Exploring along I-70 in Kansas
September 13-15, 2002

Day 3 - Sunday, September 15

I was out of the Best Western and on the road, shortly after 8 AM. Traveling first about 20 miles SW of Salina on Highway 140 to Mushroom Rock State Park. The tiny park is about 2 miles south of the highway on dirt roads (worst I saw during the trip).

It has many of the same concretions that I saw the day before at Rock City, but most of these are not nearly as exposed.
There could be a great many concretions at this park, but most are still covered by the surrounding soil and only a portion is seen. Apparently because the underlying rock has been exposed for a shorter period of time, some of it still remains and it still supports three of the rocks. 

This results in those concretions having a mushroom shape.
After taking a few photos, I headed back east, passing through (by coincidence) Brookville, where I saw the original Brookville Hotel. I think that location wasn't the only reason the restaurant moved, this place looks close to falling apart.


Then on to Rolling Hills Refuge, Kansas’ newest zoo. This medium sized zoo is on 145 acres, adjacent to the Rolling Hills Ranch. The animals are in beautiful condition. The flamingos are even pink! The same pond had a school of what I thought at first were carp, but they turned out to be 25 pound catfish.

It was a beautiful calm, cool, sunny morning and many of the animals (particularly the big cats) were active. There are more than 80 species, including apes, rhinos, lions and white tigers. 

The zoo is off I-70, 6 miles west of I-135 and 2 miles south of Exit 244 on a paved road. Rolling Hills is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Closed Christmas Day and New Year's Day

For lunch, I stopped in Abilene again. This time at the Kirby House Restaurant.

Just one block from the center of Abilene, the restaurant is in a large mansion, built in 1885. The Sunday lunch menu is limited to 10 items (2 of them vegetarian) and 2 specials. I had the country fried steak, with mashed potatoes, gravy, mixed vegetables and salad.

The vegetables were cooked to just the right texture, and were so good that I looked under the steak to see if there was more. The steak was large, though not as large as it looked. The "country fried" coating extended farther then the steak But it was still very good. The gravy was better than Brookville Hotel, but the potatoes weren't quite as good.

For a change, I was interested in desert. They brought a tray with a selection of 6 and I made an excellent choice of apple crumb cake with cinnamon ice-cream and butter pecan topping.

The setting is mixed elegant. The rooms are very nice and old looking and they use nice table setting and cloth table clothes and napkins. But they cover the clothes with glass, except for the tiny table where I sat.

Service was attentive, and they hurried to get my order in ahead of the busload which had arrived just before me.

The hours at this restaurant are limited, so you need to plan your travel on I-70 to bring you to Abilene at lunch or dinner. My next time through there, it will be hard deciding between Kirby House and Brookville Hotel.
 

Then on the road with only one more stop. Fields of Fair, Kansas’ oldest winery (1988), located in a ugly building which also houses a gas station at exit 333 near Paxico. They have a special license which allows them to sell wine on Sunday and are open 7 days a week.

I was only interested in trying their apple and blackberry wines. The blackberry wasn't to my tastes, but I picked up three bottles of the apple.

Rock Fence Posts

This area of Kansas  uses many rock fence posts. Most of them are
darkened and weathered looking which adds a lot of charm to a
simple barbed wire fence.

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