Day 17 -- McPherson to Hutchinson, Kansas -- 29 Miles

Today we traveled the fewest miles so far on this trip, perhaps the fewest on any trip anywhere in any time frame. Still, we had an extremely good time. Our goal today was the Carey Salt Mine tour in Hutchinson, Kansas. We had been headed straight for Kansas City, but my shipmate, with whom we intend to visit when we DO reach Kansas City, suggested that we shouldn't miss the salt mine tour under any circumstances. He also suggested we not miss the Science Museum, but that one will have to wait for another visit as we ran out of time.

We had meant to reach Hutchinson last night, but the write-up on the city fairgrounds RV camp failed to impress us. So we ended up in McPherson's Mustang RV resort, which should never be anyone's first choice. If you ask Concetta it shouldn't be your second, third, or fourth choice either. Me, I thought it was just fine. It had all the physical amenities, even though it lacked the ambiance we usually seek, but it had easy back-in spots and everything but the cable TV worked great.

Turns out that the Hutchinson Fairgrounds has a perfectly marvelous camp, as we found out today once our mine tour had ended and we programmed the magic brain to deliver us here. The site is sunny and open and sporting all the physical hookups. Of course at the moment there's a tornado warning out and the wind is rocking the rig like it doesn't weigh any more than a VW bug. But the sun is shining and RVs are pulling into the park in unceasing numbers, so I guess we we'll have company if we end up taking an unexpected flight somewhere.

Being tornado novices, Concetta and I did take a tour around the fairgrounds on foot to scout out the various buildings should we need to seek shelter in one of them at some point. All are locked as far as we could see, but I'll surely take my hammer with us to gain entry if we need to.

Speaking of tools, I have to relate a funny incident since we're both sitting here anyway. When we dropped by Walmart yesterday you may remember that I had the tire shop employee check the air in the spare tire on this rig. You wouldn't believe the spare, I had trouble believing it when I first took off the heavy duty tire cover and checked it out for the first time. Underneath the tire cover, so suitably festooned with the American flag, the whole spare tire is "swaddled" in some sort of plastic membrane to protect it from, well, I don't exactly know what, unless it's just Nevada's dryness.

But while pulling back the tire's plastic protector I immediately saw that there was a small padlock on the mounting bracket for the tire. It wasn't a particularly beefy padlock, so anyone who really, really wanted to steal the tire, and perhaps had his own crowbar, probably would be able to make short work of it. But the presence of the padlock was decidedly unnerving. I am not carrying anything that could easily be used to break into a padlock, no matter what size, in a small, confined space. If we were to have a flat and a tow truck driver responded, he would not be happy with us if he didn't carry a bolt cutter, either.

I looked at the tire store kid and said, "I don't suppose you have a bolt cutter?" I asked him that because the previous owner had not only failed to mention the padlock, but definitely didn't give me a key to it. In fact, I would be willing to bet the previous owner didn't even know it was there since it was concealed beneath the tire cover and undisturbed plastic wrapping.

The kid scratched his head and said, "No, I don't think we do. Sorry!"

I told him not to worry, I'd check inside the Walmart store. And that's what I did when I joined Concetta inside when the tire guy was done. But they had no bolt cutters that I could find. I made a mental note to visit Home Depot as soon as possible, knowing full well that if I ignored the fact that my spare was unusable until the padlock was removed, I was courting disaster.

And so that brings us to today's events. The first thing we did today was seek out the Laundromat that we had accidentally stumbled over yesterday while searching for the Mustang RV Resort. Though we weren't exactly out of clothes or anything, Concetta thought it time to do the bedding and towels and such. And, since we had only to drive thirty miles or less to reach our intended stop for the night in Hutchinson, we opted to use our time doing laundry and getting things shipshape.

Some of you may know that Concetta and I met in a Laundromat back in that portentous year of 1976. After that earth-shattering experience, I have harbored a certain fondness for rooms full of washers and dryers, even though most laundry-oriented business are NOT the most inviting places to spend your time.

But the launderette that we had caught a glimpse of yesterday, even from the street at forty miles an hour, appeared somehow different than what one might expect. The building looked clean and well cared for, and the interior, what we saw of it, looked the same. Once in camp last night, we took a vote and decided to visit the laundry place this morning. The plan was to do the laundry, then drive to Hutchinson by lunch. Then we could buy our tickets when the office opened at 12:45, which would get us on the first tour of the day.

