Folks, I make a good, sturdy TinMan, don’t I? My big head fits the role so well…
And here’s my Dorothy… I wish we had a toto for this picture…
Oh there he is and he seems to love Mexican food… Who would have thought…
Folks, we are in #Wamego,Kansas… Tracey was looking for cool things to do on our way to the #NationalLampoonsVacationTour… And she found this special town in #Kansas, which is known to be the home of #TheWizardOfOz…
And wouldn’t you know, they were having their annual #WizardOfOzFestival also… With dress up competitions, all kinds of #WizardOfOzMemorabilia and fun activities…. Above is the #YellowBrickRoadCakeWalk… It just isn’t a festival without a #CakeWalk…
Dorothy’s #RubyRedSlippers Cookies with emerald star cookies…
They had this awesome car show with all kinds of old and antique cars… This #VolkswagenTruck would be nice to convert into a #RV…
Along with the #Delorean from #BackToTheFuture…
Who would have thought I would have to go back in time to get to the future…
They even have their own wine at #TheOzWinery… They had all kinds of wine with labels celebrating some part of The Wizard of Oz…
And there were some pretty awesome costumes…
Kids and adults participating…
I thought this was a real guy above, when I first approached… Remember Halloween is only a month away and this old guy would shake as he got electrocuted by the car battery… lol!
The #CoffeeShop was something very special… The guy roasts all kinds of coffee from around the world every night… He said the whole town of #Wamego smells like fresh coffee at 3am…
I bought myself two bags of fresh coffee beans… And the owner even showed me his passion by bringing me into the back and showing me all of the raw coffee beans he gets from across the world… #ParamourCoffee was the best coffee shop experience I have ever had… And his coffee was awesome… You even got to sample all of the coffee before you chose the bean you wanted to take home…
The costume competition was so cute… There were so many little #FairyGodMothers…
This guy won the Tin Man Competition…
#WickedWitches… I guess the little girls all wanted to be the good witch… lol…
This guy looks like a lion without the costume, with his long, natural hair…
Not everyone can win but the effort was impressive…
And all of the winners folks… I guess they get to click their heels and go home now…
Then we got to tour this absolutely amazing #OzMuseum with all kinds of original #WizardOfOzMemorabilia… If you are a fan of this classic movie, you need to come and check out this #museum… It’s magnificent!
I thought this was the cutest picture above… Really look at the Tin Man and you will see he has a bored little visitor nestled in his arms…
They had this amazing blend of original artifacts from the actual movie blended in with live, still scenes from the actual film…
I never knew that The Wizard of Oz was a children’s book series long before the movie was made… I wonder if #L.FrankBaum thought his children series would have made it this big? He was more infatuated with the theatre and performing… Numerous times he tried to convert his books into plays…
That’s exactly why #TheTravelingMac doesn’t just focus on one art… I notice that all of the great artists of the past had their hands in everything that inspired them… They had many different passions and found one passion to live off of while they pursued their even bigger passions…
It’s almost like you don’t want to do your most favorite passion as a job because then it becomes work, instead of play…
I almost prefer to make a living off of one of my more practical passions and keep my true passions for inspiration in my life instead of smothering them with success, deadlines and money, which are huge passion killers for me!
This museum took you through all of the iconic scenes from the movie…
From meeting each member along #TheYellowBrickRoad…
Then you go through the #HauntedWoods… Which was a little scary… Definitely scary for a child…
I had to turn on my flash for the images to come out on camera…
You could hear monkeys in the background with all kinds of scary noises…
Then you finished your tour through the haunted woods with the #WickedWitch send off… If I was a kid, I would be petrified of this mannequin…
I don’t know how #Wamego got all of these original items from the books and film… I guess if you build a museum and convert your town into memorabilia of a classic film, people donate such things to help your efforts… I couldn’t imagine how much money in memorabilia this museum has… It has to be in the millions!
But yet, just like they stated in the movie Field of Dreams… If you build it, they will come…
I couldn’t even imagine how much effort and time went into creating this museum…
It’s not The Wizard of Oz folks, with out #Oz and #TheEmeraldCity….
And as you leave you are sent away by #TheGoodWitch…
To enter #Wamego,Kansas once again…
And a day in OZ isn’t complete unless you follow the yellow brick road…
The yellow brick road brings you through the town and directs you to the town park…
Everywhere you looked, there was some sort of a #movie reference…
What a special town which would probably be overlooked if it wasn’t for their passion for this #ClassicFilm…
But this is what passion does folks… When you follow your passions and don’t deter from the path, you end up creating towns like these…
I’m sure they weren’t thinking of money when they decided to do this…
They just wanted to create a little town that commemorated a classic film…
A classic film that changed how we view movies.. only to become one of the most #IconicMovies of all time…
I could safely say if this movie didn’t exist, #America would not be the same country today…
That’s how iconic this film is… It has not only impacted this great country, it has had an enormous impact across the world…
That’s why I write with passion folks because you never know what impact your writing will have in the future…
If you’re just doing it for money and fame, there’s no way you can come up with such a magical story…
Only the #PassionateDreamers come up with classics like these…
Tracey and I couldn’t resist some #Toto’sTacos… They were delicious…
Then when you thought your fulfilled day was coming to an end…
I found a flier for a #HauntedHouse that just recently opened…
And it was one of their first days open…
At the check in they asked if we wanted to do the scary tour or the Really scary tour… It took me a lot of convincing to get Tracey just to enter this place, so we went with the lighter one… I guess in the extreme tour they are allowed to touch you and you have to crawl through some very small, tight places…
Now I was weary of this haunted house because high school students put it together… But let me tell you, it was one of the best Haunted Houses I have ever been to… You went through the basement which was originally a #mortuary… I’m seriuos! This building was actually a mortuary in the past… So that fact made it even more scary…
But my favorite moment was when this clown appeared from far away… He beckoned me with his single, curled finger… signaling me to follow him as he walked up some stairs… It gave me chills but Tracey and I still followed… Then all of a sudden I ran into a glass wall, mashing my face… The clown tricked me… He got me to run into this glass wall that you couldn’t possibly see… it scared the crap out of me…
You wouldn’t think this is scary but these kids were masters of bringing you out of your element… They put fear into you by confusing you and making you feel lost… then they would blend in some jumpy moments which were very effective due to the fact you felt so confused and disoriented…
Magnificent job! I would come back to Wamego just to go through this haunted house again… It was worth the trip alone!