Liberal

Liberal is a big town, for southwest Kansas! It has a Wal-Mart, many restaurants, hotels, local businesses, fairgrounds, parks, a high school, and some museums. Also, a chain of gas stations hilariously named "TOOT'n TOTUM."

We used this city as our home base for the weekend. The pool at our hotel served as a carrot for the kids, who were consistently well-behaved despite some really long hours in the car. 

The night we arrived, we had dinner at El Amigo Chavez. The food was tasty, and a stranger bought us dinner! It reminded us of our favorite local Mexican place in Topeka, but with hotter salsa.

Liberal is the home of the The International Pancake Day Race and Hall of Fame, but the building was closed during our visit, as was Dorothy's house. We did enjoy playing on the Oz-themed playground, though. 

As we drove around town Monday morning, the winds were so high we almost thought we saw Dorothy's house start to lift in the gusts.