Saturday, September 14, 2019

KANSAS BYWAYS, LAKES, AND GREENS

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
With my truck/tire maintenance service scheduled for this morning, I had no choice but spent the past weekend at the Topeka Capital City KOA in Topeka, KS.  On Saturday 7th I focused on Blog #7 and posted it that night.  On Sunday 8th, while watching some football on TV (I had cable hookup at this KOA) I accessed the “how to” link that I got from my friend, Larry, and managed to follow the step-by-step instructions on activating the transfer of iPhone pictures to my laptop.  In between those activities I took walks, went to the pool, read my book, and checked email messages.

Finally, this morning I arrived at Hoyt’s Truck Center for my 9:00 a.m. appointment.  The older Brad, who had so kindly shifted around their full booking last Friday to accommodate me this morning, gave me a good-morning smile and held out his hand for the key to the truck.  I watched him walk to my truck, get in the driver’s seat, back up, and leave the premises.  Right, a test drive before turning it over to the mechanic.

Two hours later Brad let me know everything checked out fine – they changed the oil, checked all fluids, batteries, tires, brakes – and I’m good to go.  He printed out the four-page work summary, charged my VISA, and wished me a good and safe journey.  I thanked him again, and again, not only for doing the work but for taking me in today.

Before returning to the KOA I stopped at a Hy-Vee grocery store (Lordy, this one was huge!) to get milk and other items.  Walking back to the truck camper, I was surprised to see that the cover for the overhead cabover window, which is also my “emergency exit” window, had flipped open and was jiggling a bit in the wind.  I probably shouldn’t have been surprised because the crank to open/close that cover hadn’t been working for the last couple of weeks.  My efforts at repair – first with an Allen wrench and then a screwdriver -- didn’t do a darn thing so I decided to just leave the cover closed and deal with it later.  “Later” now means NOW.

Inside the camper, after putting away the groceries, I looked up at that window, and reaffirmed to myself that there was just no way I could fix this.  There’s a screen between me and the cover and I can’t reach up through the window to grasp the cover, pull it down, and secure it from inside.  This has to be fixed…from the roof.  And it has to be fixed NOW because if that cover detaches while I’m driving and causes an accident and/or injury I’d be in deep s**t!

Consulting my GPS I found an RV repair facility about four miles away.  I got there, pointed out the problem to the lady at the counter, only to have her tell me that she didn’t have anyone available to fix it for me.  Huh??  Then this gentleman comes out of his office – the owner maybe – and he says the same thing.  I said “But, you’re an RV repair place.  It’s dangerous for me to drive with the cover open like thatit could break off…”  Silly girl, you’re telling them what they already know!  I asked and they said they were the only RV repair place in the area…and they’re booked up two months for RV repairs.

This was becoming ridiculous.  Then the lady, after making a phone call, suggested I go – just two miles up the road – to Fannin Fabrication.  “Fannin,” I surmised, was somebody’s name (right, it was) but I had to ask her, in reference to an RV, what “fabrication” meant.  She answered with just one word – welding.  By now I was totally flabbergasted.  I probably need just a screw or two (no dirty minds here, please!) and she’s telling me to go to a welder?!

To the welder I went.  Rod Flannin and two young guys – a team of three – went inside the camper.  One of the young guys hopped up on the bed, assessed the problem, told Rod what he needed (I looked online later - a Carbon Steel Extended Prong Cotter Pin), Rod went to get it, the other guy went up on the roof, and within ten minutes the cover was closed and secured.  The crank still works, too, they told me.  Not to presume anything, but those young guys, and others like them, probably never went to college.  Yet, they possess a skill, a talent, a knowledge that now, and always will, indebts me to them.  They quickly resolved for me what could have been a disastrous outcome.  Thank you, Rod, Andy, and Tim!

It was a little after 2:00 p.m. when I got back to the KOA.  As relieved as I felt about the positive condition of my truck, I had to take a moment to sit down and think about how paramount safety is when one travels.  The timing of it all is astounding – to have seen that open cover (1) when I did – before resuming my drive in Kansas, and (2) where I did – in a city the size of Topeka.  Gotta thank Grace, my Guardian Angel, and whoever’s spirit is on the passenger seat.

