April 2025 Visit to Stockton and Mt Vernon

I didn't know if I wanted to travel anywhere more than an hour on Sunday, the day after the wedding and reception. The next two days would be long travel days. I'm not the road warrior I once was.

But thankfully, I was convinced to go to Stockton and Mt Vernon. In hindsight, it became the only opportunity in 2025 to do so. I had dreams that we would visit in August 2025 but those dreams never came true. Maybe next year.

Leaving from Great Bend gave us the opportunity to take a different highway, at least on the way up. We took 281 north to Russell - I hadn't been in downtown Russell for years. After stopping to pick up some postcards, we drove north on 281 to Osborne. I forgot how much beauty was on that drive - it had been at least 40 years since I last traveled that stretch. 

When we got to Osborne, we turned west on 24. I was thinking about Cawker City but thought the better of it - maybe next year.

We did drive past Alton - my mom was born there. Both sides of her family are buried near Alton but in separate cemeteries. One family on the east side and the other family on the west side. If you blink your eye, you'll probably miss seeing the entirety of Alton, Kansas.  But a lot of family history there.

I do like the brick main street of Stockton. Thankfully, so far, the brick has been retained as it is highway 24 through town. 

I read the Stockton newspaper - and by reading the past news sections, I discovered that I was awarded prizes on two occasions for the best costume: one at school and one at the VFW. My mom was creative on the sewing machine!

I wasn't sure how the roads would be west of Stockton with all of the rain. But no concern - it didn't rain west of Stockton the night before. We took old highway 24 and drove up and down hills. We drove past the old farm. What a wide valley that is. Nothing is the same as far as buildings and such but the Ash Creek valley remains the same.

And then we came to Mt Vernon to visit gravesites. I have so many relatives buried there - from both paternal branches of the family. It's like we can't visit them all. But we did visit mom and dad. Mom's gravesite still more dirt than grass despite 18 months of weather.

Paid our respects to other family members - grandparents, uncles, aunt. And a couple of great grandparents.

Well my sister surprised us with an invitation for dinner. So we rushed back to Great Bend after driving by an exceptionally low Webster Lake. Highway 18 to 183 to Interstate 70 back to 281. Webster - Zurich - Plainville - Hays - Russell - Great Bend. Felt like driving through my past and into long forgotten homes and memories.

We had a great supper with sister, brother-in-law, and the new bride! I had some delicious potato pancakes - reminded me of mom's cooking.

Peace and love.
Dwight

April 2025 Wedding in Kansas

We arrived two days before the wedding on Thursday. Everyone had made it to the short-term rental home for a Thursday night family dinner of pasta! Two by plane, one by train, and two by car!

The rental home had a lot of steps. One step to the bedrooms or one step up to the kitchen. Or three steps down from the kitchen to the dining room. Or 10 steep steps down from the dining room to more bedrooms, rec room and laundry.

But it did have a beautiful stained glass door.

On the way to Great Bend to find the house and to unpack, we found a country Sinclair gas station. We stopped for gas and a picture of Dino. Notice no asphalt pavement in the parking lot.

On Friday we helped our niece set up the reception venue where we would have dinner, dancing, photo booth, and seating on Saturday night after the wedding. We were glad to be involved in something and helping our niece out!

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner - I met people I had not seen in years and had a great meal. We took one of the options from Great Bend to the country church. We decided next time, the day of the wedding, to take the route my sister suggested! Because it rained overnight!

The church was beautiful! We arrived in time for family pictures. One of the pictures were with my sisters and me standing with the bride.

I have a lot of pictures I could share on this post, but I want to limit what I post within a public space.

I had been at a worship service at this church about 45 years ago while visiting my sister and her husband. It still has beautiful windows.

A picture of the audience during the wedding.

Congratulations Amy and John!

Then a horse-drawn carriage outside the church awaited the blessed newlyweds!

Then we all headed to the reception venue. We had fun, danced, visited with cousins and family and friends. Weddings are beautiful because family members are enjoying the great vibes from a wedding.

I tried to dance to Hot to Go lol. 

On the memory table was a picture of mom and dad 💓

A lot of people danced to the DJ!

 

The next day was Sunday. Our son and daughter-in-law left early to catch their flight back home.

