Some Dirt Road Exploring in Southeast Kansas

Recently I had the chance to take a day trip to explore parts of Labette and Cherokee counties in southeast Kansas.

I began by following the Neosho River valley in far eastern Labette County. I headed south from the small town of Strauss and crossed Litup Creek a number of times. Shortly, I arrived at Oswego.

I spent some time exploring around Oswego noting some of the murals, the 1867 log cabin, the Labette County Courthouse, John Matthews park, and the Carnegie Library. I noted that Commercial Street was wide enough for people to park in the middle of the street.

Also in Oswego, I was amazed at the view off the bluff above the Neosho River in Riverside Park. This is one of the most picturesque spots for a city park that I've seen.

After leaving Oswego, I headed over into the southwest corner of Cherokee County to finish my Dare to Do Dirt loop. I had made a previous trip around the northern, eastern, and southeastern parts of the county in 2007.

This afternoon, I visited three old cemeteries, and the communities of Faulkner, Melrose, Treece, Neutral, Sherwin, and Hallowell. This will perhaps be my last visit to Treece, as the residents are now eligible to receive buyouts of their property and be relocated out of this area that is contaminated from the former mining activities. Then the town will be closed.

During the afternoon, I found two (2) low water bridges that I photographed. The Cherry Creek bridge southwest of Hallowell was flowing a substantial amount of water; so much so that I didn't try to cross it.

In the extreme southwest corner of Cherokee County, I came upon a low water bridge over Fly Creek. The most interesting aspect of this site was the remnants of an Iron Truss bridge left there beside the concrete slab of the low water bridge.

I finished my loop around Cherokee County, then headed west on US-160 back across the rolling hills of Labette County.

I decided to stop in Independence for dinner at the Brothers Railroad Inn. I had tried their Italian food the last time I was there, so this time I tried a steak dinner. I was very impressed with the filet mignon. It was very tender and cooked just right. It was well worth the wait on a Saturday evening since I didn't have a reservation.

Then, I had a 2 hour drive back home to Wichita. It was a long daytrip of about 380 miles that ended at 9:45 PM, but was very satisfying anyway.

For more information:

Oswego: http://www.oswegokansas.com/

My photo galleries:

Labette County:  Labette County Dirt

Cherokee County: Cherokee County Dirt

A Trip to the Glacial Hills

From October 15 - 17, I made a trip to the Glacial Hills psysiographic region of northeast Kansas. During this time, I was able to complete "Dare to do Dirt" loops of Atchison and Doniphan counties.

In Atchison County, I visited the communities of Arrington, Larkinburg, Muscotah, Lancaster, Cummings, and Huron. I noticed a well kept stucco house in Arrington and actually met the woman who lives there while in Larkinburg admiring the Christian Church. She showed my the interior of the church and I was impressed with the wall art decorating the church.

Muscotah was the birthplace of Joe Tinker, a baseball player with the Chicago Cubs from 1902-1912, who played shortstop. Joe was part of the famous double play combination of Tinker to Evers to Chance, and there is a monument in the city park commemorating this.

There was some beautiful fall foliage in Lancaster, a nice school in Huron, and the small town of Cummings still has a post office.

In Doniphan County, I visited the communities of Doniphan (ghost town), Elwood, Wathena, Iowa Point (ghost town), White Cloud, Leona, Denton and Purcell. Both Doniphan and Iowa Point contain a mix of abandoned and new buildings and homes. I stopped a bit at the Ft Luxembourg visitor center in Elwood, and viewed the historic downtown district in Wathena.

White Cloud is in a very scenic area along the Missouri River and served river boats beginning in the 1830's. There is a monument along Main Street to Wilbur Chapman, the boy who started the piggy bank by donating his pet pig to a needy boy suffering from leprosy.

Purcell is the home of the beautiful St Mary's Church, now celebrating it's 150th anniversary. Denton seemed to be a nice town with very brilliant fall foliage and the unique hand operated water pump in the center of Main Street. Sadly, Leona appeared to be slowly decaying.

