Abilene, Kansas, was the first of the cow towns in the Wild West. Today, Old Abilene Town recreates those days with buildings that simulate the 1870s Abilene and museums that tell the history of the Chisholm trail, cattle drives, and Abilene life in the days of Wild Bill Hickok.
When I was growing up, Wizard of Oz was broadcast on television once every year. I, and every kid I knew, looked forward to the day that Dorothy would end up in the land of Munchkins and journey to Emerald City. Along her journey, Dorothy worked her way into our hearts as she faced fearful obstacles and made new friends. So, today, when I find that our travels are taking us near a Wizard of Oz attraction, it immediately goes on our itinerary. Here are three that we’ve enjoy over the past few years:
We promised our granddaughter, Carmela, we’d take her on a short trip as a birthday gift. Right away she said, “I want to go to Casey.” Casey, Illinois, is home to the world’s largest—well, a dozen different things.
The small town of Casey, Illinois, is home to twelve of the world’s largest objects—rocking chair, wind chimes, and teeter-totter, to name a few. We wrote about the “Big Things Small Town” last year after we had passed through and had seen the attractions on and around Main Street. However, there are more “big” roadside attractions scattered through other parts of town. So, we spent the better part of a day there recently, and we took our granddaughter with us, knowing she’d love it. Here is a video of some of what Casey offers.
Perusing travel brochures during a two-night stopover in Louisiana, we noticed our campground was only an hour from Avery Island. Avery Island is home to TABASCO®, which offers factory tours. Skip loves TABASCO® hot pepper sauce. Me, not so much, but I do enjoy factory tours. The problem was, we had a 1 p.m. checkout time the next day. No problem, we decided. We’ll get there when they open at 9 a.m., and we’ll be back in plenty of time. We could skip the Jungle Gardens tour, a related Avery Island attraction.
In 2021, Union Pacific’s legendary restored steam locomotive, BigBoy 4014, traveled five weeks, through ten states. Having filmed it in 2019 as it rolled through Illinois, Skip wanted to see more of it. When he mentioned he wanted to “chase the train” through Kansas, I was apprehensive. But it was a road trip, and I don’t pass up road trips. The experience turned out to be lots of fun, filming and photographing the train as it traveled from Kansas City, Missouri, to Salina, Kansas.
We captured our story in this video:
