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.