Cindy in a hot air balloon at the Oz Museum in Wamego, Kansas.

West Rolling Hills Campground Junction City, Kansas September 24 – October 1, 2024

We left the Walmart in Colby, Kansas on Tuesday, September 24th after picking up some groceries and drove 3 1/2 hours through America’s breadbasket to the West Rolling Hills Campground outside of Junction City, Kansas for a 7-night stay. Let me tell you, driving that long through nothing but wheat fields drives Cindy nuts, lol.

Our site was a back-in spot on the shores of Milford Lake. It was pretty sloped downward to the lake, but we made it work. The sites in this loop have 50 amp power pedestals and water, but no sewer. They’re spacious enough but there is almost no shrubbery or landscaping to separate the sites. We had a nice view of Milford Lake out our back window.

Fort Riley

Oh, and Fort Riley is nearby and for some reason they keep exploding things all day, every day and some nights. The first time we heard it we thought it was thunder in the distance but it was just people playing army all day, every day and some nights. Fort Riley is an infantry installation that traces its origins back to the people and trade movements of the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails in the 1850’s. Closer to our time period actress Barbara Babcock (probably best known for her role in Hill Street Blues) was born there and Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrator of the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995 was once stationed at Fort Riley.

After breakfast on Wednesday the 25th we took Bella for a walk around the campground roads. There are no trails here to hike. We spent the afternoon watching the progress of Hurricane Helene, which went from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane as soon as it entered the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. We were concerned for our family and friends on the west coast of Florida and up into Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia and West Virginia since it was supposed to be a Category 4 when it hit the projected landfall of the Big Bend area of Florida near Perry.

In addition, since some of the places we are planning to stay in over the winter in Florida could suffer damages and possibly have to close, Cindy is trying to find us some back-up spots if needed. But finding open spots that aren’t $100 plus a night in Florida during the winter months is almost impossible.

Bella Back to the Vet

Thursday was supposed to be our laundry day, but Bella had other ideas. We took her for her walk and when we got back to Nomad our girl had a strong smell of ammonia that we didn’t notice in the outdoors. We took a look between her legs and her lady parts were swollen and we suspected another UTI. After five phone calls we finally found a vet 20 miles away in Manhattan, Kansas that could see her.

The prognosis was not good. She had another UTI; a very severe one. The vet prescribed another round of antibiotics. She was also still having nerve pain from her neck to her hind legs, so another pain relief medication was given. Even though we had her kidney functions tested in July we asked for them to be tested again and the results from those won’t be known until the following week. However, this vet felt like she might be entering or in Stage Four Kidney Failure, so our drive back to Nomad was another somber one.

We have had Bella longer than we expected when she was first diagnosed in March, so we’re grateful for all the time we didn’t expect to have back then. But we keep hearing that she is close to the end so sadness prevails.

Between Bella and our worries for family and friends in the path of Hurricane Helene, sleep did not come easily Thursday night.

Weekend Worries

Friday morning, after taking Bella for her walk (which she still loves to do), it was time to head to a laundromat. All day I had a sharp stabbing pain in my head which was no fun. I wish Cindy would get rid of that voodoo doll and pins, lol. In the afternoon we watched the news to see the devastation that Helene wreaked upon Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Our hearts go out to those folks. The campground is filling up for the weekend and I spent the evening watching “Heels” by myself because it’s not a show Cindy would be interested in.

The weekend at the campground was busy, which is to be expected. What wasn’t expected was having insane people in the site next to ours who would spray lighter fluid on their firewood, start the fire and then go off boating while leaving the fire burning. Even when they finally vacated the site on Sunday afternoon they left their fire smoldering. The camp hosts (who don’t normally seem to do too much) came by and poured water on the smoldering wood. Most of the campground was empty by 4 pm.

Oz Museum

While driving from Colby to Junction City on Tuesday we kept seeing billboards for an Oz Museum. It turned out to be about 30 miles past our campground but we decided Monday to go ahead and drive there to see it. We were glad we did.

Located in Wamego, Kansas the Oz Museum came about after a local Rabbi donated his personal collection of Wizard of Oz memorabilia to the local theater for a special showing in 2004. The show was such a hit that the Oz Museum came to be here in the story’s home state of Kansas. Today there are over 2,000 items on display from the 1900’s to more recent versions (think “The Wiz”), wax models, themed toys, a haunted forest tour, a replica of the balloon ride and even a theater in the back that constantly shows the original 1939 movie starring Judy Garland.

We spent about an hour or so just walking through the museum. We relived some things we knew and learned lots of new things. For instance, did you know this? When author L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) was asked what the name of his magical land was to be called, legend has it that he looked at a set of filing cabinet drawers labeled “A-N” and “O-Z” and declared the land would be called Oz.

After finishing up at the museum we walked across the street to the Yellow Brick Road. It’s really just a brick path between two buildings with delightful murals painted on the building’s walls. But how could you NOT follow the yellow brick road, if given the chance? Then we walked down the Main Street (which, by the way, is decorated with various statue versions of Toto) to the Oz Winery. The lady there told us the origin of the museum that I related to you above. We, of course, had to buy a bottle of “Wicked Deeds” wine before leaving.

Monday night was very windy throughout the night and into the next morning when we left for our next stop over in Missouri. In fact, we wondered if we might possibly be blown into Oz ourselves, lol!

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