Posted in: Broken/Damanged Things, Injuries

Avoiding COVID

As a preface, I am going add this: I know this might cause a little controversy because people have made it political and love to preach. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I never thought I would have to add this disclaimer, but mean comments will not be approved and/or will be deleted.

We spent a year on the road traveling to new places, seeing amazing things, all while wearing masks and trying to socially distance as much as possible. We made it a year during the height of the pandemic and didn’t get sick, not even a cold.

We did our best to keep healthy and avoid Covid. Spoiler: we failed.

When we got home from our year long journey, the Governor had lifted masks requirements. While the kids continued to wear masks out, Ben and I stopped wearing them for about two weeks until the Delta variant became a stronger presence in Ohio. We started wearing them again indoors or at crowded outdoor events. However, we were one of the few. The boys’ schools were not requiring masks. There was not a lot of space between their desks or even at the lunchroom tables. We had the boys wear masks all day at school and while there were a few others, they were not in the majority.

We got an email a few days after Will’s first day (mid-August), that during freshman orientation there was a kid in one of his classes with COVID. With Nick’s school, they reported cases at the end of the week.

We kept wearing our masks. It seems a simple enough thing to do to keep us and the people we love healthy. We have several family members who are more at-risk and would hate to cause them to be sick. There are enough kinds of masks available, that we found ones that were comfortable for us to wear for long periods of time. Ben and I have also been vaccinated. We were able to get the J&J while on the road. Of course, 3 days after getting it, the blood clot issue came out in the news. We had a sore arm, but no other big side effects.

I really debated on the vaccine for the kids. Ben and I were fine “experimenting” on ourselves. The vaccine only had emergency approval and any really long term effects are not known. What happens 5 – 10 – 15 years down the road? Rushing something normally doesn’t end up with good results, no matter how smart you may be. Add in the talk of having to get boosters too, and I wasn’t sold on the idea for the kids.

It took me a lot of soul searching to decide to get the kids vaccinated. Nick’s cardiologist recommended it, as the more severe side effects of Covid are not great for the cardio kids. Their pediatrician, who I adore, also recommended it. We had a talk at their yearly physical and even he admitted that he wasn’t sure on the vaccine for kids in the beginning. However, he felt that there was enough information out there now that the Pfizer vaccine would be safe and that his own son recently got it. Their doctor is normally pretty laid back, so this was a big statement from him. If I can’t trust the people who have helped keep my children healthy and alive since they were infants, who can I trust?

Now, do I trust everything out there and that the people in power do not manipulate what they show to the public? No, of course not. However, based on my kids’ health conditions, the fact that schools were not requiring masks and had a very lax quarantine policy, I decided to get them vaccinated.

So, back to “Avoiding Covid”. We wore masks, we were vaccinated, and it still made its way into our house. Ben said we should have just kept traveling.

We are 90% sure it came home from school, even with our kids wearing masks.

It’s hard to know if you have Covid. The list of symptoms are varied and long and can be the same as if you have allergies, the flu, or a cold. To make it even more confusing for us, there was also a summer cold going around. Will never had any symptoms, Nick had mild cold symptoms, and I had bad cold symptoms. I had maybe 1/2 to 1 degree fever for one day (which I get with bad colds) and my taste buds were funky (like when you have a cold), but I never lost any smell/taste, so we assumed it was the summer cold.

Ben came down with it several days after us. His quickly escalated and he had 100+ degree fever for 4 days. His taste buds were also off, but didn’t lose taste/smell. He did have muscle pain/aches. He was quarantined to our room. It was Saturday of Labor Day weekend and he still wasn’t feeling well. Every ad says “get tested”, but it wasn’t that easy. I tried CVS, Walgreens, and The Little Clinic (Kroger) to get an appointment and couldn’t get in until Tuesday or Wednesday. There were not any big testing sites set up for the weekend. There was one testing site open 24/7 associated with a local hospital, but they required a doctors referral. I called the nurse on call for Ben’s primary doctor’s office, and she told me she would leave a note but not to expect a call back until Tuesday when they would be back in the office. I told her I simply wanted a referral so he could be tested, but she told me I would have to wait. I finally brought him in to an Urgent Care Sunday morning that had open hours. We had to wait in the waiting area, which seemed dumb. Why not have us wait in the car to limit exposure and call when the room was ready? After a rapid test, it was confirmed that he had Covid. She stated we probably all had it, but it was too late to test the rest of us. We picked up some different over the counter medications that she recommended and back upstairs he went.