We decided at the last minute to head to the cemetery, and then, we hurried back home to have dinner with my sister, brother-in-law, and newly married niece. That is all for the next blog post.

Love ya!

Thanksgiving 2021 Trip to Kansas

Beauty in spacious skies

We made the decision to visit mom and my family for Thanksgiving back in August! A twist in what we used to do which was to travel for Christmas. But we had stopped traveling to Kansas for Christmas after 2008. The trips were more random and not based on any typical expected family meetings. We probably should do Thanksgiving trips more often! It was great to see everyone and all in one house!  I know my Dad would have loved seeing it.

What was really great for my benefit in reconnecting: this was the second trip in one year back to Kansas! If roots mean anything to a person, going back to visit them every so often is essential for personal balance and harmony, I think. We've been a little sporadic in our visits there and the two trips in one calendar year really gave me the boost I needed.

Unlike in May where we seemed to take our time going out, which in hindsight might have been a mistake, we made great time and stopped in Columbia, MO at a Drury Inn.

We reached our vacation destination at an airbnb in Great Bend. Enough bedrooms for everyone coming in! We would be here for three nights.

Thanksgiving Day was the next day and we cooked up a lot of food! Too much food! It was great to have families visit: grandmother, aunts, uncle, cousin. It's too easy to grow separately and not see the connection.

On Friday, we drove a lot of miles but we saw a lot of things along the way!  Driving two cars, we made a convoy to see Mom/Grandma in her new assigned room at the home.  We spent some time talking and seeing her inside and outside of the place.  Her new room is so much better and has a great view of the school. Pixel enjoyed being with grandma and running around on the grass!

We then drove highway 183 all the way up to northern end of Rush County to stop at Pat's Beef Jerky in Liebenthal. If you haven't tried Pat's - it's worth stopping in or ordering online to have it shipped to ya. The name of the town came from Liebenthal, Russia where many of the settlers immigrated. Then we made it to the big city of Hays!  Well, big in comparison to anything around it for many miles. We saw the buffalo again. The babies we saw in May were getting so big!

 We then made the round trip from Plainville to Webster Lake via Webster Lake County Road out of Zurich, then to the family cemetery, the always heart-crushing stop at where the farmhouse once stood, then to Stockton and back south again to Great Bend.  

G had the awesome idea to have a Christmas tree with ornaments next to Dad's grave. This picture was one of my most liked on Instagram during 2021.

The three D's left flowers on everyone's grave site, even great-grandpa who is buried on the other end of the cemetery. 

The Thanksgiving trip ended too soon the next morning on Saturday. We each drove our three cars in separate directions. But each one of us had to take highway 156 out of Great Bend to I-70. I reflected that each of us now have our lives but we are still greatly connected not only as immediate family but with those family members who supported G and I growing up. One car headed north from Salina on 81, one car headed northwest out of Topeka on 4, and G and I headed east I-70 and south on I-55.

The two carloads heading north made it back in one day. We had the longer drive and broke it up into two days. I decided I did not want to go through all of the Illinois construction on I-64, I-57, and I-24. It was just too much for the expected holiday weekend traffic on Sunday. And the next day, I was right! Just a good guess!  

We stopped at the Drury Plaza hotel in Cape Girardeau, MO. Unlike the one in Columbia, we checked in on time for the free hor-doeurves!  And free breakfast the next morning. I was thinking of driving to Dyersburg to catch I-40, 840, I-24 but as we approached the I-55/I-57 exchange the traffic delay was getting larger and larger for that route.  I finally decided at almost the last minute to have G turn east onto I-57 to cross over on two-lane highways to Paducah and I-24.

What a route! We took highway 62 which is basically just an elevated roadbed through the Mississippi River floodplain. We were in the area where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers merge. It was interesting to see how barren of human life was through there. Then we crossed two bridges, one was familiar one was not and it was scary.  That bridge is called the Cairo Mississippi Bridge. It is so narrow and long that semis have lost side mirrors to opposing traffic. The bridge pops and clanks and all kinds of noise when driving over it. Here is a picture of it from commonwiki photos.

After crossing that bridge, we immediately crossed a bridge much more familiar to us, the Cairo Ohio River Bridge which landed us into Kentucky. From there we made it home in great time about 5 and half hours. Just enough time to unpack, eat, and get ready for work the next day!

