Monday, September 20 - Friday, September 24, 2021 - Ozark Chapter 17 Escapees September Campout at Richey Cove, Council Grove, KS

Monday, September 20 - Thursday, September 23, 2021 - Ozark Chapter 17 Escapees September Casual Campout at Richey Cove, Council Grove, KS

Monday, September 20

Our camping buddies left us in Oswego earlier this morning.  I had tried to reserve our site for Sunday, even though we would not arrive until Monday, but someone already had the site reserved for September 19.  The campground permit allows campers to remain onsite until 4pm.  Since we didn't know how soon the campers in our site might leave, we didn't want to arrive at 1 or 2pm and not have a site available to us until as late as 4pm.  We finally left Oswego at 11:30am, making the decision to stop and visit Dean's brother, Larry and his wife Sandy in Garnett, KS.  We haven't seen them for awhile and it only added another 10 minutes to our trip.

We had a nice visit, and had not even left their house yet, when Drena texted that our site was available.  We arrived at 5:05pm at Richey Cove Park at Council Grove Lake, located just north of Council Grove, KS.  We set up in site #35, parked along side the lake.  We were sure glad to be there.  

We had six rigs present for this campout and we have much to look forward to in the upcoming days.  Our hosts Marc and Nancy have put together a wonderful agenda for us this week.  It sounds like a great time.

Sunset this evening

Bentley...I love the way the sun is highlighting the window in our door.

The Harvest Moon

Some of the group gathered at Marc and Nancy's to visit and enjoy watching the Harvest Moon rise.  

Tuesday, September 21

Dean and I walked around the campground this morning.  It was a nice walk and we stopped to watch the pelicans that were floating near the beach area.

Upon our return to Bentley, we had our morning shakes and then readied ourselves for today's activity, a visit to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve.  Drena and Keith rode with us to the preserve, located a few miles north of Strong City, KS.  A friendly young lady led us on a tour of the property, starting with the beautiful home that was constructed in 1881.  From there we visited a couple of other buildings including the nicest outhouse we've ever seen!  It looked like a small stone house from the outside. It's located in the far right side of this picture.  I'll spare you the view inside. 

Our group picture

The barn

View from the upper story of the house.

Beautiful vistas everywhere we turned.

That is the schoolhouse in the distance.

Another beautiful view.

This is the chicken house - a palace compared to the ones I have seen...notice the dirt/grass roof.

This is back side of the barn where the horses pull the trailers of hay inside to unload.

We walked a path around the house that provided a beautiful view of the schoolhouse, somewhere between 1/4-1/2 mile from the house.  We stopped at a few benches after we walked up a slight incline, where we all enjoyed resting for a few minutes before making our way to the beautiful barn, that was just around the corner.  After walking through the barn, Dean left to get the truck to pick us up and take us back to the park office.  We hoped to find a shirt as a souvenir of the area, but there were none available.

The school house

We returned to the RV.  Tonight is our potluck meal.  Our hosts provided meat from Kansas City Joe's, baked beans, buns, Root Beer from the Louisberg Cider Mill, and a variety of condiments for sandwiches and small bags of chips.  Of course there were a number of side dishes, and desserts as well.  The meal was excellent and there are enough leftovers for another evening!  Yea....we all like leftovers!

After the meal and cleanup, Dean and Alvin pulled the Fire Genie's out and had a nice fire going that we all enjoyed, along with a beautiful sunset.

Wednesday, September 22

Dean and I walked again this morning, increasing the distance of our walk when we added in another portion of the park, located on a peninsula where several more camping sights were located.  While they did not have water or sewer, they did have 50 amp electric.  These were beautiful sites.

Today we are on our own to explore the area and that is what we set out to do.  As we left the park, we took the opposite direction where we entered our park, and visited a couple of other parks along the lake, as well as a housing addition around a smaller lake a short distance away.  From there we drove into Council Grove, and you guessed it, we found the golf course.  If there is one to be found, Dean can find it.  From there we drove to downtown Council Grove to the Neosho River Walk.  Since Oswego is also located on the Neosho River we thought that would be a great place to begin our visit here.  We had barely pulled in and were getting ready to get out of the truck, when Don and Lynda showed up.  They are members of our Escapees club.  We spent the rest of the day with them as we visited various places around town.  What a beautiful walkway they have along the river. 

This picture can be enlarged to read the story.

Post Office Oak - people traveling the Santa Fe trail could leave letters or notes here for other passing along the trail.