The quarantine is long past and we have all recovered from anything we had. Ben said that is the sickest he has ever felt. For any longer lasting side effects, I would say a lingering cough and being tired. The cough is pretty much gone now, but Ben and I still have just an overall feeling of being tired.

Posted in: Exploring Nevada, Sightseeing, YouTube Video Link

Las Vegas: Walking The Strip

After brunch at the Wicked Spoon, we decided to walk the Strip. We had parked the car at the Cosmopolitan before breakfast. Many of the casinos on the Strip were offering free self-parking. The Cosmopolitan’s garage was under the hotel/casino and was really neat. Each parking spot had a sensor which would glow green if empty and red if occupied. The end of the rows also told how many available spots there were.

We wandered through the Cosmopolitan to exit onto Las Vegas Blvd. The casino had a hands free motion activated door opener, which was neat.

When we made it out onto the Strip, it was a little after 10:00 am and already very sunny and warm.

Our first stop was the Bellagio. They still had the beautiful flowers on the ceiling that I remembered from years ago. The boys said they were neat, but I think that was more to appease me than anything else.

They did like the Conservatory. It was set up for Fall and contained a woodland scene. It was amazing. It had to have taken so much time to set up. There were fountains, flower covered mushrooms and trees, a talking tree, a tree house, flickering dragonflies, and a large tree you walked through. I have a quick video on YouTube that shows the display.

Next we headed to Caesars Palace. We walked through the Forum Shops. The Atlantis show was cancelled, but we still got to see the different statues and the sky ceiling. The fish tank was fun to watch as well. There was even a COVID-19 Essentials store which sold a large variety of face masks. We took the spiral escalator down (because when are we going to see one of those again?) and headed back out to the Strip.

Our next stop was the Mirage. We saw the waterfall in the front (we had just missed seeing it turn into a volcano last night) and the atrium.

We headed over to Treasure Island. The front of this had changed since I was last there. I got to see the Pirate vs British ship and the guy vs girl battle shows in the past. Those are over now, although I wish they still had the Pirate vs British show since the kids would have gotten a kick out of it. The one ship now has what looked like horns on the bow and a large Viking shield by the wheel (even though the boat itself has not changed design and is definitely not a Viking ship). I found this video on YouTube of the original pirate show.

We stopped at the Wynn next. The inside was beautifully decorated. There was a moving carousel made of flowers. The horses even had eyelashes! The nearby walkway had large flower balls hanging from the trees. Further down the path was a hot air balloon also made from flowers (this one didn’t move).

Off to the Venetian! The gondolas were running, so we watched them for a few minutes outside. We wandered around for a little bit inside and found Carlo’s. I used to watch Buddy’s show all the time! We got a cannoli and a lobster tail to try later.

We walked past the LINQ. We’re hoping to do the High Roller Wheel later in our stay.

We stopped in Paris for pastries and bought an eclair and an apple pie tart.

Everyone was pretty tired by this point and we still had to walk back to the truck. On the way back, I was slightly envious of all the people with scooters zooming along the sidewalks.

We ended the night with the boys taking a dip in the campground’s pool.

COVID-19 Notes On Las Vegas Casinos:

Because we had the kids with us (and the fact that I am not a big gambler at all), we mostly just walked through the casinos to see what we could see. We stayed on the main walkways for the most part, so these notes are definitely not everything, just what I observed as we walked through.

Bellagio: Throughout the Bellagio, especially at the entrances, they had stations of hand sanitizer and masks available for use. Near the casino floor, they also had a hand washing station. There were floor markers for social distancing at check-in and the Conservatory.

Caesar’s Palace: At the entrances, they had stations of hand sanitizer and a sign with Mr. Las Vegas wearing a mask. Masks were not available at the station we saw, but it did say they were available at the front desk, security, and Rewards Center. When we exited the casino, we did see a mask and hand sanitizer station, so I guess they had masks at select spots. Seating/benches were marked as closed by a sticker, but not roped off, so many people ignored the signs.

Mirage: We didn’t explore the whole gaming floor since we had the kids with us. The blackjack tables did have plastic dividers between players.

Treasure Island: This was the worst casino we have seen so far on the trip. The main entrance off the strip did not have hand sanitizer or masks. The doors are not touch-less to enter. I was glad I had my own sanitizer with me.

