It was a Good Land after all!

We just wrapped up our two night stay in Goodland, Kansas.  We choose this particular stop based solely on how far away it was from home until our next stop. This year we really tried to focus on shorter drives and longer stays, but this first drive was (or should be!) our longest. Google Maps said that it should have taken us 6.5 hours, but when we programmed Drogo's gps, it said it would take 8 hours!! Usually, Google Maps tends to be more accurate, but this time, our truck had it right. We left at 9:00 am and, after 2 stops to refuel, we were completely set up in our spot by 6:30 pm.

My horrible attempt to capture the tiny "Welcome to Kansas" sign

The weather on our drive did not really give us summery feelings - the majority of the drive it was overcast and rainy. And, for several hours it POURED down rain and had heavy sustained winds (25 mph) and occasional 50 mph gusts of wind. It made for a pretty "exciting" drive! 

Pouring down rain

I entertained myself by alternating between knitting on my swirl jacket and talking to the cats. And, ever the helpful one, also looking up truck stops on my phone to give us places to fuel up.

My swirl jacket - I obviously have a long way to go! Also, my yarn is more navy blue than in this picture. 

Even though the drive was more interesting than we had predicted, as soon as we reached the KOA in Goodland, the sunshine came out. It was fairly cool outside (we even remarked that it almost felt more like October than June), but it was nice to sit outside in our space. 

Red solo cup! I fill you up! It's time to party!

Go Pokes!

We had planned on staying an extra day to give us time to recover from the long drive, but also get ourselves ready for the rest of our trip and to enjoy our time. So, the next day, we ventured out to explore the super adorable town of Goodland. First up was "The World's Largest Easel"! Also, apparently known as the Van Gogh painting.  

Why, that is a large easel!

I am not exactly sure I understand the point of the super huge easel + painting, but it was actually pretty cool.

I am leaning on the left leg of the easel, for perspective purposes. HUGE!

 

After we saw the easel, we got groceries to last us the next week.  On the way, we ventured through the rest of the town - which is super adorable. According to wikipedia, it has a population of about 5,000, but it felt bigger to me. I loved how cute the houses were and how well maintained a lot of them were. The main street was huge, and the entire thing was paved with bricks.

A view down the brick road of main street. 

Sadly, several buildings along main street were out of business, but there were also several that looked like they were thriving, like the amazing restaurant that we went to for lunch.

On The Bricks Cafe

After groceries and lunch we went back to camp to play a cut throat game of putt putt golf.

The owner's of this KOA were a really nice couple and you could tell how much love and effort they put into maintaining the grounds. And of course, the mini golf course was no different.

Besides the putt putt course, the KOA also had a pool and a playground, which included this amazing old tractor and mini log cabin:

Overall, this KOA was really nice. Our spot was the best in the park - very private with nice views of trees and wildlife for the cats. We also had shade during part of the day and were right next to a lovely rose garden. We will definitely stay here again (which we are on our way back home!)

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One thing that we discovered when we got to our next spot - we seemed to attract a crazy amount of moths while camped in Goodland. They seemed to embed themselves into any crevice on the 5th wheel and the truck and we opened the slides, they started to get into the trailer. So, we spent the evening running around hunting moths. We have never had that happen before - don't know if that is just because of the location or the time of year or both, but definitely not a fun thing. I really hope that we have found them all. I don't want our 5th wheel to become a party bus for moths!