My day came to a close with a few scenarios to share –

* I went to the pool and had a nice conversation with Melissa; she’s RVing full-time, solo, and is hanging around here because her daughter is having a baby boy, her first grandchild, in November;

* Also in the pool was this nice looking guy, beautiful blue eyes, but kinda obnoxious because he’d been enjoying his Budweiser.  Blue eyes, however, win me over every time;

* Reading my book outside my camper, this travel van pulled in to the site next to me and, a few minutes later, probably wondering why I didn’t respond to her, this nice lady came up to me to say hello.  Jill later invited me to come meet her husband, Roger, and take a look inside their van.  Likewise, I invited her to come see my camper.  We wished each other safe travels!

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
My Kansas journey officially began today.  Leaving the Topeka Capital City KOA, my home for the last five nights, I took Rt. 75N to I-70W to Rt. 4W where I connected with the 75-mile “Native Stone Scenic Byway.”  Limestone “…is the bedrock of this region; eight million acres of it lie just below the soil surface…”  At an Info Kiosk the posted sign there read - “The 1867 law abolishing the open range provided for payment of 40 cents per rod (16 ½ ft.) to landowners to build and maintain a 4 ½ ft. stone fence.  Stone was plentiful and our pioneers built miles of fences.”  Long sections of these stone fences are prominent especially in the region around the town of Alma.  Still standing, while not many, are a number of buildings, including homes and barns, constructed with these same stones.

Native Stone Wall, Dover, KS – Native Stone Scenic Byway.

A Kansas scenery along the Native Stone Scenic Byway.

Hard to see, but there are cows and a farm in the background of this prairie.

Remnants of a stone fence along the Native Stone Scenic Byway.

At the end of the byway I got on I-70W to Rts. 77N and 57N to the Milford State Park [Milford, KS], located at Milford Lake.  Stopping at the park office for information, the young lady told me that although there are several campgrounds within the state park, some of the loops are closed due to the flooding that happened here last spring.  She recommended a campground at a cove, told me to go look, pick a site, and come back to register.  After setting up the camper at the site I picked, I walked over to the edge of the water and noticed the many trees partially submerged in the water.  It had been a hot and humid day but it didn’t look safe to even get my feet wet, so I didn’t try.  The humidity, especially inside the camper, was very uncomfortable so, for the first time since July, I turned on the camper’s AC.

A flooded Milford Lake, Milford State Park, KS.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
From my bed I watched the sun come up, happy to note that, unlike the past few days, the sky was clear of clouds.  On my way by 9:15 a.m. I took Rts. 77N, 82N, 24W, and 81N to Concordia, KS, located in the North Central region of Kansas.  I wanted to visit a museum here…

It was a nice day, albeit a little bit windy, for a two-hour drive on the country roads.  Winds seem to be typical of Kansas, I’m finding that out now.  Compared to Iowa, corn fields don’t seem to be prevalent in Kansas and the stalks I’ve seen thus far are brown and look dried out.  I’ve noted other fields of crop but don’t know what they are.  Being that this is my second day of travel in Kansas, it seems to me, as far as I can tell, Kansas fields are mostly wild grass – rolled bales of hay are everywhere.  Today’s drive, though, revealed a lovely Kansas landscape – farms here and there and cows here and there…

Arriving in Concordia, I parked and went to the National Orphan Train Complex.  I recall seeing a display of photographs of 19th Century children at a massive rail yard in Nebraska some years ago.  Coming to this museum in Concordia was eye-opening.  I hadn’t thought about it but those 19th Century immigrants who arrived by the thousands to New York City from Europe and elsewhere – Where did they go?  How did they live?  What of their children?  As it happened, many children – toddlers and babies even – were either orphaned or abandoned.  Their parents were simply unable to care for them due to destitution or death of one or both parents.  Between 1854 and 1929, through the organized work of caring people, these children, estimated to number 250,000, were “placed out” – by train – to rural communities in the U.S., Canada, and other countries, to live with farm and other working families.  Information about this significant and charitable part of our nation’s history - a “social reform relocation effort” that ultimately led to the establishment of fostering programs – can be found on this website: https://orphantraindepot.org/.  The complex includes an archival and research center.  Surviving “train riders” and their descendants are encouraged to contact this center to share their stories and donate whatever artifacts they may have.

