On the Road with AOX5: AI Lies

3rd Eye Blue took a whirl with AI and looked up KS ghost towns. It gave her a list of those in the southeastern part of the state and off we went! We discovered AI has a different definition of a ghost town than we do. We picture tumbleweeds swirling around stucco buildings, dirt roads and no humans in sight. AI thought we meant dilapidated houses with people still living in them and giving us dirty looks as we drove by.

The trip started off promising when we came across this roadside attraction with no explanation:

3rd Eye is way more into horror movies than I am (which is not at all!) and even she was feeling bad vibes so we snapped a few pics and skedaddled on out of there.

The first town, I believe, was Drury. AI promised us a ghost town with "railroad sidings" and grain elevators.

What they had was a city park that had a $5 entry price (or $20 yearly pass), an older man in his yard looking at us suspiciously each of the 3x we passed his house, and yes, there was a former church, which it looks like someone lived/lives in and the grain elevator we didn't get pics of because when we went down the one way dirt road we came upon a van with it's doors open and a possible person in the front seat. We decided it would be best if we quietly left....

Next on the list: Geuda Springs

This tiny town appeared have a festival going on but we weren't sure. There many golf carts buzzing around and most of the main roads in the town were barricaded with "road closed" signs. However, there was no evidence of anything actually happening. We wandered down a dirt road trying to find the "springs" and ended our journey at a muddy creek. We found some remnants of an old brick structure in the woods and then on the way out of town an interesting old house.

We continued on our way to Crab Creek Bridge. Things were starting to look up as there appeared to be more interesting things to take photos of (or at least places where we weren't under the constant surveillance of locals).

Next up was the "Log Cabin":

We had to drive a few miles beyond it and turn back because we felt like a car behind us had been following us for a bit too long.

The way home was the best part of the drive for me. Open dirt roads and Kansas golden hour are an unstoppable combination:

Hello there!

My favorite snap from this road trip

You okay buddy?

Solitarily together

And just right at dusk we saw this little guy trying to cross the road:

I was obsessed with getting the perfect picture. Lucky for the turtle, 3rd Eye is a level headed animal lover so she moved this guy to the ditch where he could avoid being run over.

Lessons learned from this road trip:

1. Don't trust AI 100%

2. As always, the journey is more exciting than the destination