May 2021 Road Trip to Kansas Part Five of Five Series

Cheers! Part 5 is finally done!

Part 5 is Highway 18 - Wilson Lake- Lawrence - Tennessee

I know - I've taken way too long to get caught up with last May, but the last few months have been extraordinarily busy!

We start part 5 in Stockton. It's really strange not to have parents to visit here anymore. Or a reason to come back here anymore. There's no alumni association for 8th grade graduates - my high school is in a different town. We found a place to gas up the car just off Highway 183 - yep the same highway mentioned in part 3! 183 does play an important part in connecting points from my life. We drove to Plainville and turned left onto Highway 18.

I planned the Highway 18 route for one reason - to drive by the prettiest lake in Kansas, Wilson Lake. This highway also drifts southeasterly which was the direction we needed to go to get back onto I-70. 

I couldn't tell you the last time that I was this part of the highway to Lucas. But since I wasn't driving, I was able to observe. Around Codell, a high pointed ridge came in view from the passenger side. The highway basically followed this high ridge. And at Lucas, turning onto Highway 282, we had to cross that ridge to get to Wilson Lake. I just never saw that landscape in this way before -- the perks of not driving.

Wilson Lake is just stunning. An Army Corps dam on the Saline River creates the lake. The Dakota Sandstone is just brilliant in the sunlight. Yep - this is Kansas. I created a reel for my Instagram account from the video I took of Wilson and it racked up 1000 views in no time!

Wilson Lake

282 intersect I-70 at a desolate entrance ramp. We hopped onto I-70 East and towards our next destination: the Country Inn and Suites in Lawrence, KS. Going to Lawrence is like going to Holy Ground for me. The home of KU - the best education out of the four colleges/universities I attended. Mount Oread. Home Sweet Home to Me. My thesis is on the shelf in one of the KU libraries.

The hotel was by far the nicest hotel out of the five we had stayed at on this trip.

The next day was Monday but all of that driving on Sunday put a dent into us. Woo - the Tennessee - Georgia border seemed a long ways away still. Because the hotel was located on Highway 10, we just took it into KC and then back on I-70.  The 3-hour drive in Missouri was ok but wow once we got into Illinois, we were tired but still a long ways back home. In that state of mind, the miles drag by. I was convinced we needed to make it to Paducah - and we did but it was a struggle. We made it to the Drury Inn in time for free food -- that's a plus!

Paducah back home was a shorter trip of 4 hours -- back in time to pick up the dog! Here is picture of going down Monteagle -- three lanes, 6 percent grade, runaway strips. Back in the ridges and plateaus of Tennessee!

Monteagle descent

Epilogue:

Since I won't have a Father's Day blog post from June 2021 -- here is a picture of my beautiful cake resembling a beer mug! 

May 2021 Road Trip to Kansas Part Four of Five Series

 Part 4 is Mt. Vernon - the Farm

Ash Creek valley and the road past the Hunter farm

Part 4 stays in Rooks County. It's not a very far drive from Nicodemus (Part 3) to Mt. Vernon Cemetery. As we drove up Highway 24 east from Nicodemus, we noticed how full Webster Lake was - it was really full of water after the May rain!

Mt. Vernon is where my great-grandparents, grandparents, uncles, aunt, other related family members, and my Dad were buried. 

Me standing next to Dad's grave marker

When we walked over to Dad's gravesite, we left a note, wept a few tears, told him I was back to visit. I noticed that the rock that David left for his grandpa 9-months earlier was still there.

Grandparents

Cemetery road from front gate

Great-grandfather buried on other side

The old family rumor was that my great-grandfather said he wanted to be buried by the family of his first wife and my great-grandmother, his second wife, didn't object. He is buried next to his first wife. My great-grandmother outlived her husband by 24 years -- there was some age difference between the two.

This marked my second visit back to Mt. Vernon after Dad's graveside service. When you are out there, you can hear the wind whistling through the fence wire and the blades of grass yielding to it. Losing a parent and coming back to visit is not easy. I was wondering about Dad -- he was the caretaker for this cemetery for many, many years. What did he think about when trimming around his parents and his brothers gravesites. One will never know now.  