As always, I'm on the lookout for interesting historic bridges and I found a number of iron truss and stone bridges in these two counties. Check my photo gallery links below for some photos of these.

I visited several cemeteries in each county, and due to the hills in this region, cemeteries can be very picturesque. Especially interesting to me were Round Mound Cemetery and Muscotah cemeteries in Atchison County. Round Mound has a layered limestone fence surrounding it and Muscotah cemetery has large mature trees. In Doniphan County, I found Doniphan and Iowa Point cemeteries to both offer fantastic views of the surrounding hills and countryside.

I travelled a couple of scenic dirt road drives in Doniphan County. The first was the route from the ghost town of Doniphan up to the Wathena area. This followed closely the Missouri River and the fall foliage was beginning to get colorful in the forests in this area. Also, I took a route north from Wathena up to near the Missouri River, then back south again to just east of Troy. This route offered forests, hills and the bottomland near the Missouri River. Again, the fall foliage was striking.

I enjoyed several memorable meals during my trip. I had dinner one night at Pete's Steakhouse in Atchison. While the hamburger steak with grilled onions was good, the highlight of the meal was a number of homemade salads on their salad bar. My favorite was the Copper Penny salad, a cold salad with cooked sliced carrots and onion slivers in a sauce of sugar, vinegar and oil. I do not see this salad at restaurants very often.

Another night, I had dinner at Paolucci's Restaurant in Atchison, a great place that has been serving Italian food for many years. I had a very good order of lasagna, covered in a rich marinara and meat sauce.

After I finished my last loop in Atchison County, I travelled west into Jackson County to the small town of Whiting where I had lunch at the recently restored Whiting Cafe. The restoration of this cafe was done in June, 2009, and was a project of the Kansas Sampler Foundation. In addition to good food, this cafe is known for their fresh pies made daily. I can attest to this, since I had a piece of coconut meringue pie that was easily among the very best I've ever eaten.

All in all,even though the weather was cool and cloudy and misty sometimes, I truly enjoyed my journey to Atchison and Doniphan Counties.

For more information about the Whiting Cafe makeover, visit the Kansas Sampler Foundation blog at:

http://kansassampler.blogspot.com/search?q=whiting

To view my photos of Atchison and Doniphan counties, visit my northeast Kansas Dare to do Dirt galleries, then open the appropriate county gallery:

http://ke2013.smugmug.com/Dare-To-Do-Dirt/North-East-Kansas

A Weekend in St Louis

On Friday Sept 25, I drove to St Charles, MO, and met my friend Karen. We spent the weekend exploring in the St Louis metro area, and sharing our mutual interest in photography.

Friday evening, we went to downtown St Charles, and first visited Frontier Park along the Missouri River. This area is the eastern terminus of the 225 mile long Katy Trail State Park. Hikers and bikers are welcome on the Katy Trail which makes use of the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad grade from Clinton to St Charles.

We then walked Main Street in downtown St Charles enjoying the shops and historic architecture. St Charles was the first Missouri state capital from 1821-1826. We stopped for dinner at one of several garden cafes and enjoyed the outdoor atmosphere on a pleasant evening. Several squirrels entertained us as we dined.

On Saturday, Sept 26 we drove to Faust Park in Chesterfield. We explored the Historic Village with it's homes, barns and other buildings. Numerous flower gardens were here also. We stopped to see the St Louis Carousel, now housed inside a building for protection.

Next we went to the Butterfly House in Faust Park. After watching a film about butterflies, we entered the Tropical Conservatory, which contains nearly 2000 butterflies in free flight. The butterflies were in constant motion, so it was difficult to photograph them, but we did manage some good shots. We also walked through the outdoor garden here.

Then, we travelled east to Forest Park, site of the 1904 World's Fair. Forest Park, at 1371 acres, is one of the largest urban parks in the United States. After stopping at the visitor center for some guides, we drove to the Boathouse for lunch. We enjoyed some baby back ribs while waiting out a rainstorm and watching the ducks on the lake.