Madonna of the Trail.
This is the 200th year celebration of the Santa Fe Trail.

From here we moved on to the Museum which was a short distance from the Madonna above.  A large group was touring the museum while we were looking at other sites along the way.  As they were leaving, we visited with Kelly Judd, who had just finished giving them a tour.  He said we could look through the museum while he met with the tourist group at The Hays House, a short distance away.  He returned shortly and talked to us about various things in the home.  From there he led us, as we followed in our vehicles, to the Seth Hays house which is shown below.  Seth Hays was the original founder of Council Grove.

Seth Hays House

Sculpture of Seth Hays and Miss Kittie, who he raised.  The link above tells the story of Seth Hays, Miss Kittie and Aunt Sally.

We left Mr. Judd after our tour of the Hays Home.  By then it was well after the lunch hour and we were all hungry.  We chose the Trail Days Cafe & Museum.  

The food was delicious but it took quite awhile to prepare it.  There was an older couple operating the cafe today.  Their refrigerator went out, requiring them to climb up and down a set of stairs to the basement to collect various food items.  They were dressed in period clothing, and the man was full of information to share.  It was a different but very interesting lunch, and I believe we all enjoyed our meal and the information they provided.  We wanted a glass of ice tea, but all they had was black cherry.  Don, Linda and I chose it, while Dean chose a glass of water.  When they brought it, Linda and I both commented how weak it looked.  Surprisingly when we took a sip it was stronger than we expected.  Once we added a little sugar it was quite good.  The meals are prepared close to what might have been served in the early days of Kansas.  We would recommend this restaurant!

We made one final stop before we returned to the campground and that was to see Hermit's Cave.  We found it right away, but what a disappointment - there was no cave....just some rocks with a slight overhang.  Maybe there was a cave at one time?

From here we made our way back to Richey Cove and our site.  We rested a couple of hours before we carried our leftovers from last night down to Alvin and Linda's site.  The wind is not as bad at their site as it is near us and our neighbors to our left.

Our group for the evening.

We enjoyed a fire...when it goes out...it's goodnight to all!

Thursday, September 23

Today we are making the drive to Cottonwood Falls, Kansas, located 29 miles south of Richey Cove.  Alvin and Linda rode with us today.  Upon arrival, we parked on Main Street in front of Calico Rose Fabric & Quilts.  Linda wanted to visit there, as well as Drena and Carolyn.  We enjoyed looking around.  While they were visiting with the owner, I was checking out the beautiful quilts hanging on the walls.  I spied this one and just fell in love with it - even more so when I took a picture of the printed portion on the bottom right of the quilt.  I loved it even more afterwards - this quilt was meant to be!

You can increase the size of the picture by clicking on it.

We left the quilt shop and started visiting the many shops along the two block main street of Cottonwood Falls.  So many things to see and do in such a short area and time was quickly running out as we were scheduled for a tour of the Cottonwood Falls County Courthouse at 11:30.  We stopped in a couple of antique/resale shops.  The first one was so immaculately laid out, we all commented to the owner how nice it looked.  We made one more quick walk to the north end of town where we enjoyed looking at a number of products made by Kansas artists at Prairie Past Times.  While we were looking around, Nancy poked her head in to let us know it was about time for the tour, so we hurried our way back to the courthouse where we gathered outside.  I've forgotten the name of the gentlemen who covered some basic information about the building before we moved inside.

Nancy and our host for the tour making their way to the Courthouse.

Making our way through the building

Take a look at those telephone poles and lines on the right side in the above picture.  Dean loved these!

I took this picture out a window where they placed a platform for folks to walk up to look out over downtown Cottonwood Falls.  You can see for miles.

What a gorgeous building.

Our next stop was lunch at Grand Central Grill - back at the other end of the two block street.  Yes, we had our walking shoes on and it felt good to be outside on such a beautiful day.  It was a beautiful building.  The inside had been tastefully decorated with a number of table settings.  We had four to a table, a total of three tables.  We shared our table with John and Carolyn, some of our new members.  We enjoyed visiting with them.  My salad with small chunks of tenderloin on romaine lettuce with blue cheese, along with a wonderful dressing was light.  I was disappointed there was not more lettuce on the plate, but otherwise the meal was very good.  Dean had chicken tenders, and he was happy with his choice.

