Planning a road trip from Ohio to Colorado, going through Toad Hop, Indiana. What are some "must see" sites along the way?

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[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

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.

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 [The Buffalo Ranch](https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/16564) 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.

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