During the early afternoon we visited several areas in Forest Park, including the Jewel Box greenhouse, the pagoda area with the bandstand and Muny Theater, the World's Fair Pavilion and fountain, the Art Museum exterior and Grand Basin Pool, and finally the Cascades waterfall. There were several areas of this huge park we did not see.

After leaving Forest Park, we drove to west midtown St Louis to see the beautiful Cathedral Basilica. This cathedral interior is covered with 83,000 square feet of mosaic tile art with over 41,500,000 pieces of tile in 8000 shades of color. The designs were elaborate and very striking.

Just down Market Street from the Cathedral, we stopped at Union Station. After photographing the exterior, we went inside and looked through the railroad museum, then photographed some of the ornate interior architecture elements, including stairs and stained glass windows. We stopped into the Station Grille for a nice dinner.

To top off a long day of exploring, we went down to the Mississippi waterfront at the Gateway Arch, before heading back to our rooms for the evening.

Sunday morning turned out to be beautiful, and we headed across the Mississippi River at Alton, Illinois, then followed the river road, first stopping at some locks to view some barge traffic. Then we pulled off at a state park to view the confluence area of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Finally we stopped at the historic Route 66 Chain of Rocks iron truss bridge over the Mississippi. We walked across the bridge and back, enjoying the views of this huge bridge and the Mississippi River.

After lunch, we headed for our homes, each having hundreds of photographs to help us remember the weekend.

To view some of our favorite photos from this trip, see the seven galleries at my Smugmug page:

http://ke2013.smugmug.com/St-Louis-Area

Howard and Elk Falls

On Saturday, Sept 5, I spent a day in Elk County in the towns of Howard and Elk Falls. The Kansas Sampler Foundation had arranged another of the special "Bring Your Own Lawn Chair" events in Howard.

I arrived in Howard about 10:15 AM and checked in on the courthouse square and began meeting many of my Kansas Explorer friends. Then, I walked over to the downtown area to do some shopping and exploring.

At 11:30 AM, the event started on the courthouse square. We gathered our lawn chairs to hear speakers share about the local museum with it's doll collection, from the Batson's who operate the local drug store/grocery and soda fountain, about Poplar Pizza, which has operated since 1995 in Howard, about the recently opened Traci's Trends which offers wedding dresses and tuxedo rentals, as well as alterations and Kansas gifts, and about projects for a new clock in the courthouse tower, for a new Veteran's Memorial, and for renovation of the historic Howard National Bank building.

I then headed for Poplar Pizza for lunch and shared with some other Kansas Explorers there. While enjoying my New York style pizza, I shared with my friend Bonnie Dainley about my "Dare to do Dirt" quest and her quest of photographing at church in each Kansas County.

Before leaving Howard, I checked out the new Veteran's Memorial and Hubble's Rubble, a unique collection of "creations". I then headed southeast to Elk Falls by the backroads.

A group of perhaps 25-30 gathered at Elk Falls Pottery shop at 2:30 PM and were welcomed by Steve and Jane Fry. Then we were treated to an impromptu demonstration with Steve Fry helping Marci Penner make a bowl as we watched.

Then, Steve took us over to another property they bought 5 years ago and have been renovating. After they began removing the overgrown vines from the yard they found an amazing rock garden which we all explored extensively. The Frys' plan to eventually move their living quarters and shop to this location and open another bed and breakfast here.

Before leaving Elk Falls, I did make a stop at the falls, then headed west on US-160, which is always a beautiful drive thru Moline, Grenola, Cambridge and Burden. I stopped in Douglass, in southwest Butler County for some a Mexican food dinner on the way into Wichita.

Links:

Howard, Kansas: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Howard/index.html

Elk Falls Pottery Shop: http://www.elkfallspottery.com/

My photo gallery of "Bring Your Own Lawn Chair - Howard":

http://ke2013.smugmug.com/Events/Kansas-Sampler-Foundation/BYOLC-Howard/9531169_DUuaN#640549776_srMqz

Weekend in Rooks County

On August 29 and 30, I spent some time exploring rural areas of Rooks County in northwest Kansas.

