The drive from WaKeeney in western Kansas all the way across the state to Kansas City was a straightforward haul along the interstate, so I took the opportunity to write the text for my artist journey blog on our lap top during the five hour drive. It felt great to catch up on some stories since often we are so busy having fun that it is hard to find the time to document it!
We found a lovely KOA about a half hour drive west of Kansas City, which is a bustling place. John found out about a large Cabela’s store near the Kansas Speedway so after we hooked the trailer up to utilities we drove the truck into town. We drove by the Speedway which is the big professional race track where NASCAR events are held. Impressive grandstands and acres of grassy fields for parking (empty when we saw them). Just as well – if it had been a race weekend we would not have found a campsite in the vicinity I am sure. We checked on the internet and they were selling tickets for the fall races already.
It was Saturday afternoon and Cabela’s (which is an outdoor store like Bass Pro, selling clothing, camping and hunting gear) was having their weekly outdoor clearance sale (75% off) so John found a nice pair of leather loafers and a gift for a friend back home. We explored the store for a few hours and had supper at Jimmy Buffet’s restaurant ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ at the newly buiilt mall next door, which was called Legends Entertainment District. The photo below shows a band playing in one section of the outdoor mall. There were lots of people there - not sure if they were actually buying stuff or just there to be entertained.
Having seen several advertisements for the Nebraska Furniture Mart, we passed by that store, which took up a huge section of the outdoor mall. The first photo below shows the entrance to the parking lot and the second photo shows just two wings of the store from the outside.
There were about seven lanes of cars – maybe 100 vehicles – lined up in the Customer Pickup lot, which made us wonder what sort of bargains would attract that many buyers during a recession. We decided to return on Monday for a look-see, when it would not be so busy.
The next day, Sunday, we were awakened in the early morning by a loud thunderstorm. It was so lovely to hear the rain on the roof of our RV and feel cosy and sheltered inside so we slept in late. During our whole three month trip we only had a handful of wet days so we enjoyed the rain. After doing the laundry and going on a grocery run in the village nearby, we got out the motorcycles and drove back to ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise’ for the weekly motorcycle ride-in that the restaurant hosts. As it turns out there were only about ten bikes there so we had a snack, took the photo below of our bikes in front of the restaurant and headed back to the campground, but the ride was really nice through country highways.
Monday we headed into the Nebraska Furniture Mart first thing in the morning and more or less had the store to our selves. It took us over an hour to walk through all the departments and we have never seen such a large showroom of furniture, appliances and electronics. What surprised us was that prices were about the same as at home, so I guess it was the large selection that brought in the buyers, or else they had had a special sale on during the weekend when we saw so many people lined up to pick up their purchases. There were perhaps 30 or 40 fridges on display, some retailing for as much as $7000. We saw all kinds of those nifty coffee tables that swing up to dining height. It was a very interesting visit.
We checked out a few more stores that John was interested, including the LMC Truck Accessory warehouse, and he made us some delicious back ribs on the BBQ back at the campground. The next day we loaded up and headed for Hannibal, Missouri.
December 22nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm I really like your writing style, its not generic and extremly long and tedious like a lot of blog posts I read, you get to the point and I really enjoy reading your articles! Oh, and merry Christmas!
December 22nd, 2009 at 4:58 pm Thanks for your kind comments and happy holidays to you too!