Leaving from the cemetery, we took the very short drive to what was the Hunter farm. Fewer than four miles. My mom had told me about the Hunter home being leveled but nothing hit like seeing it a few years ago. My children saw the vacant site. The one person who had not was the driver - my wife. She knew it but nothing prepares one for the vast emptiness that was a home. It hit her hard driving up to the old driveway entrance.

Used to be a two-story house here with thick limestone walls.

So many generations of family grew up here -- it is like a part of the root is gone within your soul. My great-grandfather built buildings around the area from limestone. The house was originally a limestone house that was added onto many times.

Leaving the old farm site, we headed towards Stockton. Part five will pick up from there back to Tennessee.

May 2021 Road Trip to Kansas Part Three of Five Series

Rooks County, south of Palco

We left Great Bend on Sunday, May 23rd and drove in a big semi-circle for most of the day to finally end up for the night in Lawrence, Kansas, home of Kansas University. Parts 3 - 4 - 5 will detail that Sunday.

First up - Hays, Ellis, Nicodemus.

We took highway 96 out of Great Bend to reach highway 183. Highway 183 played a big part in my life: it was the highway through Stockton, through Hays, runs near a sister's house, and was the highway that led me to a new life between my 8th grade and Freshman year.

When we got to south of Hays, we took the alternate bypass around to head to Frontier Park. This road takes one pass the historic Fort Hays site but we weren't heading to see the fort; we were headed to see the buffalo! 

Baby calf on the ground

Calving season was upon us and we saw baby bison romping around their large pen. We thoroughly enjoyed the show they put on for us!

We decided to forego driving on 183 and instead took the bypass all the way around Hays to I-70. On I-70 we put the metal down and drove the short trip to the Ellis, KS exit. It was spitting rain on us but that was the only time we ran into rain for the whole day. 

I played against some team from Ellis during school. The home of Walter P Chrysler of Chrysler fame is in Ellis. We took the exit and drove on county blacktop for several miles, weaving through Ellis County and then into Rooks County. We crossed the Saline River into Rooks County and again in part five.  

Many of the homesteaders and settlers of Nicodemus took a train to Ellis and walked on foot towards Nicodemus. Probably pretty close to the road we were taking from Ellis to Nicodemus. I was able to ride through Palco, a little village I had not seen in a long time and probably won't for a long time if ever.

We took Highway 18 to Damar and saw the beautiful twin steeples of the Catholic Church in Damar from the highway. Then we took another county blacktop to Highway 24. By this time we were only a mile from Nicodemus. Nicodemus is very important to me - I have written about this National Historic Site many times. I'm just going to post a lot of pictures for the rest of this blog post. But I'm going to end my text by saying -- I love Nicodemus!

The NPS ranger said I heard correctly: the old dugout was used by Nicodemus settlers after 5:00. 😢

Nicodemus Historical Marker

Fort Hays Historical Marker

May 2021 Road Trip to Kansas Part Two of Five Series

The B-29 Memorial Plaza, Great Bend, Kansas

While we were staying in Great Bend, we visited the B-29 Memorial Plaza located at the Great Bend municipal airport. Located at the airport entrance, the Plaza is dedicated to everyone involved in building, flying and providing support for the Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

In July 1943, a Kansas wheat field was being converted into the Great Bend Army Air Field - runways, hangars, barracks, and other facilities were being built. To fly the B-29s, 11-men crews were trained for each plane.

Other nearby B-29 airfields were Smoky Hill, Pratt, and Walker. Great Bend was chosen for the memorial site due to the number of original base structures that still exist and Great Bend agreed to donate the land for the memorial.

Great Bend Army Air Field is significantly historic as it was in the first group United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress bases for training in the summer of 1943. The pictures at the Plaza depicted the great amount of construction that happened to convert Kansas farmland to a B-29 Superfortress airfield. Along with Walker Army Air Field near Victoria, Pratt Army Air Field near Pratt and Smoky Hill Army Air Field near Salina, the initial 58th Bombardment Wing was formed.

The memorial honors bomber crews not only in Great Bend but also the nearby airfields on bronze plaques and bricks. It was an interesting discovery about American military history and the use of Kansas farmland. One of the runways is used as a dragstrip in today's world while the other two runways are still used for municipal air travel.

Walker Airfield acknowledge with plaque.