Thanks for the suggestions! Some friends are camp hosts at twin lakes, so we hang out around that area quite a bit when we get there. We've been to St Elmo 2 years in a row, my wife loves the chipmunks and the hummingbirds. Thx for the heads up on tincup pass poss being closed, I'll be sure to check out the reports.

Holy Crap! Thanks, man! I spent a few hours last night looking up so,e of the places you mentioned (still have a few to go) and quickly realized the majority of the places you mentioned were within 15 minutes of us on our way home last year. We left our cabin a day ahead of our friends and headed South down 285/17 then took I25 South, missed the turnoff to get back on 160, and ended up taking 87 and 412 through NM and OK, destination Liberal to see the Dorothy museum and tour (which is well worth it, btw. The word 'adorable' comes to mind, but it was extremely enjoyable.) We ended up making far better time (and mileage) than we expected, but still spent the night in Liberal. I think this year we may take the same route, but spend a few days checking out some of your suggestions. On our way OUT last year, we went through Southern MO on rte 60, and came up into KS on 69. We had intended on taking 169 from Coffeyville, but 69 was a great drive. Again, quite close to a few of your suggestions!

I appreciate the suggestions, and if you wouldn't mind, I would like to hear any recommendations you have fo Southern MO... We won't be staying in Cairo again (although the I57 bridge is wicked creepy at night!) but if we end up crossing the state down south again, I'd love to hear any plaes you may know.

My wife and I actually met in Kansas about 30 years ago, and in the 15 years I lived there I never once made it to see the center of the country. Might just do that this year; we'll be near there.

Random memory from there: There was a place called outside of Longford; 30 years ago I got to meet the owner/operator/world traveller Ray Smith. We got a tour of his ranch, his collection of "stuff" from around the world (he had been on every continent, and had collected souvenirs - even if just a rock - from a huge number of counties he went to over his life, got to see his giant pinwheel-shaped pen for the buffalo, and saw the collection of lions tigers and bears that he rescued over the years. He set aside something like 40 acres for them, let them out of their 'cages' (luxury condos) in turns for a day at a time to enjoy the grass, trees, the pond, and they ate good too... Ray was also a butcher iirc but they always had fresh meat. One of the very young lion cubs he took in had gotten hit by a car or something like that, broke both his back legs. Ray (also a vet) patched the lil guy up and let him stay in the barn until he healed up and had the pins/casts removed. During the few months, the cub ended up becoming best buds with the couple of dogs that Ray owned, and every car that came up the driveway was greeted by two very friendly dogs (gotta rub the belly before you can knock on the door) and one very LARGE cat... also gotta rub the lion's belly. It was very cool. Not sure what happened to the rescues since then, but we drove past last year (didn't stop, not sure who owns it now) and were surprised to see a zebra come galloping across a field when we stopped at an intersection of 2 dirt roads. Very friendly, came right up to the corner of the fenced in field to say "hi," and absolutely loved having his ears scratched. It used to be a nice place to stop at just to say "Hi" and get some buffalo burgers at the old diner in town, and if you're in the area you can still see the enormous concrete buffalo statue he had built. There are a lot of cool places like that around the Abilene-Herington-Milford area.

If they're leaving Ohio going west, the only thing I'd suggest would be WPAFB.

Thanks! I checked out their page; looks gorgeous!