Topeka, Kansas We Are Here – September 6, 2021

Well, we reached and exceeded our Fitbit step goal today!

Using a walking tour guide we found on Amazon, we spent almost 2 hours walking around the historic area of Topeka, Kansas today. The weather was perfect and because it was a holiday, the area was basically deserted. We literally saw no more than five cars during the whole time we were there and Jim could stand in the middle of the street to get all the pictures he wanted. It was like visiting a ghost town, not the Capital of Kansas. An interesting thing about Topeka is that it’s population is smaller than Ocala!

There were 29 different buildings on the tour that led us about four miles around the area starting with the State Capital Building. It’s definitely an impressive building with a copper dome higher than the U. S. Capital dome. It would take 2.3 million solid copper pennies to make up the dome today, but there is no such thing as solid copper pennies.

Here are pictures of some of the more interesting buildings:

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We had a wonderful lunch at a place called the Blue Moose and then planned on visiting the zoo but we learned that the Asian elephant, Cora, was reaching the end of life at 63 years old and I just couldn’t bring myself to go. Instead, we checked out some other historic sites like the Old Prairie Village and Botanical Gardens.

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Then we drove to the Great Overland Station formerly the home of the Union Pacific Station, now a museum of Topeka’s railroad heritage and the historic site of the Brown v. Board of Education aimed at ending racial segregation in public schools.

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We leave in the morning for Colorado Springs. I’m looking forward to more good hair days without the Florida humidity.

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