One of the earliest mistakes we made on our 50 state road trip was not finding out whether somewhere was pet-friendly or not.
Our mistake that time was that we showed up at a beach in the off-season with our dog Truffles, only to find out that dogs weren’t allowed there at any time of year.
We made a similar – but opposite – mistake last week, although it worked out well in the end. Here’s what happened…
While Shae and I were in Topeka, we decided to take a day trip out to Wamego. That’s because this small city of ~4,500 is home to all kinds of Wizard of Oz related things and if you’re in Kansas, you have to do Oz-related stuff! Seeing as we’d be going to a museum and possibly other places, we left Truffles back at the hotel.
We got to Wamego mid-afternoon and immediately spotted a Toto statue, then another. We love sculpture hunting, so we decided we’d return with Truffles a few days later to find all the Totos Around Town. The next stop on our road trip after Topeka was due to be Hutchinson and Wamego was along the way.
Our next stop was the OZ Museum and we got chatting to the girls working there. We mentioned that we’d left Truffles at our hotel in Topeka which was a shame as she looks a little bit like Toto, so it would’ve been a fun photo opportunity if she was with us.
That’s when they dropped the bombshell – Truffles was allowed in to the museum if we carried her around.
Aaargh!
How had we been so stupid?! We hadn’t bothered to call ahead to ask if the OZ Museum was pet-friendly as we’d assumed it wouldn’t be. That was dumb on our part as the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin had allowed us to bring her in her backpack, so we should’ve called ahead to see if we could do the same thing again.
We’d already bought our tickets by that stage, so we headed inside. That’s when the proverbial light bulb appeared above my head. If we were returning to Wamego a few days later, why not visit the museum with her then?
The only issue was that we’re on a tight budget, so we didn’t want to have to pay the entry fee twice. Seeing as we’d only just bought our tickets though, we figured the museum might be willing to refund our tickets for that day seeing as we’d be revisiting a few days later. Heading back out front, we explained the situation and they were more than happy to refund our tickets – problem solved!
After driving out to Wamego, it didn’t seem worth heading straight back to Topeka. We therefore decided to make the most of our time there and so went over a block to the Oz Winery.
The Oz Winery has wines with Oz-themed names like Squished Witch, Melted Merlot, Can’t Find My Way Home and Rusted Rivets. You can sample two wines for free, so we both took advantage of that opportunity.
There were lots of other wines we wanted to try though, so Shae and I got a flight of 5 wines each. Shae went for four reds and a white, while I went for five reds.
Not having Truffles with us therefore turned out to be a good thing as it meant we could take our time enjoying the wine, along with some meat and cheese that the winery sells as well.
Lesson Learned
If we’re visiting a museum or somewhere else that we’d like to bring Truffles to – call them! Don’t just assume she won’t be allowed in.
And if she can’t come along, be sure to take advantage of child puppy-free time by doing some wine tasting!
In the end, it was worth returning with her – here’s more about our (eventual) visit to the OZ Museum with Truffles.
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