Sweeping Changes

As a bit of a postscript to "Geo-RoadTrip 2011," we present one last parting gift from the road.


The giant Chimney Sweep Statue greets people on I-135 between Wichita and McPherson, Kansas. He's a striking site that comes out of nowhere while you're in the middle of nowhere. His roguish smile and Dick Van Dyke-esque demeanor conveys a sense of old school chimney sweepery that is sadly missing in our modern world of dirty smoke stacks.

However, as many people do, he started out in a different industry before his career change:


Happy Chef is/was a chain of restaurants in the Midwest that each had Happy Chef statues out front greeting hungry travelers with a smile and a spoon. They also had a button you could push to hear the Happy Chef give you, what I assume was, a happy message.

Sadly most chefs are gone but some have been re-purposed like our friend here. If you're one the road in the middle of Kansas, stop by and say "hi."

Geo-RoadTrip 2011: Prairie Dog Town

At this point in the trip we went south through Colorado and cut back across Kansas to return home. We were exhausted but you're never too tired to skip a classic roadside attraction and so that's why we stopped at the Prairie Dog Town in Oakley, KS:


Like any good roadside attraction they have a pit full of rattlesnakes:


Devin made friends with a donkey. He wanted to take him home with us but we couldn't figure out how to fit him in the car.


So this is what a five-legged cow looks like:


And of course this is also the home of the World's Largest Prairie Dog:


The prairie dogs had the run of the grounds and they didn't mind stealing the other animals' food:


Well that's the last set of pictures from "Geo-RoadTrip 2011"! Thanks for coming along with us. We'll post the short film of the trip soon!