After lunch, Linda and I walked back to the quilt store.  At Prairie Past Times, I had visited with the clerk there and asked him about Emma Chase.  When I was working for the City of Oswego, I attended many city and tourism meetings across Kansas.  Marci Penner spoke to both cities and tourist groups and she often talked about Emma Chase in Cottonwood Falls, who operated a restaurant there.  Marci talked about the innovative ideas Emma and others came up with to bring tourism to their small town.  I have wanted to visit Cottonwood Falls ever since, so I was very excited about this RV campout.  I found out that Emma Chase (not anyone's real name) was in fact Sue Smith who owns the quilt shop we stopped at.  After we stopped in again, I enjoyed visiting with her about how her restaurant and the name Emma Chase came about.  I could have continued visiting with her, but our husbands were waiting outside to return to Council Grove, so having a great coversation, I thanked her for her time and we excused ourselves.  

It's always nice to visit with Alvin and Linda and we enjoyed the ride to and from this small, but very busy community.  As we passed back through Council Grove, Dean mentioned Dairy Queen.  Alvin agreed.  It was perfect, as we didn't even need anything for dinner after this treat.

We gathered back at Linda and Alvin's at 6:30 for our last Fire Genie fire of this casual campout.  

What a great casual campout this was.  Marc and Nancy did an outstanding job of coordinating the events for the week.  It's a place I've wanted to visit for years and now I can mark it off my bucket list, but I won't mark it off as a place "not" to return too.  I look forward to going back again someday and spend time in everyone of those little shops on Main Street in Cotton wood Falls.

Saturday, September 18 - Sunday, September 19, 2021 - Our Camping Buddies Visit Oswego

Saturday, September 18 - Friday, September 24, 2021 - Our Camping Buddies Visit Oswego

After a busy week of finishing the cleanup of the property we bought, and finally getting caught up with all of the various paperwork I've been working on, it was nice to have a day without much to do.  Our camping buddies, Alvin/Linda and Keith/Drena arrived at Hillside RV Park in Oswego, where we reside, shortly before noon.  After they were set up, I took the ladies in my car, Dean took the guys in the truck and we followed each other to Angelo's Deli in Hallowell.  Angelo's was originally opened by Angelo Sachetta in 1951.  After his retirement in 1986, the owners (more than 1) have continued to provide Angelo's original sandwiches.  They are a treat for us and I believe our friends enjoyed them as well.

Afterwards, I took the ladies to the two flea markets we have in Oswego; while Dean drove the guys.  Afterwards we took a drive around Oswego to show them some of the sites.  It was a fun afternoon.  We returned to our rigs to rest up before we joined up again after dinner.  As always we enjoyed our time together.  

Taken as we walked back to Bentley.

Sunday, September 19 - Alvin delivered cinnamon rolls Linda made for us, to both Keith/Drena and Dean and I for breakfast this morning.  They were delicious with our coffee.

Alvin and Linda attended church with us this morning.   It was nice to introduce them to our pastor, my sister and our friends who have heard so much about the fun times we've had with our camping buddies.

Later, after our lunch and some downtime, we loaded up and made the drive to Big Brutus. 

The guys bought a ticket to walk down to the giant shovel.  The shovel was constructed to remove the upper ground, rock, etc. until it reached the coal bed.  It operated in an area a mile or two east of Oswego to Pittsburg, KS over an 11 year period.  The ladies stayed in the lobby area of the museum, in order to stay cool, while the guys checked Big Brutus out.  While the ladies were around in the lobby, the manager started visiting with us.  He offered to take us on a drive, so we hopped on the 6 passenger golf cart.  As we started down the path, he made stops along the way to explain some of the machinery on display.  As we reached the very large shovel (Big Brutus) the guys were just finishing up their visit there.  

They were surprised to see us as they walked out.  

I forgot to take a picture of the entire shovel, but this picture and the one below gives you an idea of how big it is.

Drena/Keith on the left; Alvin/Linda on the right.

As we made our way back to the building, we had to go up a pretty good incline and the cart was barely moving.  The guys hopped off to get it up the hill.  Lol!

Keith helping the cart up the hill.

We thanked the manager for spending time with us, then we loaded up and headed on northeast to Chicken Mary's.  We all enjoyed our meal of fried chicken, various sides, and their famous onion rings.  It was a great day.

Upon on our return, we set outside for awhile before calling it an evening.

