Day 1 Kansas

We have a wedding celebration in Houston on February 4th, someone we've watched grow up and she is handling grown-up life fabulously.  She has found her equally fabulous life partner and they are set to profess their final vows in just a few weeks; we are looking forward to that beautiful day. With that said, we decided maybe we should finally attempt to see some National Parks in Texas.  Every time we have attempted something has come up, like CoVid or other commitments.  It is advised to visit them in the winter anyway as it gets pretty darn hot in the summer.  

Day 1 started at 6:14 am from Kyana.  It was dark and we left amidst a wintry mix as we pulled out of the drive.  Phoebe and our house will be well taken care of as always so we have no worries there.  The weather varies from snow, sleet, or icy rain for about an hour or so, and then thick fog.  The temperatures keep dropping.  The sun shows itself but it stays cold.  We probably won't see temperatures above freezing for a week.  Why?  Well, we are taking a roundabout way to the wedding.  

We packed up the truck Saturday as we are camping and discovered our pop up canopy and accompanying "cube" tent attachment's one door fit perfectly around the back opening of the truck!  Woo hoo! With electric available we can plug in an electric heater within that enclosed cube (10'x10') and add some heat to the mix.  We discuss back and forth how much foam to take to sleep on, how many blankets, coats, and everything else possibly needed for cold nights.  We take turns driving and arrive in Lebanon, Kansas in about 11 hours.  Why Lebanon?  About 2 miles outside of the town proper is the exact geographic center of the United States (Lower 48).  There is a tiny chapel there, right there in the middle of the USA. A Jeep video featuring Bruce Springsteen (Super Bowl 2021) was filmed here.  (https://youtu.be/-gPOPLrUfyw) 

We set up camp first and, because we practiced (!), it was up pretty quickly, and yes, that is snow on the ground.    

We drove the two miles to the center and spent some time there. Everything was pretty snow covered so we parked just off the road. It is sort of surreal to think we were standing in the exact center of the USA!  The chapel was built in 1967 and moved here later and rebuilt in 2008 when someone missed the stop sign and hit it. The site garners a few thousand visitors a year. It isn't a large area and we read the signs sharing the geographic specifics/coordinates and took some pics.  

After sitting for 11 hours, we needed to get some steps in so we wandered around after we got back to town.  It is a very small town (population 182 in 2021), with extremely ginormous grain bins and silos and other farm-related implements/accessories looking over it. The entire state is flat and the roads are straight, as is Lebanon, with so many fields, everything snow-covered, and quite a few cows just chilling (literally and figuratively!).  We got a bunch of steps in, seeing the sights including an old-time jail that was essentially a two-room cage (!), then headed back and settled down for the evening. We were going to play games (Travel Scrabble? Uno?) but it was a bit cool sitting there even with the heater so we jumped into the back of the truck and just got some football updates (Andrew) and book time in (East of Eden for Cheryl). For those wondering, we usually keep the tailgate down when we sleep back there, head to the gate side.