplace of his creativity.

Then we headed down Main Street USA (that’s the official street name!). It takes a bit of imagination to really see how it inspired Main Street at the theme parks, especially since there is no castle at the end of the street, and it was void of people (we’re assuming because it’s a holiday and everything was closed!). But, you can imagine that it was a pretty special place when Walt was a boy.

In 1966, Walt and his brother gifted a former ride from Disneyland, Midget Autopia, to the town of Marceline where it was enjoyed by area children for about ten years. The signage is still there, along with a curvy path that the tracks followed. Nearby are some train cars, including a train engine that’s painted to recognize Santa Fe’s sponsorship of the Disneyland Railroad.

As planned, we headed to the Walt Disney Hometown Museum on Tuesday. It was full of interesting displays about Walt and his family and their time in Marceline, and some really unique artifacts linked to Walt and his amazing career. Definitely a fun place to visit if you admire Walt Disney and all that he accomplished!

This was a limited-edition Huffy bike…the Mickey details are incredible!

One of the highlights of the museum is a collection of Disneyland models handmade by a man who lived near the park. As a teenager, he made a model of Main Street and sent photos to Walt, requesting information about the park’s other structures. Walt was so impressed that he provided him with blueprints to aid with his project. The man spent 40 years of his life building these, and then donated them to the museum. Impressive!

Our final stop was the Marceline post office. The building is named for Walt Disney, and his commemorative stamp was issued there in 1968, just two years after his death. Usually there’s a five- to ten-year waiting period, but there was a lot of public and political pressure. I wanted to get their unique cancellation that features the dreaming tree with Walt and his sister standing under it! The perfect souvenir for our visit to Marceline!

That finishes up our tour of small towns (and Topeka). On Wednesday, we crossed the Mighty Mississippi into Illinois…almost home! It rained pretty hard while we were packing up to leave and for the first hour or so of our drive, and then finally cleared up. One final night at a campground near Springfield and we’ll arrive home on Thursday after another wonderful trip that again proved to us that we truly live in a beautiful country, and that Colorado is one of the most scenic states.

All total, we drove about 4,800 miles, stayed at 14 campgrounds, and visited five states over 39 days. Four spectacular National Parks, four unique state capitol buildings, and countless memories made (not to mention thousands of photos taken!). And we really have the process of setting up and tearing down at campgrounds down to a science – we each have our tasks and we are a well-oiled machine! Hope you enjoyed the journey – we certainly did!