August 21-23, 2021 - Scott City, KS to Wilson Lake; Wilson, KS - Lucas, KS

August 21-23, 2021 - Scott City, KS to Wilson Lake; Visits to Wilson, Victoria and Lucas, KS

  

Saturday, August 21, 2021

As we left Scott City, we headed north on US 83, then east onto KS 4.  At the main intersection we were routed north a block or two, then followed a county road for awhile before we transitioned back to KS 4 where we continued on toward what we thought was the town of Victoria, KS home of the Cathedral of the Plains.  Instead we ended up at Liebenthal, KS where we found a beautiful cathedral but much smaller than the one we were looking for.

This area of Kansas is known for the post rocks that were made from the limestone in the area.  Notice the posts in front of this house.

 

Many churches were built with the limestone rock as well.

Taken from the internet:  The 20 mile long Post Rock Scenic Byway runs along K-232, across the Wilson Lake Dam, from Lucas to Wilson in central Kansas. The byway showcases the native limestone fence posts and farm steads built by the early settlers. The stone was used for building material because of the lack of trees.

We left Liebenthal, KS, and continued toward Hays, KS, where we bypassed the town to transition to I-70.  We remained on I-70 until we turned north on KS 232 that led us to nearby Wilson Lake.

We were very impressed with Wilson Lake.  The countryside was gorgeous with green rolling hills, small trees that looked as if they had been sparingly tossed around the nearby fields.  The water was gorgeous, noted as a clear water lake in Kansas.  There are numerous campgrounds all around the lake.  I should have checked out the campgrounds more thoroughly.  Later in the week we discovered campgrounds we wish we had chosen.  More about that later.

Wilson Lake as we approached our campground.

Our campsite which we were happy with - at least the first night!

We had a 30amp site and while there was a water hydrant nearby (the only one in Section C of our campground) although the couple across the road were hooked up to it.  We thought we had sufficient water for at least two days, so hoped that we could acquire access long enough to refill our tank if needed.

This is how the landscape looked around most of the lake area.  Just gorgeous.

We drove into nearby Wilson, KS for a little grocery shopping.  There were a number of old post rock buildings.  It's been a long time since I've seen a building with the fire escape still attached on the outside.  

Dean enjoyed seeing this phone booth located at the Wilson Phone Office.  I'm not sure there was a phone in it, but I think it's a great thing to show our youth how things used to be.

Beautiful post rock building.

Wilson is the Czech Capital of Kansas, and home to the largest egg in the world.

There were a number of these painted Czech eggs around downtown Wilson. 

Another very interesting structure located in Wilson.  What do you think it is?  Originally it was used to store water after its construction in 1907; however, shortly afterwards it was used for the county jail until 1963.  

Another nearby campground.  

I stepped outside to take these pictures.  What a pretty sky it was tonight.

Sunday, August 22, 2021

We had a quiet morning.  I have been struggling with downloading pictures from my phone to my laptop.  Therefore I have been unable to post any pictures, which holds up posting the blog. While we were in Homedale, ID I noticed an article on RV Travel that Verizon was offering increased data on Mifi's.  The Mifi we have was listed to receive these updates.  I called Verizon on August 4 to inquire about updating our Mifi from the monthly 15gb we currently have to 50gb for only $10 more a month.  We were paying $20 a month, and for $30/month we had an increase of 35gb.  I was elated about this increase as we often run out of data before the month is over.

By now we were several weeks into our new monthly data for Verizon and I still could not load my pictures.  I thought it was my phone.  It was taking hours for my pictures to download and I ended up deleting a number of pictures hoping it would speed things up, but nothing changed.  I suspected it might be the location we were at, as it seemed to be very slow out in the middle of this part of Kansas.  I was determined to be more careful when choosing what to take a picture of.

After lunch, we headed out on another adventure.  This time we headed southwest to Russell, Kansas to check out the town.  So many beautiful post rock buildings in this community.

Russell County Courthouse.

Brick Streets in Russell, KS

I love these murals - especially when it explains a communities history.

We deemed this Library as one of our favorites due to the mural.  The books, and the window where it seems you are looking through to the Library is a beautiful mural on the building.

The high school all made of post rock.

From Russell, we drove south toward Victoria, KS to see the "real" Cathedral of the Plains.  In order to get a good picture of the front of the cathedral, we drove around the block to the west, then back east.  

I loved how they used the post rock in the above picture to landscape it.

Cathedral of the Plains - Victoria, KS

What a beautiful structure.

Notice the post rock to the left of the building - R i i - for Robben Industries, Inc. 

By now, if you have followed the blog very long, you know how much I enjoy seeing a beautiful flag blowing in the breeze, especially when they are so beautifully displayed like this one.  Large and proud!

