We decided to take a three-day weekend and visit a place where we still have a fair number of counties to collect: Kansas. So, on Friday night after work, we drove to the Hyatt Place in West Des Moines, Iowa. On Saturday morning, we headed toward Kansas and the first new counties of our trip. Traveling west on I-70, we picked up Douglas, Shawnee, Wabaunsee, Geary, and Dickinson Counties. We even saw some army helicopters in the air near Ft. Riley Army Base. We continued to drive all the way through Dickinson County until we reached exit 266 near the city of Solomon. We went north a couple miles, hugging both Dickinson and Saline Counties, before heading west another mile to pick up Ottawa County. The unpaved road was littered with something we later learned were Osage oranges.
From there, we drove to the city of Abilene, Kansas, where we visited the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum to pay our respects to the 34th president.
Leaving the museum, we traveled south and west to pick up Morris County. We continued south and west, stair-stepping our way to pick up both Marion and McPherson Counties. We then headed directly to our hotel, the Hyatt Regency Wichita. We drove through Harvey County on the way. As we neared the hotel, we decided to pick up a bonus county to the south. We drove through Wichita, headed southwest on HWY 15, picked up Cowley County, then turned around and headed back to the hotel. It was a beautiful downtown hotel right on the Arkansas River. We ate a nice dinner at the Harvest Kitchen, located in the hotel.
On Sunday morning, we drove east out of Wichita on HWY 400. We picked up Greenwood County, then turned south on HWY 99 for two miles to pick up Elk County. We continued east and picked up Wilson County before heading farther north near the city of Buffalo to cross into Woodson County. We continued east and north and basically stair-stepped our way to pick up Neosho, Allen, Anderson, Linn, and Bourbon Counties.
We crossed into Missouri near the far southwest corner of
Bates County and then headed right for one mile until we crossed into Vernon
County. After briefly driving north on I-49, we got off and headed toward
Appleton City, which was just inside St. Clair County. A few miles later, we
turned north to cross into Henry County. We then traveled south on HWY 13.
There weren’t a lot of food options, so we stopped at the BP in Lowry City,
where I picked up a hot dog.
At Osceola, we went east on HWY 82, eventually hitting the tri-corner of St. Clair, Hickory, and Benton Counties. At that point, we headed a little south to HWY 54, then went east into Camden County. A few miles in, we turned south and drove five or six miles until we crossed into Dallas County. From there, we headed northeast all the way to the beautiful area of Osage Beach. We then headed southeast to our hotel, the Hampton Inn St. Robert. Along the way, we picked up Miller and Maries Counties.
On Monday morning, we started our long trip back to
Wisconsin. However, we had one final county stop to make. As we headed toward
St. Louis on I-44, we got off near the town of Sullivan, headed a little bit to
the east, and crossed briefly into Washington County—our last new county of the
trip. From there, it was a straight shot home, but we did stop for a pizza
lunch at Monical’s in El Paso, Illinois.
So when it was all said and done, we had picked up 32 new counties. We also crossed over the 75% completion mark! So, what's next? We have a long weekend getaway in Texas planned for December. Stay tuned!
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