I’m sure you’re like yeah who cares about that…. now now now before you throw the baby out with the bath water let me just say I would have thought the exact same thing! Never did I think oh we should go spend some quality time in south East Kansas I’ve heard it’s a happening place. But let me tell you, you should! We loved our visit! 🤩
Big Brutus….we had NEVER heard of this. I’d encourage anyone in the KC area to go see this monster. It’s a 16 story tall old mining excavator! It is HUGE! And it just so happens that it has a tiny little RV park in the parking lot and so we stayed at ole Brutus for two nights, getting to enjoy some Kansas sunrises and sunsets!
We did the museum they have on site and with that you get to climb INSIDE Brutus-we had no idea this would even be an option so it was a very exciting surprise! (that green arrow in the picture below points to the look out deck from inside!) We all learned something, Chase and I were more impressed than we thought we would be and the boys LOVED it. A lot of the old mining strips in the area have been turned into wildlife areas. These are stocked with fish and a good area for hunting. We had no idea that was a thing! We definitely could have spent more time exploring the area!
Little House on the Prairie….I’ve eluded to the fact that we have listened to hours and hours of these audio books. They have really been a treasure to our family. Merrick listens, he can tell you stories about them. He knows everyones name. I’ll be cooking or doing something and wish I could talk to Laura or Ma and just keep learning and asking questions. When ever we find our selves in a pickle in this current world Chase and I just share a look and then one of says something to the effect of “what would Pa do?” 🤣
And then Mac, golly the kid is a sponge and asks questions about anything he doesn’t understand so he has learned so much from all the stories as we’ve listened. We’ve caught on that Mac has a knack for learning about historical things. Last year when he wanted “an old fashion wagon” cake for his birthday I thought it was just a phase that would pass. But the kid has continued for the past year to want to stop and see any “old fashion” thing from “back in the day” along our travels. (He also references the 90s like it was the 1700s 🤣 we have a bit of time comprehension to grasp!) When we saw that there was a Little House on the Prairie site a little over an hour from Big Brutus….this boy lit up! Once we got there he would run from one building to the other just hyperventilating-style breathing trying to soak it all up! We read every sign and enjoyed every second we spent there.
Mer and I just might have arrived in costume 😉 …..I couldn’t think of a better place to wear a prairie dress than to the Little House on the Prairie!!
I’d highly encourage spending a day or two or a long weekend seeing an area know one ever talks about, South Eastern Kansas!
(And if you’re wondering why we were there…it was because we were in route to our next gig and it happened to be on the way! Stay tuned! 😜 So thankful we aren’t traveling in a covered wagon to get there!)
