Ohio Trip 2019: Part 2 - Wild Turkeys
On the second day of our Ohio Trip, we started the day enjoying breakfast from the deck of our cabin in Cedar Bluff State Park and then hiking the Agave Ridge Nature Trail on the south side of the reservoir, before starting our drive towards our destination for the day, Kansas City. There seemed to be wild turkeys everywhere. We believe we saw more turkeys the first two days of our trip than we have seen in our whole lives.
Our hike was about six miles, even though this website says it is only four miles as it doesn't account for the distance from the trailhead for some reason, so the hike took longer to complete than we expected. It looks like the trail doesn’t get much use, but had a good overlook of the reservoir. The area is mainly used for hunting and fishing, so, even though we were the only people on the trail, we didn’t see a lot of wildlife as they are probably rather skittish. Left Buddy (LB) caught a glimpse of a deer as it darted off into the woods as soon as it sensed us in the area. We could see a wild turkey in the distance, scurrying off away from us at a quick pace. Later in the year would be a prettier time to hike this trail, after the drab brown vegetation is replaced with more greenery and blooms, but it was still an enjoyable hike. There were lots of yucca plants, but we don’t remember seeing any agave plants, so we’re not sure why the trail is called Agave Ridge. However, the state park is aptly named as we saw plenty of cedar trees on the trail that took us to the bluff. Most of the wild turkeys we saw were ones crossing the dirt roads that we drove down. And we can confirm that wild turkeys can fly, as one did take flight for a brief moment, trying to get away from our car. According to our research, wild turkeys roost in the tree tops to stay safe from predators, so flying is essential (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_turkey) Who else is thinking about WKRP in Cincinnati right now? :-)
From Cedar Bluff State Park, we drove south to pick up Kansas Route 4 to head east. For lunch we stopped in La Crosse for a picnic in the park on Main street where we enjoyed the pretty blossoms on the trees and the veterans memorial with its statue of liberty. The Barbed Wire Museum was only a block away, but we did not visit it as the longer hike in the morning put us behind schedule. We were trying to make Kansas City in time to have dinner with our relatives.
As we continued east on Route 4, Right Buddy (RB) caught a glimpse of vintage store fronts as we drove by the main street of the little town of Claflin, so we stopped to check them out. The store fronts were nicely restored and had a lot of character. However, we were a little disappointed to find out that the store signs did not represent what was inside. Almost all of the stores were showrooms for a large furniture store, Miller’s of Claflin. We would have loved to have gone into a cafe for pie or ice cream in order to spend some money in the town to show our appreciation of the cute store fronts, but the only place that looked like it served ice cream was closed. Miller’s of Claflin has a long history of several generations running the store in the town. It was nice to see that despite their growth and success that they preserved the feel of the town’s main street instead of turning it into one large, modern showroom. However, it would be nice to have a few places for visitors to eat or shop for things other than furniture after they are drawn in by the appeal of the town. At the far end of the street there was the Claflin Museum in a building that looked like it was a school at one time, but we did not go inside. We'll use the excuse of time again, but indoor history museums do not interest us very much.
After Claflin, we picked up US 56 and eventually I-35 into Lenexa where we met up with our relatives for dinner and a free floor to crash on for the night. All we needed was floor space, since we had our backpacking pads and bags with us, which made the floor rather comfortable. A big thanks to the Brenda and Ken for providing a place to stay for two nights and keeping us company during the VanDOit factory tour the next day. And a big shout out to Ken, who helped us shoot video of the factory tour. Check out the video on our YouTube channel: VanDOit Factory Tour!
(RB)