Wynn: Hand sanitizer stations available. The roulette wheels had coverings on the outer side near the walkways. Blackjack tables had plastic shields between players.

Venetian: When we entered from the Strip side, there was a hand sanitizer station. They also had a thermal temperature scanner that took temperature readings as guests walked in. There was even a staff member standing at the top of the escalator telling people to fix their masks if they had it on wrong (not covering their nose, etc.). Poker tables had plastic dividers between players.

Paris: Social Distancing floor stickers by restaurants. Mask stations.

Posted in: Animal Sightings, Exploring Utah, Hiking, National Park, National Parks, Sightseeing

Zion National Park: We Got Passes!

Ben and I ran into Muddy Bee Bakery and grabbed some items for breakfast: a raspberry lemon scone, a cinnamon roll, a loaf of sourdough, and breakfast sandwiches.

The breakfast sandwiches were the best!

We were able to get afternoon passes for the shuttle and headed up. The Visitor Center parking lot was packed, but we managed to find a spot.

The shuttle is running a lower capacity (about 33 people per shuttle-which is made of two buses each) due to COVID. Our first driver was great and pointed out several of the scenes in Zion along the route. We saw a few deer along the drive as well.

There were a few trails I had on my list, but several were closed due to rock falls (stops 2, 3, 4, and 7). We decided to walk the Riverside Trail (stop 9, the final stop). It is completely paved and ends at the river where the Narrows trail begins. It is a pretty easy walk, about 2 miles. The trail goes through a swamp area (crazy in the middle of a desert) and gives you peeks at the river. Some of the rock walls along the trail were seeping water. Different plants and flowers were growing out of the rocks near these spots and made for some very pretty scenery.

There are signs everywhere saying not to feed the wildlife (in particular a lot of “don’t feed the squirrels”). These squirrels are ballsy. They come right up to you and beg for food. You know how Custer State Park had begging burros? Zion definitely has begging squirrels.

We had to wait a little bit for the shuttle back, but it wasn’t too long.

We were able to get passes for the next day in the early afternoon and decided to hike the Narrows. We rented equipment from Zion Guru. The store was in Springdale, which is right outside the gates to Zion. It was $25/person and you got a hiking pole, neoprene water socks, and water shoes/boots.

Note: The park does state to wear a mask, but it is not really well enforced. There were people who kind of had it on for the shuttle and once boarded took it off.

Posted in: Animal Sightings, Exploring Utah, Hiking, National Park, National Parks, School, Sightseeing

Arches National Park, Stop 1

Our first adventures in Moab were in Arches National Park. We missed the beginning of the sun rise because we were all lagging and dragging, but at least caught the tail end.

We brought lots of water and sunscreen with us in our day bags and in the truck. We wore our boots since Utah has several varieties of rattlesnakes.

The colors are amazing! When I think of dessert, I picture brown. However, there are reds, browns, whites, and greens here. The minerals in the earth make a lovely canvas across the land.

Our first hike in the park was to Delicate Arch. This is the arch you see on the license plates. It was listed as a moderate hike, about 3.5 miles (there and back). There is a trail in the beginning, and then you hike up a large slab of slickrock and follow a few signs and other people around a ledge to finally see the arch.

The views are amazing once you get there. It was a little crowded, and so far the people in the parks in Utah are not as good at wearing masks in outdoor crowds as in Montana or even Colorado.

You are not allowed to climb on the arches (you would think this is obvious, but we have seen people climb them despite the signs), but there are other rocky areas to climb. The boys love stretching their legs and testing their climbing skills. Of course, the “look where you put your hands and feet” is cautioned before they attempt anything. Within minutes, they came running back yelling about a snake. Will almost ran into a snake…again. Luckily Nick saw it and they ran away.

Ben and I walked over to see what they saw, and it was a small snake curled up on the rocks. It looked like it could have fit (while curled up) in the palm of your hand. I had my zoom lens with me, so I zoomed in for a picture and Will asked a Ranger later. She seemed very surprised and said it looked like one of their smaller rattlesnakes that live in the park. We think it may have been a midget faded rattler. Luckily they are usually nocturnal and he didn’t wake up from the boys climbing right near him. So…the boys were done climbing. We also saw a small lizard and a blister beetle.

After that excitement, we walked back along the trail to stop at Wolfe Ranch. It is a small pioneering type of cabin from the late 1800’s. Mr. Wolfe was originally from Ohio! There were also petroglyphs in the area that we walked to see.