Saturday morning, I went to Damar for the "Bring Your Own Lawn Chair" event sponsored by the Kansas Sampler Foundation. I was truly impressed with the people and the town. St Joseph's Church is a beautiful church and the decorated Main Street area was special. I shared lunch in the Damar Cafe with a group of Kansas Explorers. For a report of the event, see the Kansas Sampler Foundation's blog entry:

http://kansassampler.blogspot.com/2009/08/goosebumps-in-damar.html

My photos of the event can be found at the following gallery:

http://ke2013.smugmug.com/Events/Kansas-Sampler-Foundation/BYOLC-Damar/9452799_M5dnE#634058726_9oddg

After leaving Damar, I spent the afternoon exploring the northwestern part of Rooks County, first travelling around Webster Reservoir, then heading north to the Rooks / Phillips county line and following the beautiful Bow Creek valley east to US 183. Bow Creek is aptly named for it winds back and forth. In one place along Road A, the creek crossed the road 4 times in one mile.

After reaching US 183 north of Stockton, I headed back to Hays for the night. I had an excellent KC Strip steak dinner at Professor's Steakhouse in Hays.

Sunday morning I again headed north to explore the eastern half of Rooks County. I headed up and over the bluffs north of the Saline River and came into Codell from the south. I noticed a beautiful old limestone school in Codell.

I headed north from Codell through the very beautiful Medicine Creek valley. As I understand it. the first homesteaders in the county settled in this area south of Woodston. I visited a couple of cemeteries in this area also.

After looking around the town of Woodston, I explored some areas north of US 24, then headed to Stockton for lunch. I had a good hot roast beef sandwich at the Hometown Cafe.

I then left Stockton and headed south along the Elm Creek valley and eventually found the Twin Mounds area and the cemetery of the same name. After a few more miles I joined up with KS 18 and began my journey back home to Wichita.

To see my favorite photos of Rooks County, visit my gallery page at:

http://ke2013.smugmug.com/Dare-To-Do-Dirt/North-West-Kansas/Rooks-County-Dirt/9455896_KtxUn#637205753_tYpjS

Carolyn's Essenhaus

Yesterday, while in Reno County, I enjoyed lunch at one of my favorite places, Carolyn's Essenhaus in Arlington.

I had a dinner with Ollie's smoked pork, which is sliced into 1/4 inch think slices and served with baked beans, cole slaw and homemade bread. Ollie's smoked pork is served all day Friday and Saturday. This may be my favorite dinner meal at Carolyn's.

Carolyn's is also known for their homemade pies. Yesterday, I had rhubarb warmed up and served alamode with soft serve vanilla ice cream. The pie was served with a crumb type topping and was certainly among the very best I've had in Kansas.

Carolyn's Essenhaus was recently named a finalist for the Kansas Sampler Foundation's Eight Wonders of Kansas Cuisine contest. See the following links for more information:

Kansas Sampler Foundation page about Carolyn's:

http://www.kansassampler.org/8wonders/cuisineresults.php?id=194

Web page for Carolyn's:

http://www.carolynsessenhaus.com/

In the Right Place at the Right Time

There have been a number of times when I have been blessed to be in the right place at the right time to take a dramatic photo. I have found that it pays to be ready to snap some photos with almost no notice when conditions change quickly.

Such a situation happened this past Saturday. I had stayed around Wichita during the afternoon, and had been out in some rural areas near town. As I came back into town, I drove into a thunderstorm. While trying to navigate thru moderate rain down the city streets, I noticed a dramatic low arcing rainbow off to my left, so I quickly pulled into a parking and composed some photos.

This is my favorite photo of the rainbow. I cropped the photo to show the low arcing effect.

After I again headed down the street, the rain became heavier, the sun disappeared, and the rainbow was gone from my view in another few seconds.