Let me just tell you that if all the Laundromats in America were put on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being best), this morning's facility would not only get a 10, but would probably get a 15 since it was so clean it bordered on unbelievable. We were so astounded that I had to retreat to the RV and grab my camera. Yes, the facility was only 18 months old, but it actually looked like it opened that morning. All the machines were hospital clean, and every single one appeared to be in working order. We encounter so many scuzzy washing machines and dryers on our rambles that a lot of the time we pass on doing laundry because we're so disgusted by the machines, not to mention the facilities themselves.

So, around 10:00 A.M. we had all the clothes folded and put away and were headed out of town toward Hutchinson. Using a mixture of intuition and luck, I managed to pick the right road in the middle of town and off we went. As I mentioned, Hutchinson was only a little less than 30 miles away, so we had time to locate the underground mine tour location, then retreat to a Lowe's store we had passed a short time before. There I intended to seek out a heavy-duty bolt cutter and other related items. Once the bolt cutter, a new padlock, and, for good measure, a hacksaw were located and purchased, we drove back to the salt mine location and enjoyed lunch in the parking lot.

One perk I enjoyed today was a chance to do some photography in a railroad yard. I've always been fascinated by the interplay of colors when the weathered, rusted metal of rail cars are seen against a dissimilar background. The other thing I've been wanting to do is photograph some of the incredible graffiti that has become rather ubiquitous on rail cars. Unfortunately, I found no good graffiti today, but the weathered, rusty cars were there in abundance.

Around 12:30 I presented myself at the door to the tour office since I'd seen car after car of young girls arriving in the parking lot. Concetta and I had read that only 28 humans are allowed in the first group and we really wanted to take the tour as soon as we could so we could get into camp at a reasonable hour. So when the door swung open, I was there to be first at the ticket window. However, it turned out that the girls -- they all belonged to a sorority -- had reservations and they got hustled through ahead of us. Still, we got the 1:20 p.m. tour which was still great.

Neither Concetta nor I have ever been in a salt mine before. We did a coal mine in Wales, and we've done a couple of gold mines, but so far no salt. So this was going to be something entirely new. Once you are issued your hard hat, they usher you into about 40 square feet of elevator space and close the iron door. Then it's drop, drop, drop -- straight down for 650 feet. When you emerge it's into a world that existed some 275 million years ago. At that time Kansas, and a territory stretching both north and south for hundreds of miles, was an inland sea which came and went, came and went. Each successive departure caused more layers of salt and mud to be deposited.

When we emerged from the elevator the guide gave us a brief set of instructions, then told us to go have a good time and try not to stay so long that we got locked in there for the night. From the elevator to where the rolling tours began, you could just wander along and read the many explanatory displays and, often, touch actual salt specimens. They provided the hands-on stuff so visitors wouldn't be compelled to touch the walls, which made them nervous for some reason.

So Concetta and I spent the next two hours underground, reading all the informational texts, touching whatever we could touch, and generally enjoying the heck out of ourselves. Up on the Kansas prairie there were tornado warnings and the wind was making a big nuisance of itself, but down in the bowels of the salt mine it was 68 degrees and the living was easy. We rode the tiny train that plied the tunnels on 18" rails, we took the "Dark Tour" which winds its way back and fourth, here and there, amidst the salt pillars while you sit comfortably on sort of golf cart trailers, and we walked a lot. By the way, the mine into which we had been lowered does not produce common table salt. Their specialty is road salt and salts used in animal feed. Table salt requires more extensive and more careful processing. I was surprised to hear which state ordered the most road salt. Why don't you guess and I'll give you the answer tomorrow.

Yes, it turned out to be just a lovely day and I wouldn't want to change a single thing. The Science Museum that my Navy buddy told us about will have to wait until our next trip. Tomorrow morning we're headed for Kansas City, Kansas City here we come. My buddy Thom is expecting us and I wouldn't want to miss him and his lovely wife, Sarah. If we go out to dinner with them the blog may be a tad late going to press tomorrow, but you know I'll catch you up. Until then, we wish you Happy Travels!