Saturday 23 October

This was the one day were nothing much went right so I won't dwell on it too much. The plan was to get from southern Missouri, where I was camped, to a campsite near Kansas City so as to watch a American football game the next day. The idea was to go via some Lakes that looked like they may be quite nice to have a drive and look around. However they were all a bit commercial so weren't very exciting, I had trouble finding a pay phone and it was raining on and off so I slacked it off and headed North. The dam in the photo was about the only intersting thing I saw. The drive was a long drive and I arrived at the campsite I'd planned on camping at after they stopped accepting registrations (8:45 or 9 depending what sign you believed). There was someone in the booth but they woudln't serve me and when I turned round to drive off (it had a barrier so I couldn't just camp) a couple of old people came out and gave me a dirty look. My back up motel was full so I went to another campsite that I thought I wouldn't be able to get onto but I was a bit desperate. I was right I couldn't get onto it and as by this time it was around eleven I went and found a motel to stay in - which cost a bit too much money!

Sunday 24 October

Kansas City Chiefs

The next day I had tickets for an American Football game. I had no idea how difficult the traffic and parking was going to be so I arrived in plenty of time as it actually caused virtually no problems. The ensuing wait was, however, well worth it as the game was really enjoyable and despite having the cheapest seats I could see everything quite happily. This being America they did everything over the top, including having a horse ride on to the pitch with a banner when ever the home team scored! Kansas City did win quite handsomely which undoubtedly made it a better experience.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

I next went and tried to visit a museum but unfortunately the last tour had already started so instead went to this meseum. Although it was quite interesting it was far from the best meseum I'd been to so I was soon on my way to my next campsite. This was a free campsite a bit in the middle of nowehere but I found it, pitched, made and ate dinner and promptly went to bed as I think I'd let myself get dehydrated and had given myself a headache.

Monday 25 October

Topeka

After I had struck camp I headed to Topeka and after taking a couple of pictures of the State Capitol I headed to Brown v. Board Of Education National Historic Site. It was a really interesting meseum where I learnt quite a lot about the civil rights movement and had a nice chat with one of the rangers. I hadn't realised that although there were seperate schools in Kansas City they truely were equal - the buidling the meseum was in had been an old Black elementry school - and this was one of the reasons this case was so important as it said segregation was wrong even when facilities actually were equal.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

I then started heading south towards Oklahoma City and stopped off at this preserve who's aim was to preserve the original scenary. As the ground in the area was pretty rocky it had never been properly farmed for crops and jsut used for grazing and so it was still like the whole area had once been. I first looked round the buildings associated with the ranch before heading off on a short hke to see more of the prairie and also see a old one room school house. After this I contemplated going on a longer hike but as the day was getting on and I still had a lot of driving to do I got on my way instead.

Tuesday 26 October

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum

I got up early the next day as I though I had quite a lot to fit in but still managed to take a couple of photos before I left my campsite. My first port of call was the Stockyards, but my information must have been wrong or out of date as they were empty and so there was nothing to see. My next stop was the science museum where I though there was an exhibition on the history of photography, but it turned out this was a travelling exhibition that although based there currently wasn't there so I headed off to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. I was really impressed by this and had a really good three hours looking aorund. My favourite bit was defnitely learning about the sport of rodeo, which I now think seems even crazier than I did before!

Oklahoma City

I next headed off to take a picture of the Oklahoma State Capitol. This state capitol get's it's own heading, unlike the others, due to the wierdness of it all. It had an oil well right in front of it and including to the sign it actually went down diagionally to under the capitol! Quite, quite mad.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial was my next step. This was the site of America's biggest act of terrorsm before 9/11 when the federal building was bombed killing 168 people. The muesum itself was ten dollars and from the leaflet avaliable outside didn't look that exciting so I headed on my way instead.

Chickasaw National Recreation Area

As I was finished in Oklahoma City much early than I was expecting I decided to stop off at Chickasaw National Recreation Area on the way back to Dallas. After a bit of time spent trying to find out some information about what there was to do I eventually went on a couple of short hikes which were both enjoyable although the first one was much the more scenic.