Sunday, July 18, 2021 - Worship and Work Day & Monday, July 19, 2021 On The Road Again...Glen Elder, KS Here We Come

Sunday, July 18, 2021 - Another Busy Day Preparing to Travel

I think 4:30 is my new morning wake-up time, as it's been fairly consistent this week.  It's okay though, as I enjoy the quiet of the morning.  

I knew laundry was going to be high on the list of things to do today, so I was able to get started early.  After turning the coffee pot on, I started the first load of clothes, then set down to finish Saturday's blog.  

Once I posted the blog, the rest of the morning was pretty much a routine Sunday - breakfast, showers, and going to church.  My sister Crystal has her grandson Dempsey for the weekend so we are not having a sister get together.  I planned to do laundry for most of the day.  Sister Cindy came over for awhile.  Once I started another load of clothes, we took a short ride around town then she dropped me off back at Bentley. 

Dean spent most of the afternoon at the lot(s) mowing.  This is the first time I've seen the new lot look so good.  While it has been mowed, I don't know the last time it was trimmed up around those two buildings for a very long time.  The trees are overgrown with large limbs hanging on top of the small garage area.   Dean cut several limbs that were going to be a bother for him while mowing.  He will have many others to remove when we return.  We will definitely have a fall project! 

I drove the car to the garage, leaving it until we return. 

Dean grilled hamburger patties for dinner, and I cut up a fresh tomato.  Earlier I ran across a recipe on Facebook that we also tried.  It was zucchini cut in thick slices, laid on a greased pan - we did ours on the Blackstone.  I added pepper, garlic salt and onion powder, then added a pile of cheddar cheese to the top.   They were really good, but next time we will wait and add the cheese at the end.  It melted and ran under the zucchini causing it to blacken.  It was still good but I prefer not to have things cooked that well.  Lol!

After cleaning up our dinner dishes, we were both tired.  It will be a long travel day (for us) tomorrow.

July 19, 2021 On The Road Again...Glen Elder, KS Here We Come

Our goal was to leave Oswego by 9:00a.m. and we missed it by 22 minutes.  We had to run a couple of errands before we left that put us behind.  All in all it was a good day.  We arrived at Glen Elder State Park at 3:46p.m.  I only took one picture while we were on the road - it looked like a long lonely road stretched out in front of us.  

The ride today was good except for a stop we made at a rest break.  There was a crew hauling a wind blade, and they were parked in the rest area.  As we were driving past it, the driver jumped out of the truck and started waving his hand.  We stopped and I rolled down my window to hear him screaming a few obscenities that we were going to hit the blade.  We did not hit it.  I don't know if we were that close or not, but when he left he flew out of the rest area - he looked like a jet engine taking off.  It was a bit unnerving.  The rest of the day went very, very well.  It was a pretty nice day to travel, with the temperatures only in the low 80's.  

When we arrived at our site, we were surprised the pull through site we had reserved was actually  for two units and not just one.  We had to back in to a semi-circle site. We got it done, but it took a bit of maneuvering.  I headed in to get the air conditioners turned on, then put out the few things we would need while we are here.  

We are located just off the lake area.  Many people are camping here, although there are still  a few sites open.

We rested for a bit, then decided to drive to Cawker City and Downs.  I've always wanted to visit Cawker City to see the world's largest ball of twine.  

Notice the yellow paint - follow it to a store a block or so away, in order to get free sisal string that you can tie on to the ball of twine.  We didn't take time to do that this afternoon, but we might go back and do it tomorrow.  The store also carries a number of oddities for viewing and purchase.

The story of The Giant Ball of String.

Who's that hugging the ball of twine?

I was surprised to see how many people had already signed in today and look where they are from?  While we were there two more groups stopped to take a look.  

Two old gas stations in the community that have been restored.

Cawker City Water Tower

Toward the west end of the lake in Cawker City.

We left Cawker City and made our way down the highway to Downs, KS.  This is the hometown of one of Dean's coworkers, Mark.  I was extremely impressed with both of these communities.  They were very clean, with very well kept homes.  They both had more downtown activity than I would have expected since they are very small communities, less than 1,000.  Of course, the lake does help drive some activity in the two cities.

Downs Water Tower

These were interesting yard decorations, yet very clever!!

Beautiful old rail station in Downs.

 Busy grain elevator.

I almost missed this - do you see the large fish on the right?

It was a fun drive - fortunately we both enjoy riding through the country side of places we visit, and we really love small towns.  

It was 5:30 before we returned to Bentley.  We had a chicken pot pie for dinner, and a couple of fresh made chocolate chip cookies.    

It's hard to believe it's already 8:30pm.  I am going to close out now.  We've got a few more places to visit in the area tomorrow, so come on back and see what we do!