Quote: “The Foundlings come in rags, a newspaper often the only wrap, semi-occasionally one in a clean slip with some evidence of loving care; a little slip of paper pinned on, perhaps, with some message as this, in a woman’s trembling hand: ‘Take care of Johnny for God’s sake.  I cannot.’  But even that is the rarest of all happenings.”  Jacob Riis, 1890s


A photograph of boys, sleeping and keeping warm on a grate.

After this most educational visit to the museum, I then looked for and found a barber shop.  The barber was a woman (yay!) and when she was ready for me, I discovered she could sign a little bit.  It’s been a long time, she said, but she had a deaf schoolmate back in elementary school.  We conversed easily and I told her I wanted my hair shaved, “…clipper number two.”  That lady barber was a good find!

On the way into town earlier today, I spotted a “camping” sign.  While at the museum I inquired and learned that electricity was indeed provided at this camping spot.  I went there from the barber shop – the Concordia Airport Park Campground – and discovered that the facility provided free Wi-Fi as well as electricity and water.  On top of that, all I had to do was pick my paved pull-through site and pay with a donation.  A donation!  Not a set fee.  Another good find in the town of Concordia, Kansas!

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
Before going to bed last night, I had not yet decided where to go or stay today so I made time for that this morning, zeroing in on the Glen Elder State Park, in Glen Elder, KS.  I also decided to take a sort of loop drive further north, turn west, and then south to the state park.  I made these decisions while enjoying a nice, sunny morning….which didn’t last long.  It became cloudy and there were dark clouds west of me, which is where the state park is.  I started to consider staying here at the Concordia Airport Park for a second night.

Around 11:00 a.m. the clouds cleared and, since I really preferred to move on and see more of Kansas, I ditched the original route, determined a quicker way to the state park, and started preparing self and camper for departure.

By noon, after driving through Concordia once more, I was on Rt. 9W, which turned out to be, but for the occasional gusts of Kansas wind, a lovely drive on a well-paved two-lane state road.  As with similar roads I’d been on during this trip, Rt. 9 had dips and when I was high enough to see the road and the dips directly ahead of me, the paved concrete looked like an unfurled ribbon.

Although I continued to see the same fields of different crops, one crop in particular kept catching my eye.  About as high as the corn stalks, this crop has green stems and leaves but the color of the cone-like substance at the top is burnt orange.  The entire field, as far as I could see while whizzing by, looked like an orange shag carpet.

On a road like this, where level shoulders are practically non-existent, it’s impossible to pull over for pictures.  As luck would have it, just opposite a field richly abundant with this shag-like crop, was a narrow gravel road.  I pulled in there, far enough off of Rt. 9, parked perpendicular to that road, essentially blocking its entrance/exit, got out of my truck and looked down at this long, long gravel road that ended where road meets sky.  “There’s a farm down there, for sure, ole girl.  I need just ten minutes.  If anybody is coming along that road, I’ll see the gravel dust swirling in the air.”  I took my pictures and was on my way in less than ten minutes.

Sorghum, the crop that caught my eye…and my curiosity.  

My truck camper, across the road…

Rt. 9 overlapped with Rt. 24 and I soon arrived at the Glen Elder State Park.  Just as it is with Milford Lake, the lake here – Waconda Lake – has also been flooded since April.  The lady in the office, when I asked, said that pretty much all the state park lakes in Kansas are flooded.  Certain campground loops are closed but there’s plenty of available sites for me to pick.  After registering for the site I picked, I showed the lady the picture I took today and asked if she knew what crop this is.  “Milo,” she said, a type of grain for cattle.

Much to my surprise, free Wi-Fi is provided at this state park – my first state park with internet!  As I write this, I’m looking out my dining windows at the lake and, same as Milford, a number of trees here are partially submerged in the water.  Unlike Milford, there are water birds here – egrets, seagulls, and a species I don’t recognize.  The sun, which has been shining all afternoon, is now starting to go down.  Earlier, I did an online search on “milo,” also known as “Sorghum.”  To quote - “Sorghum is a cereal grain that grows tall like corn, and it is used for a lot more than just sweetening. First and foremost, in the United States, sorghum is used as livestock feed and turned into ethanol. It's a popular crop to grow within the drier regions of the States because it is drought resistant.”

