May 11, 2016

Madison, MO

Woke this morning to thunder, lightening, and rain.  Was supposed to last all morning.  Had planned to visit Madison after we left the state park we stayed in and then continue on.  Decided to stay in the campground another day and instead drove the car to visit the town.

Chasing the storm that passed over us earlier.

Madison, MO is where James Cash Penney was born and raised.  You might recognize him better as J. C. Penney, founder of the once huge chain of department and catalog stores.

More recently, Madison is better known as the home of the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  There is an interesting back story to this company which every serious quilter knows.  Google it if you are interested.  The company has 12 or 13 stores in one block of downtown.  (The town is a little over two blocks long.  When locals refer to ‘the signal’ meaning traffic light they mean the flashing red light hanging over the intersection between the two blocks)  Two of the stores sell food, a burger bar and a bakery.  The rest sell fabric.  Each store has fabric of a different theme or motif.  Half of them are two stories and all fabric. 

One side of the block.  Every building is Missouri Star.

Guess what this particular store used to be.

The stores are clean, not cluttered, and the fabric is displayed in a neat, easy to peruse manner. 

The streets of town were pretty much empty of people but every store had lots of customers and lookers.  We browsed every store and left about 12:30 – just before two large tour busses were expected.  One more check mark on the quilting bucket list.

May 10, 2016

Out of Kansas

 

First things first

Happy Birthday Christina ! 

 

Woke to clear, cloudless, blue skies.  Low temp last night – 45 degrees.  First time above mid 30’s or lower.  Found that yesterdays storm had completely washed all traces of dust and dirt off the carbus and the toad.  Couldn’t have done a better job if I had intentionally washed them.

Back onto US 50 headed northeast.  Very pretty road even when it joined the interstate.  Until we reached Kansas City.  Then it was just five lanes of city freeway.  Kinda like LA with enough  fewer cars to maintain 55 mph. 

One thing about Missouri that impresses us is that everything is green.  All the major roads have very wide borders (30 yards or more) and they are kept mowed.  The interstates look like gray ribbons in the middle of green carpet.  The state is covered with trees (cottonwood like ?) with bright green leaves.  And the trees are very dense.  Would be very easy to lose your bearings if you took a walk in a forest and did not pay attention to where you were or how you got there.  There are fields of agriculture and pastures, often carved out of a forest of trees, and all are green.  This is not just a spring thing.  We have been through the state in the fall and it looked the same but with colors mixed into the green forests.

Stopped at a very nice state park about sixty miles north of Kansas City and had our first laid back afternoon.  Took a short hike through a forest and then just kicked back and read, or updated a blog.

Trail through forest around campground.

Trip map to date.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?hl=en&authuser=0&mid=12x4dHvzJbvb0UcaUtz2NjLNihZE

May 9, 2016

Wichita

About a four hour drive east to Wichita.  Started with clear skies which changed to mixed puffy white clouds.

 

In Garden City we passed a huge storage yard filled with wind turbine parts.

Turbine blades

Nose cones

Tower segments

More blades

We went through Dodge City.  Very touristy.

 

Shortly (weeks) after we were married we moved to Wichita, Kansas where I was stationed in the Air Force.  The first three years we were there we lived in a basement apartment under a small home in a quiet neighborhood southeast of the center of town.

756 S. Erie  Wichita, KS

Side view. Window at ground level  center is window of basement living room.  Window behind trash can is kitchen area.

Walkway at rear of house is access to basement apartment.

Door to basement apartment

Window at ground level behind plants is bedroom.

Front of house.  We rarely saw this as we were always going in door in rear.

Since we started our carbus travels we have been back several times to reminisce and recreate a favorite memory.  When Sue was pregnant with Ken and later Dan, we took evening walks around the neighborhood.  Often these walks included a visit to a Dairy Queen about six blocks from home where we would get small chocolate dipped cones.  A reward for the walk .  Today we again retraced our steps.  We parked by our old/first home and walked to Dairy Queen for cones.

