Road Trip

We are back home from our road trip with the Carlows. We had intended to go to Central City, CO but the weather forecasted snow and as it turned out Ken got a sinus infection this morning with makes him dizzy so we didn't make it there.

Weds. we toured the Underground Salt Museum in Hutchinson, KS.
We went down 650 feet. The Museum opened 2007 and is the only one of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
The mine is still operating, it's salt is used for industrial purposes and for road salt.

It is also used as a secure warehouse houseing facility for business records and classic Hollywood films.

We made it to Goodland, KS and decided to turn back.

Goodland has one of the seven easel paintings that are scattered over the world.

We took a Kansas Scenic byway home which took us to Lucas, KS and it's famous Garden of Eden built by S.P. Dinsmoor in 1927. It has been featured on PBS's Rare Visions and Roadside Revelaations. It was a planned stop for us as the Carlow's knew Emily Dinsmoor's 2nd wife. She had moved to Ex. Spgs. after Dinsmoor passed away and she had remarried a Ruckel and had 3 more children, the youngest was a best friend of Bob's. So they wanted to see this marvel of concrete and limestone.

Lucas has become a Kansas art center with it's Grassroots Art Center, the Flying Pig Studio and Gallery,and Worlds Largest Things Museum as well as the Garden of Eden.

We dropped in to visit the Grassroots Art Center, we were given a tour by Rosslyn Schultz the director.

She was so much fun and we enjoyed learning about the midwest artists whose works were displayed.

Like the pull-tab work of Herman Divers

Here Bob is looking over a stone carving of Inez Marshall (1907-1984.)

In the backyard the center has exhibits of the limestone work used in many of the buildings made in the 1870-1920's.

Part of the tour included a tour of the Deeble House

where Mri Pilar has covered the walls and ceilings with aluminum foil and her assemblage art. She uses anything and everything but here dolls are a main focus.

in the backyard is Florence Deeble's (1900-1999) concrete work of the places she visited.

We had such fun looking at the art, if you would like to see more here is a link to the center http://www.grassrootsart.net/ and a link to to Pilar's work http://www.rebarb.blogspot.com/.

We didn't have time to visit the Flying Pig Studio,so we'll have to make another visit to Lucas, KS.







Kansas is really a beautiful state and we have alot more exploring to do.