As part of the boys’ online school, we are allowed supplemental hours. We wanted to incorporate learning into a lot our daily fun/activities. When we got home, they researched what kind of snake we saw, blister beetles, and petroglyphs vs pictographs. We learned that if you see lizards out, the snakes are probably going to be active as well. Some adult snakes can control how much venom they inject during a bite. Petroglyphs are etchings/carvings in rocks, while pictographs are paintings.

After the boys were done with their research, they went with Ben to the pool while I worked on the laundry.

In the evening, we went into town and explored. Moab is a cute town! Lots of things to see. They have a Food Truck Park, which is super cool. Unfortunately, there have only been a few of the trucks open each time we have gone. We got a shaved ice to share and then went to The Spoke for dinner. It is a cute building with interior brick walls and it looks like original wood floors. We were on the second floor by a window, which is always nice. They have really good burgers and Brussels Sprouts.

It was a pretty good day, although I think we were all ready for bed by the end.

Posted in: Exploring Montana, National Parks

Yellowstone & Gardiner, Montana

We stayed just outside of Gardiner, Montana. We were a mile from the North entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

The town of Gardiner isn’t very large, but it has most of the things you need. The town is split over the Yellowstone River, so it is set in a really pretty location. There is a gas station a few miles out of town, but there is also one right in the middle of town. There is a small bookstore/coffee shop, which has a decent selection of local touristy books, some fun reading books, a few kids books (mostly younger kids). For more book options, there were also a few Little Libraries/Free Library stands around town. Will found a new book to read! On the other side of the river, closer to the park, is another coffee shop/cafe. There are several souvenir type of stores, our favorite being the t-shirt shop.

The grocery store/market has a decent selection. The prices are a little higher than a chain store, but most of the time the difference wasn’t horrible. There are several restaurants and a couple of food trucks as well. You won’t go hungry!

They sell blocks of ice here! I don’t know why, but I got a kick out of this.

There is a small hardware store. The Chamber of Commerce in town offers free maps, guides, and a kid’s activity booklet.

There was also another coffee shop and a pharmacy, but they (with a couple of other shops) burned down 4 days before we arrived. The fire department still had sprinklers on the site when we first got into town.

Because it is in Montana, masks are required indoors. I loved this. It made me feel better about having to go into stores when everyone was wearing a mask.

Even when just in town, you can see some of the animals people come to the park for. We frequently had elk in our campground and in town. We even saw a bald eagle sitting on a tree by the river. It was a pretty location.
If you wanted a bigger store like Walmart, Home Depot, Costco, or Target, then you could drive into Bozeman. It was about 1 1/2 hours each way.

I felt that it was a good location for seeing Yellowstone too. No matter where you are in the park for your stay, you will be driving at least an hour to see some of the sights. By staying in town, I felt it was easier for us to get groceries and to do things ours of the park.

Posted in: Exploring Montana, Exploring Wyoming

July 18 and 19th

Saturday, Nick made pancakes for breakfast. He had to make them on the stove in the cast iron skillet instead of on the griddle we used to have at home, but he did pretty well!

We cleaned up, did laundry, and started to get ready to move Sunday morning. We had a 9.5+ drive ahead of us. I had bought the kids Radical Road Trip* before we left Ohio, so I pulled that out for them to play on Sunday.

Once we got a lot of things situated and the sky got darker, Ben and I went out to the field to watch the stars. They were certainly pretty. There was still a lot of ambient light from the other RV’s and campground, so no Milky Way sighting yet. I’m hoping to see it at least once on this trip.

Sunday was move day. We woke really early and had a gorgeous pink sunrise. We missed most of the rain, although we did get a little bit. The drive was pretty uneventful, even with the scenery. More wide open spaces (It’s amazing how much nothingness is in the middle of the country. So much wide open land), mixed with cows, farms, and train tracks. Wyoming had a few oil derricks and Montana came in with oil processing and lots of train tracks.

As we got closer to Yellowstone, Montana started changing from an industrial type of look to the wide open skies and landscape I was expecting. There are so many creeks and rivers winding through the land here, it makes for some really nice viewing.

Montana is requiring face masks be worn by everyone (over the age of 5, I think). It makes it so much less stressful going out. Although, the rule seems to be for indoor use, so outside it is still hit and miss, but much more people are wearing them here even outside.

