Day 11
We left Hays and traveled about an hour east on I-70 before reaching scenic byway 232. We traveled north through some quite attractive countryside, unlike anything I've seen so far in Kansas, where I notice that most of the fence posts were stone and not wood. We also passed the first lake I've seen in Kansas: Lake Wilson. It turns out that this part of the state is quite rich in limestone. We learned this as we toured The Garden of Eden, out point of interest for the day. The Garden of Eden is a garden full of concrete sculptures built by Civil War veteran P. Dinsmoor. He also built the house which is a "log cabin" made of limestone slabs cut to look like tree trunks. He was married twice: His first wife bore him 4 sons and a daughter, his 2nd wife he married when he was 81 and she was 20! Dinsmoor built a mausoleum for himself and his first wife. When she died, it was against city law for her to be buried in the mausoleum so she was buried in the city cemetery. Dinsmoor did not like this so he went and dug her up, put her in the mausoleum and covered her in concrete. By the time the city found out, the concrete was set and they didn't bother to dig her up again.
We left The Garden of Eden in search of lunch. The K-18 diner that had been recommended to us was full of flies and the kids didn't want to eat there so we left and went to a McDonalds instead. Once we got back to I-70 we headed east again to Salina then began our southbound journey to Tulsa.