7 Apr 2025 - Arrived at Seven Winds RV Park in Liberal KS

 

Was cold last night getting down to 37F but at least the wind let up and nothing froze.  Toasty warm inside the RV.  We departed McConnell Air Force Base FamCamp this morning at 0900 hrs and made our way up to Hwy 400 and westbound out of Wichita.  The drive was uneventful and the sky's were clear and sunny.  As the morning went on and we continued west the temperature continued to rise making for an even nicer day. We love the change of scenery and enjoy the pumpjacks also called nodding donkeys!  Really flat out here in southwest Kansas!  Lots of prairie.

We skipped lunch and kept on pressing west stopping for fuel and potty break in Meade KS.  After 5 hrs 12 minutes and 226 miles we arrived in Liberal KS and made our west just west of town to the Seven Winds RV Park. We were greeting in the driveway by a super nice lady, Shelisa the owner, who directed us to our site and even gave us the site next to ours to park our truck in!  

This is your basic rural "mom n' pop" campground, nothing fancy.  Power seems good as does the water pressure. There appears to be quite a few long term residents, but it is well maintained and as mentioned before, the staff is very friendly and helpful. 

So why Liberal KS?  Well, we are indeed in Kansas, Toto, and Liberal Kansas is the home of the only Dorothy's House that was built for the movie, and the Land of Oz.  This is Dorothy's official hometown.  We will walk the yellow brick road and tour her house full of memorabilia.  If that was not reason enough to stop here, how about a stop at the Mid-America Air Museum with a collection of over 105 military and experimental aircraft, right here at the Liberal airport.  During World War II it served as the B-24 Liberator training base preparing more command pilots than any other B-24 base.  The museum collection is housed in an old Beechcraft manufacturing plant.  There is also a Rock Island train depot museum and another museum of local history.  Depending on our time availability, we may backtrack to Meade KS to visit the Dalton Gang Hideout. Also nearby is the "Mighty Sampson of the Cimarron" which is a 1259 ft long railroad bridge built is 1959.  It stands 113 ft above the Cimarron River and it is still used today.

In our travels we really enjoy all the popular, well-known tourist sites but some of the neatest ones are those that are smaller and off the radar.  I suspect this stop will be added to that list.  And oh by the way, Liberal is noted for it's awesome authentic Mexican food.  While here we are not far from Texas so we plan to investigate the availability of the Best Maid Snappy Garlic Bites, which are spicy hot dill pickles that are scrumptious! Life's simple pleasures!  If that falls through we will be through the Texas panhandle later in our summer travels.