We got to our campground and had a challenging time parking. The spots are a little tight and you have to backup into them weirdly. It caused a bunch of stress. Ben finally took over and got it parked. We were not happy with each other when we were done. Still need some work on backing this RV up. I would love to only have pull through spots, but sometimes they are not available. We do have an amazing view out our back window though of the Yellowstone River. We’ve seen mule deer, a hawk, and several groups of rafters floating down the river. The campground is about 1 mile from the North Entrance of Yellowstone Park, so really convenient to both the local town for shopping and for exploring.

We drove around town and saw our first animal sighting. Elk, I think. They were just hanging out near town on the school sports field! Ben actually got to finally see a group of animals. The boys and I see them and when we go back out later with Ben, he only sees 1 or 2 (total, not even groups)!

~Sarah

*Affiliate link.

Posted in: Exploring South Dakota, Newbie Mistakes, Sightseeing

Moving and Exploring Again Day 3 (June 12, 2020)!

Sunday, fun day! Well…a little bit of fun mixed in with a lot of driving.

Tonight as I am writing this, I am exhausted. It was a long day of driving, with some tourist stops thrown in. I got a few blog posts started tonight as well. I had made notes, but hadn’t had a chance to sit down and write things out for posting until now.

Another early morning travel day, this time we finished up heading towards Mt. Rushmore. We had things mostly packed last night and were just going to empty the fresh water tanks (since we would have full hookups) and the black and grey tanks. The black tank valve handle had been in the same position since we bought it. It could be pulled open, but not shut any further, so we thought that was the closed position. Nope. Big stinky nope. Poor Ben. He got sprayed with the black tank before managing to somehow get the valve actually shut all the way. We had the water hose out, so he could spray down and change clothes, but what a shitty start to the day. (Pun intended.)

After cleaning up the area and Ben, we were finally on our way. We had lots of hours of driving to get in so we could arrive at our next stop. The whole point of this trip is to learn and to see things we haven’t seen before, so we did make a couple of stops along the way.

Our first touristy stop was at the Corn Palace. Yes, you read that right. The Corn Palace. It’s another quirky place we found online. It has an interesting history, with American entrepreneurial spirit behind it. Today, it is a permanent building in the downtown of this small town and is decorated each year with a new design. The decoration is made out of corn! Different colors of dried corn are used to create patterns and murals. It was rather busy on the inside (again with limited mask wearing), so we mostly admired the outside. There is a video presentation, but with so many people crowding around, we didn’t stay to watch it.

https://cornpalace.com/

Among our hours and hours of driving, we had seen signs for Wall Drug. (I think we started seeing signs in Iowa.) We had seen probably a hundred signs?! They ranged from banal (Wall Drug ahead) to outrageous (YOLO Wall Drug). In a testament to the tough character of the people of South Dakota, Wall Drug’s marketing never stopped. For literally hundreds of miles in either direction, they broke up the somewhat boring drive with focused, fairly low cost advertising. Along with being funny, you just have to respect the tenacity.

It turned out Wall Drug was on our way to the next campground. So, another win for Wall Drug advertising. We decided to stop and we were glad we did.

It was crazy! We tried to see as much as we could in an hour, but we probably could have spent the better part of a day there. There were a bunch of little shops (bookstores, camping supplies, fudge, ice cream, cafe, souvenir, etc.), a chapel, a splash pad…There was free water near the splash pad, a tribute going back to when the store offered free ice water to travelers in the 30’s. It wasn’t ice cold, but it was cool. We bought some donuts and a slice of cherry pie to share. We also tried the $0.05 coffee. It was actually good coffee! Ben liked it so much, he bought another cup. 🙂

http://www.walldrug.com/

We took a quick video of a walk through at Wall Drug that you can see on our YouTube channel here. https://youtu.be/ZM6fYTvHo2E

RVer NOTE: Stop for gas before the Wall exit if you have a larger RV and/or are towing and need to refuel. There were two gas stations right near the highway exit/entrance, but neither were set up for larger vehicles. The next exit had 1 broken diesel pump. Finally at exits 60 or 61, we found diesel and spaces large enough for us.

We got to see part of the Badlands on our drive. The change in scenery was amazing and beautiful. Ben and I were talking about the settlers who came through. To get all the way there and see just more vast open space, somebody must have just said “Nope. I’m done. Not going anymore.” The sheer amount of openness is daunting to think about crossing on a horse or on foot.