 

Same small walkup DQ.  Exterior has been upgraded and drive through added.  Note sky.

 

When we got back to the carbus we talked to the lady who lived in the house (not our former landlord).  She said the basement was still an apartment but the tenant was not there so we missed a chance to maybe take a look at where we started married life nearly 50 years ago.  The cones were still good though.

Carbus across street from our first home.

Left Wichita about 2:30 in the afternoon.  Skies still puffy clouds except toward the southwest where they merged together and were getting grayer and grayer.  Our destination for the night was 30 miles north of Wichita.  All the way north the sky to the west got grayer and darker.  The office of the RV park we stopped at was watching a big screen TV with coverage of tornados in Oklahoma mixed with constant local updates of severe thunderstorm warnings and progression of local storms.  Part of check in included pointing out location of storm shelter if tornado developed.  Minutes after we got parked and hooked up utilities a cell moved in.  Wind, rain, pea sized hail.  Pretty cool to sit and watch.  Would not want to drive in it.  Areas around Wichita (which we had left 30 minutes earlier under sunny skies) were getting ping pong sized hail.  Wow!

Goose weathering the storm.  White spots are dandelions, not hail.

May 8, 2016

Yes Toto, We’re Back In Kansas

This morning was bright and clear in Denver.

Our neighbor in the Elks RV park. Picture taken from inside Carbus.

Checked weather and everything looked fine as far as Dodge City so we decided to head east again.  Glad we did.  Traffic was still pretty heavy leaving Denver on a Sunday.  Tomorrow would have been a mess.

East on I70 under clear skies.  Just short of the Kansas border we headed south on a rural state highway.

Headed south in eastern Colorado.  Note sky.

 

Classic Plains scene.

About ten miles south we turned east on a dirt county road and entered Kansas. 

Mt. Sunflower this way.  Again note sky.

Ten miles east and ten miles south (all dirt county farm roads) we turned back west toward Colorado.  100 yards shy of the border we turned into a ranch field and drove the arduous climb up Mt. Sunflower. ( Basically an almost level, wide cow path about a quarter mile long ) Highest point in Kansas.  This was our second visit.  Today was a busy day on the summit.  There was already a man parked on the summit.  Small world – he was from a small town near Yreka, California.  We visited a bit, took pictures, and again bid adieu to Mt. Sunflower.

Carbus parked on the highest point in Kansas.  Note change in sky.

Sue signing summit log book

Replica of state flower.

Weather rock on summit.

View west from the summit.  Dark green area in center is a ranch house complex.  It is in Colorado. Again note sky.

Looking east.  Note sky

Looking northwest.  Note sky.  West clouding, north not so much.

Leaving Mt. Sunflower.  View to southwest.

 

We got to RV park in Scott City about 5:30 central time.  Turned on TV and found we had just missed the southern edge of a severe weather and tornado watch area that extended all the way to Nebraska and east to Wichita with actual tornado sightings near I70 a little east of where we turned south.  Sky here is clear now and weather is calm.  We’ll what tomorrow brings.

Map to date.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=12x4dHvzJbvb0UcaUtz2NjLNihZE

May 7, 2016

Visiting

Easy, slow morning passing time until we headed over to Golden to meet my cousin Suey for lunch. 

Restaurant located in building that was  the first capitol of the Colorado territory.  Had a great time chatting and reminiscing with her for two hours.  Good food too.

Back to the Elks lodge and then north to Thornton to see cousin Tim, his wife Wendy and their 3 and 8/9 kids.  Viewed with appreciation his latest project – converting his basement to a living space with two large bedrooms, entertainment room, large living room space, bathroom, laundry, and comfortable sized kitchen (minus a range which would make it a complete and supposedly rentable apartment.  It is all framed in and he is just finishing wiring.  Sheet rock next.

Tasty dinner and talk of many things and then back to Elks lodge and Carbus.

Checked weather forecast which indicated possible severe weather in western Kansas tomorrow so went to bed considering another day layover.