On the Trail of Dottie Gale: Kansas

I was pretty stoked when I found out my kids wanted to go on a youth group retreat in Clay Center, Kansas. Stacked with a trip to Oklahoma City to see some friends and rounding it out in Amarillo was a perfect Ruby Slips and Poker Chips vacation. I’ll have to admit here that there are parts of the country in my book that I’ve never been to. I’ve been to places like them, but not exactly the places I’m describing. Of course, Quandary, Kansas is fictional, but it has an approximate location.

While waiting on our kids at the youth retreat, my husband and I stayed at a great B&B called The Attwood House in Randolph, Kansas. The owner, Lillie, is a former teacher who taught in Japan and Italy. Her home is full of souvenirs from her journeys. Tom and I stayed in the Asian room.

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While in Kansas, we took a short trip over to Wamego to the Wizard of Oz museum. Of course, I was looking for Dottie in Kansas (the obvious place to look). Although this museum was small, we spent over an hour there snapping pictures and looking through all the fascinating Oz antiques and toys. The town of Wamego also has Toto’s Tacos and The Oz Winery. We had free samples at the winery, but Toto’s Tacos was closed on Sundays. Tom thought he found Dottie, but I had to tell him it was a fake.

After picking up the kids on Monday morning, we drove closer to Quandary. We went off the highway along more of a backroad to see what Dottie and Corbin’s world would look like along the Kansas/Oklahoma border. It’s flat. At times it is run-down. But it’s a perfect world for Dottie to run away from. I was just waiting for the next tornado to twist through and pick us up.

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