We checked into our campground and Ben finally got to put up his netted pop-up room/clam shell/tent. We got situated, set up, and ready to relax. Our spot is great. It has an amazing view of the mountains and it’s nicely shaded. The laundry room isn’t too far and the pool is open. The boys are excited to go swimming.

~Sarah

Posted in: Exploring South Dakota, Museums & Tours, Sightseeing, YouTube Video Link

Day 2 Of Travel

On to our next stop! (June 10, 2020)

Most of the truckers that had also used the casino’s overnight parking last night were gone by the time we left. Let me tell you something; I feel huge when we are driving and towing the RV. However, when we pull into a gas station with truck pumps or park next a semi truck, I feel a little small.

We started early again to get the most of our day. We had left the slides in and everything put away for the one night, so we had much less to do in order to leave. We hadn’t even unhooked the RV from the truck. Our next stop was also in Iowa, although right near the South Dakota border. It was another casino, Grand Falls Casino. This one had an RV park with full hook ups for $35/night. We also had access to their outdoor pool.

It was pretty standard driving, no sudden storms this time. There was some construction, but nothing eventful. We did see lots of windmills and water towers. One water tower was even painted yellow and had a smiley face on it! We found a pay phone at a rest stop in Iowa. Seriously! Blue frame and all. We became card carrying rewards members of Kum & Go.

Once we arrived at our destination, I had to go into the hotel check-in desk to get the key to the electric box and our designated spot assignment. We also got the wristbands for the pool. The campground was all pull through spots, with full hookups. The RV park was towards the side of the property (road behind us and the driving range in front of us).

We grabbed some dinner, and this time it was pretty much what I expected. I did get to make a nice salad though!

The boys enjoyed the pool for a few minutes before it got too crowded and we left. We have noticed that not very many people are wearing masks in Iowa or South Dakota. There are signs “recommending” wearing masks, but nothing requiring people to wear them. We are one of the few, other than employees, and we are still trying to maintain a social/physical distance. The night ended with the boys filling in our travel map*. We have one on the kitchen wall and one in their room for them to fill out. (Thank you Denny & Gabe for the map, the boys love coloring in where they’ve been!)

Saturday we explored the area a little bit and went to the pool again in the evening.

We began Saturday morning with getting bagels from Bagel Boy. They were pretty good (and reasonably priced when compared to back home).

Will really wanted to see some oddities/quirkiness on this trip (things like the biggest ball of twine). We checked on AtlasObscura.com and RoadsideAmerica.com and found a few options. After seeing how far they were from us, we decided on Mr. Bendo, a large statue holding a tailpipe outside of a muffler shop. He was pretty large! According to roadsideamerica.com, in 2018 the city said he could no longer hold his tailpipe, as it acted as a sign for the business and was too tall. When the city’s people heard about it, they were upset and got the city to reverse their decision. Since it had not been considered a sign when it first began in the 60’s, they said it was a work of art instead.

Our next stop for the day was extremely out there. We went to Buffalo Ridge 1880 Cowboy Town. This one was definitely an experience. It was out in the hillsides, and this man has created quite the livelihood. He was very nice as he showed us around. He had a two pump gas station, a souvenir shop, the cowboy town, buffalo (also sold buffalo hides, skulls, and burgers), had several billboards on his land (both for rent and to advertise the cowboy town), and offered overnight parking. What an entrepreneur!

The town consisted of several buildings/exhibits: a gold mine, antique farming equipment, a saloon, a sheriff’s office, etc. There is an upper walkway so you can view the town as well. The other option to get a bird’s eye view is to climb the tower. You can see the buffalo herd sometimes from here as well.

The town had many hand-painted signs explaining what each exhibit is about. There are mannequins in each location, some of them are animatronic and speak or move. It was certainly an experience! The town is a little run down. It is a huge undertaking for one person. He also said he is still cleaning up some tornado damage from a few years ago.

Some of the robots still work, although they are a little worn. The town does sit out in all of the elements, so there is some weathering to the paint, wood boards, signs, the mannequins and their clothes. Some areas smelled a little musty, so I didn’t stay in there too long with my allergies. You could tell that a lot of work had gone into making the town, although I’m not sure exactly how historically accurate some of the information was.

I would definitely stop and check it out if you like finding oddities and things off the beaten path. When we went it was $8/adult (12+) and $4/kids. We did a quick video of some of the exhibits, if you want to check it out!

*Affiliate link

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