Oh, and I’ve been seeing miles and miles of sunflowers along the roads and elsewhere.  Turns out the Kansas State Flower is the “Wild Sunflower.”  I took a photo today…one beautiful sunflower out of millions throughout the state.

The flooded Waconda Lake, near my campsite at Glen Elder State Park, KS.

A sunflower, one of millions in Kansas.


How’s about a picture of me, at sundown, with my clipper #2 haircut? 
Yeah, there’s a fisherman behind me.  I don’t know where he materialized from.

Sunset at the flooded Waconda Lake.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
Today actually turned out to be a “half-day” of sorts.  Although weather conditions were perfect today – sunny and no wind – I didn’t drive long or far.  My plans for lunch didn’t happen…but I’ll get to that momentarily.

Waconda Lake, flooded and all, looked beautiful this morning.  Had there been an accessible swimming section I might have stayed another day at this state park.  But, no, I moved on at 9:15 a.m., getting back on Rt. 24W and then turning south on Rt. 281.  The 23 miles between the small towns of Osborne and Luray made for an absolutely gorgeous drive on this particular two-lane road.  There were no curves – not a one – on Rt. 281.  But, being that the terrain here is hilly, there were a lot of “roller coaster” ups and downs on this drive.  While I did pass a few crop fields, the valleys and crevices on these hills were landscaped with mostly grass – a carpet of different hues of green so beautiful in the morning light.  Especially stunning, for me, was the spread of light green – almost like lime – patches of grass.  I so wanted to take pictures but it just wasn’t possible.  I do find it puzzling, though, that I saw no cattle anywhere on those green hills.  Maybe they’re on some sort of grazing schedule…?

I soon connected to Rt. 232S and therein began my drive on the 18-mile “Post Rock Scenic Byway.”  This byway “…takes its name from the limestone fence posts that pioneers used in settling this region.  These edifices are beautiful and practical because the mainly treeless plains of the time provided little wood for traditional fencing.”  I pulled over into the parking area of the first Info Kiosk I saw and was pleasantly surprised to find myself looking down at a lake – Wilson Lake – considered to be one of the most beautiful lakes in Kansas “…thanks to the limestone underneath it.”  There were about ten limestone posts around that parking area and that gave me the opportunity to feel them (rough!) and take pictures.  Driving on, knowing now what to look for, I spotted a good number of these posts still standing and still being used with barbed wire stretching from one post to the next.

A scene of a blue Wilson Lake and a green Kansas hill, 
along the Post Rock Scenic Byway. 

Limestone Post Rocks.

The byway ended at the town of Wilson…and I was ready for lunch!  My Kansas tourist guidebook mentioned “Grandma’s Soda Shop and Diner” in Wilson and I decided I’d get a sandwich and a chocolate milkshake there.  Spotting the restaurant’s sign in the downtown section I slowly drove by and tried to see if the restaurant was open.  I couldn’t tell but I did notice what looked like a piece of red tape across the door jamb.  I parked and as I walked to the restaurant I also noticed there were no other people around (shades of the Twilight Zone!).  Plastered on Grandma’s glass door was an even larger red sticker, on which, in big black letters, was the word “SEIZED.”  Smaller black letters warned people (like me) not to “tamper with evidence” and further announced that the seizure was due to nonpayment of taxes.  Awww, there goes my milkshake…today anyway!

Within the next hour, by way of I-70W I arrived at the Triple J Campground in Russell, KS.  The office was closed, I rang the doorbell…only about ten times…then, deciding I’d waited long enough, called (via VRS) the phone number posted on the door and told “Lana” I’m outside the office and, yes, I’d like to register for a site for two nights.  That done, I set up the camper, had a PB&J sandwich for lunch, and immediately got to work on text and pictures for Blog #8.  Oh, speaking of my pictures – the transfer from iPhone/iCloud to my PC works!  Thank you again, Larry!

2 comments:

  1. Orphan Train! The mother of a friend I play bridge with was on the orphan train. I believe she got off in Missouri. Sorghum! My daddy loved sorghum syrup. Here sometimes you see people stirring it in a huge kettle outside.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I always learn something from your blogs! I had only thought of sorghum as a sweetener. Lol

    Glad your cabover window problem was resolved!!! And clipper #2 is a great look!

    ReplyDelete