Moving to Alaska: Day Six

This is going to be a long day. Remember a couple days ago when I discovered the useless tent?!? I had forgotten that I was planning to camp tonight and then the next day drive on to visit with my friend Mitch/Der Mad Stamper in Kansas. I had originally talked to him about staying at his place but once I assembled the route, it just didn't make sense for me to be there since two days later it would make my longest day on the drive when I was crossing the Rockies, and I was already concerned that would take longer than expected. So in the morning I let him know I was up for changing plans if he didn't mind, though it also meant I had a LONG drive from nearly the Texas border in southern Oklahoma to nearly the Nebraska border in northern Kansas.

So drive I did. I stopped in Oklahoma City to plant a letterbox because, really, on this trip how could I not put a box in the town of Yukon in Canadian County? It just seems too appropriate... of course, finding a hiding spot was harder than expected but that happens sometimes. I eventually went to my backup plan for a park and was able to do something there. Yes, I even have backup plans for planting since I am the sort who prefers to know where I am putting it before going. Like in this case, I wanted it in that town so had to see what options I could find before going there.

From there I made the long drive to Wichita. I did stop for a couple boxes but knew that was only the halfway point of my day so tried to keep moving as much as possible. One of the boxes, which was missing, was actually a cool location. The photos did not turn out but they have urban art inside a storm grate; it is a giant troll chained to the metal and looking up at you. Quite amusing and one of those things that you wonder how many people even notice?

I also had a box to plant in Kansas. It is in the middle of nowhere and I still can't believe I drove down that rutted, muddy, dirt farm road for something like 15 miles round trip towing a trailer and regularly dragging bottom. But I wanted the box at that spot. It is a planted at a place where Boston Corbett used to "live" (and I use that term loosely). You actually know _OF_ Boston Corbett though not the name. He is the man who shot John Wilkes Booth (in spite of explicit orders to take him alive). But Corbett was a total nutjob. He was a hatter by trade so had mercury poisoning but he, for instance, self castrated himself with a pair of scissors to avoid temptation by prostitutes. After the war he spent some time in Kansas, eventually ending up in the Topeka Asylum for the Insane, from which he escaped. It was at that time he lived in the hole in the ground. He is presumed to have died in a fire in Minnesota a few years later. Anyway, crazy, self castrating, shot Booth because Jesus told him nutjob? Oh yeah, that needs a box.

And it is well beyond dark? That is nice. I can still visit the geographic center of the contiguous United States (way to go Alaska, you stole the "center" landmark from Kansas and gave it to South Dakota). 

Start: Ardmore, Oklahoma

Stop: Phillipsburg, Kansas

~545 Miles Driven

~3.4 Miles Walked
4 Letterboxes Found

3 Letterboxes Not Found

2 Letterboxes Planted

Pictures will be posted on Facebook in this album (and the link will be included in all future posts for this trip):

Moving to Alaska Photos