Eastward, Ho! Days 5 & 6: Swedish Horses and Salt Mining

 July 10, Thursday

There was an abortive attempt to explore the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library Complex (we couldn't get in due to Covid restrictions having resulted in daily ticket quotas being sold out).

The only building we had access to was the Chapel where Eisenhower and his wife are buried:

We then displaced to the Hillsboro Cove COE (Corps of Engineers) campground near Marion, KS.  It was only for one night but our first COE sight together.  We'd had it with the heat and humidity and having electricity and water for $10/night with my Interagency Pass discount was great.

Site 6

After we got camp set up, Martha took the Sammy and drove about an hour to the town of Lindborg which boasts a Swedish Heritage.  Here's some of the pics taken by her:

Pretty pricey for something no one I've asked on the Norwegian

side of things, seems to like eating

Meanwhile I hung out at the campsite, then decided to unload Yagi from the VRRV's front rack and ride around to explore the campground and surrounding area.  There wasn't must to see at the campground actually as about 1/3 of it is being worked on in some way or another and blocked off.

Once I'd seen all there was to see, I headed out of the campground and found the a deadend road that ended right at the water's edge of Marion Reservoir which is where the campground is located.

Not much else to report, Martha returned reporting no issues with the Sammy for which I was happy to hear.  

July 6, Friday - On to the Salt Mine

After a lazy start, we got the VRRV packed up and were headed out by 10AM I believe, taking the time to dump tanks at the entrance to the campground then heading to Hutchinson, KS to visit the Strataca Salt Mine Museum.

Pretty neat museum, you are taken 610 feet underground by elevator and the rest is information displays and exhibits of old salt mining equipment and of course the salt mine itself!

All the comforts of home while working the mine

The small locomotive for the train tour

Salt mines are also used for long term storage of documents and other media due to their stable temperatures and humidity levels.

Paraphenalia from movies are also stored in the salt mine's storage facilities:

It's quite dark, as you might imagine, down in the salt mine, but here's a couple of pics that turned out:

Unused mining results due to the quality of the salt being poor.

A view of one of the many 50 foot support pillars, on left, and where

the roof of salt collapsed when it separated from the mud layer above it

We were done with all the touring by 4PM so we headed to our next campground, another COE site called Whitehall Bay Campground near Fall River, KS.  The site isn't as nice as Hillsboro Cove but it does include sewage drain at each site.  Located on the banks of the Fall River Lake, the camp sites are a bit close to each other but for $10/night with full hookups, can't really complain so far.

We'll be here through Monday morning, after which we head for Oklahoma!