Wilson Lake

We returned to our campground where we sweltered inside with the temperatures of 98 inside the RV.  We put two fans downstairs blowing them on us as much as possible.  It made things tolerable.  Fortunately, once the temperatures began to drop, it dropped quickly and we were able to get a good night's sleep.

Sunday, August 23, 2021 - Last Day at Wilson Lake, Visit to Lucas, KS

After our breakfast, we left to drive around the lake.  Dean had been online earlier this morning and found there were several other campgrounds he wanted to check out, and we wanted to visit Lucas, Kansas on the north side of the lake.  

This is when I discovered there were a number of campgrounds - with full hookups.  Oh, if we had only known.  The temperatures Saturday and today reached 102, and the front room air conditioner was not holding up.  It reached 90+ inside by the afternoon and it was miserable.  At least the air conditioner in the bedroom cooled us off well at night.  Thank goodness for that.  It was nice to leave and be in the air conditioned truck.

First of all we learned Wilson Lake was much bigger than it appeared once we moved further to the east and north from where we were located.  We discovered several more campgrounds spread around the lake.  

The scenery we enjoyed driving around the lake.  It was so pretty.

This is below the dam where more campgrounds are located.

Wilson Lake Dam Lookout

I just happened to look up and see the sun and clouds reflecting in the truck window.  I've never seen anything quite like it.  Just in the right place at the right time, I guess.

We would love to come back here someday (Sunday-Thursday) when it's not so crowded.  

After our drive around the lake, we moved on to nearby Lucas, KS, a town I've heard about for several years.  Once we arrived we quickly found the location we wanted to check out - The Garden of Eden. This is a link from the Internet.  http://www.gardenofedenlucas.org/

It was very interesting but not quite what I expected.  Here are a few pictures I took while there.

Entrance sign to Lucas.

The outside walls of the house are all concrete, with the property coloring, shaped to look like the post rocks in the area.

I did enjoy this flag.  

This was interesting.  This is his mausoleum. He and his first wife are buried here.  His coffin has a glass plate over his face so you can look in and see him.  I did not look.  Dean did.  There is a self imposed picture of himself that is showing him looking at himself in his coffin, which he built himself.  It is concrete like most everything else he made.

Notice the nails along the railing above?  According to the curator people would come and lean on the rails so he  added the nails to keep them from doing it.  Bizarre!

I thought this was a great idea, as long as it is hidden away in my yard somewhere.  See the note before on why I liked his idea.

A little easier on the back as well.

We have this same succulent in some concrete statutes Dean brought from the house he owned when we married.  We've hauled those heavy things to four locations now.  He hopes it is the last move....well, we may have to move them to where our house will be located someday - but at least on the same property.

And this was the exit.  

By the time we finished here we were both famished.  Fortunately, Lucas had one restaurant.  

The food was great.  We both had cheeseburger and fries.  They were good but too much on a hot day.  We should have found something cold to eat. LOL!  Their sweet tea was very good and I sure enjoyed it!

We had one more place we wanted to visit before we headed back to the "Hot House".  Lol!!  

Another beautiful post rock building in nearby Sylvan Grove, KS

My pictures were not well enough to post, but here is information on the creek and the double arch bridge.  The weeds had grown up to the point we could barely see the arch.
http://kansastravel.org/spillmancreekbridge.htm

We returned to Bentley after this last stop.  It was just miserable outside and in the RV.  We were all but out of water, so Dean walked over to our neighbor to see if they would mind if we used their hydrant to get some water in our tanks.  They were gracious about it and encouraged us to get what we needed.

After eating a sandwich which was the coolest thing we could make for our dinner, we decided to go in to Wilson and get some ice cream at Grandma's Soda Shop.  I ordered a vanilla soda and Dean ordered an ice cream drink.  I was disappointed when my soda did not have ice cream.  I guess I've only had vanilla soda's with ice cream so lesson learned what you ask for.  It was still good, but it didn't last as long without that ice cream in it to stretch it out.  Lol!    They also had kolaches.  Years ago I learned about kolaches from Linda Schreppel who used to make them for a mutual friend.  She mostly made poppy seed, but some fruit ones as well.  

 

Poppy Seed Kolache - it was great!

Tomorrow we will pull up our jacks and return to our hometown of Oswego, Kansas where we will spend the remainder of this year, except for a couple of casual camp outs with our camping club, and weekend trips to Wichita to see Dean's boys and their families.