Our trip down the Yellow Brick Road

May 18, 2011

Up early again to hit the road, just not as early as yesterday.  6AM never looked so good, after being up at 2AM yesterday.  HAHA After rearranging the car and forcing the cats back into their harnesses and kennel, we were on the road to Denver.  The cats were none too happy to be stuck back in that kennel, but they’ll adjust soon enough.  We made it through Topeka Rush Hour traffic (which turns out isn’t too bad).  We were making great progress cruising along I-70 when THERE IT WAS!  The Holy Grail of my life.  A Wizard of OZ museum sign.  I had forgotten that we were passing through OZ territory today.  Naturally I screamed like a little girl “Can we go? Can we go? Can we go?”  I looked over to my wonderful husband with, what I’m sure were, huge dreamy eyes.  He smiled and said “Sure!  We can go if you want to!”  I nearly cried.  It just meant so much that he would delay our trip for a couple hours so that I could live out a dream at the museum. 

The museum was in Wamego, Kansas.  This tiny little town that reminded us of Urbana or Bellfountaine, Ohio.   The museum had this fantastic shop, complete with a HUGE bust of the Tin Man, signed by Roger Baum (who I assume is a Great (or Great-Great) Grandson of L. Frank Baum).  Those of you who don’t know who L. Frank Baum is, pick up The Wonderful Wizard of OZ (the book) and have a good read.  Picture to come later.

Inside the museum was an enormous collection of memorabilia, toys, books, etc…  They even had a First edition copy of the book.  Blew my mind away.  I’ve included some pictures to help you get a visual.  They also had life sized sculptures of the main characters. I was impressed by their accuracy (although not perfect) they were pretty good.  

 They even had the movie playing in a small theater.  Biggest screen I’ve ever seen the move on.  Is it sad when you can say all of the dialogue along with the movie?  No. I don’t think so.  LOL  After all was said and done, my STILL super wonderful husband let me get a new T-Shirt, Collage style movie poster and Xmas ornament.  He’s da best.

After the museum, we made our way down the block to the OZ Winery!!  They sold wines that were named some of the most clever things (see picture).  Some of the names included “Squished Witch”, “Oil Can”, “Click” and “Wine of a Different Color”.  They even had “SURRENDER” wine.  We had a short wine tasting of the wines I mentioned, (minus Click and Wine of a Different Color, we still have lots of driving  to do).  Bought a couple bottles to add to my ever growing Wizard of OZ stuff and made our way back to the car.

Boy, were the cats glad to see us.  Although, I think that they liked roaming around the car while we were gone.  Poor things.  I hate keeping them cooped up there all day long, but at least they get to stretch their little legs when we stop to stretch our big legs. 

As we were driving through the “Flat State” and making a lot of comments about how Kansas is NOT flat at all, we saw zero homes, tons of land, and hundreds of cattle.  We were wondering who owns all of this land and livestock.  Apparently wild cows are running rampant all over the state.  HAHA  It was really beautiful though.  Wes said “Surreal” at one point because one piece of land was bright green and yellow with almost perfect lines across the hills contrasting the two colors.  It’s not a very exciting drive, in terms of big cities and such, but it’s really beautiful this time of the year.  Everything is bright green, (I’m sure the result of lots of rain).

The cats finally fell asleep.  They've been so good on the trip so far.  We are so lucky to have two smart cats that like each other.  They are really cute sleeping together in their kennel.  If I wasn't connected to the internet through my phone, then I'd upload a picture.  Maybe later. 

We will be on I-70 until we hit Denver tonight.  Got lots of driving left to do today.  I'm sure we'll see lots more interesting things on the way that I can write about later. (I saw signs for "Dorothy's House".  Maybe another stop?  HAHA  Just kidding Wes!)

Until later-I'll keep signing the songs from the movie.  Poor Wes!