Pomona Lake, KS Michigan Valley

Tonight is our fifth night here and we're taking off tomorrow morning, heading further north to Perry Lake between Topeka and Lawrence, KS.

This is one of the top campgrounds we've stayed at on this trip. It is truly gorgeous, well maintained and landscaped, 95 sites including tent sites, 30 amp sites, 50 amp sites and full hookup sites. Any site you pull into is spacious and has shade somewhere as well as a beautiful view. We spent the first 4 nights in a 50 amp site and today moved over to a full hookup in order to do all the laundry. Pictures

Hummingbirds are still finding us and we still enjoy watching the fiesty little birds. There are large squirrels here, lots of robins, sparrows, blackbirds of some sort as well as some other birds I can't name. There are some different trees here too and again I can't name them. As a matter of fact, when we moved to this new site today we found baby Robins just outside the bedroom window and have enjoyed watching Momma and Daddy Robin bring them big juicy caterpillars all day long. They must be very young as they don't chirp yet but sure do open their little mouths wide. They are fuzzy and we think there are three of them. Pictured.

We took a ride into Ottawa on Saturday to do some shopping and Boyd noticed a sweet corn sign on the street. We turned around and went back to it and bought a baker's dozen and a basket of tomatoes. The man selling it gave Boyd an ear to try and I tried it too and let me tell you, it was soo sweet and tender, really yummy like Zellwood's Candy Corn.

The buildings in downtown Ottawa were really ornate and each one was different in it's own way. plus many of them had lights on them and the whole town must be really pretty at night when they turn them all on. The old homes were also very ornate as well and very well kept up which was nice to see as they were so beautiful. The paint jobs on them were great too as they emphasized the details. Pictures.

I would highly recommend this area to anyone, it's a winner!

Caught Up At Last and Movin On

Hooray! This catches me up because we're leaving Burlington and Riverside West CG on COE's John Redmond Reservoir this morning heading North about 40 miles to Lake Pomona. That's far enough until we finish checking out that area.

We came here from Fall River Lake where we stayed at Whitehall Bay which was difficult to find as there were no signs, very unlike the COE parks. We had our mail going to Fall River and planned to buy a few grocery items while there but there were no stores so we drove on to Fredonia.

Our stay at Whitehall Bay was very nice and our camp host was very welcoming. We pulled straight into our site instead of backing in which gave us a beautiful view of the lake and we had a terrific breeze coming in from the open lake. On our second night there I happened to wake up around 2 a.m. and saw lightning constantly flashing in the north. Yikes! I thought, we're in Kansas, tornado country. I woke up Boyd and we turned on the weather radio which was warning areas close to us about heavy rains, wind gusts up to 60 mph, golf ball sized hail and flash floods. They were predicting it to get to our area later in the day and that night so at 5:30 that morning we were getting ready to move up the hill where we would have more protection from wind and hail. We were all prepared but it never came, just clouds. We are so lucky.

That day we hung our hummingbird feeder out and within 4 minutes we had our first Ruby Throated visitor and they came and went the whole time we were there. They're such fun to watch. We saw no other animals in the park, not a single squirrel. we hadn't seen any in Baxter Springs either which we found strange. As a matter of fact we were almost the only campers in the park except for the night before the storm was to come and another came in the day we left. We really enjoyed the peace and quiet.

When we left we didn't travel too far to the CG, Riverside W, as I mentioned before. We arrived a day early since we skipped our planned overnight stay at Emporia. We had found diesel for $4.29 a gallon and filled up there and saved the trip over to Flying J which was out of the way. The most we've had to pay for diesel is $4.83 down between Little Rock and Hot Springs. I've seen on the Internet that in Kansas City it's down to $4.05. That sounds cheap now!

Burlington seems to be a very progressive little town and we had fun exploring the area. They have 2 city parks where you can camp in an RV and a Chamber of Commerce which hands out packets of info to tourists, good info too. That's how we found out about the restaurant we had our 32nd anniversary dinner in yesterday, Aug. 14th. You're going to love this - it was in a T/A Travel Center. BETO Junction Restaurant at the intersection of I-35 and Hwy 75. I had the shrimp dinner and Boyd ate spaghetti and meatballs, it was a cross between Red Lobster and the Olive Garden all rolled into one. The meal was great, we had to have 2 boxes to bring home what we couldn't eat, the salad bar was small but was fresh and had some side salads on it that were also terrific. Lots of truckers were in there naturally and they were our entertainment. One, sitting at the bar, had the hair I would love to have, still don't know if IT was a man or woman. An anniversary dinner we won't forget, that's for sure.

While I'm on the subject of anniversaries, I have to say that it's been a great 32 years. Sure it's been rough at times and I was ready to quit but I'm glad I didn't. Boyd, as everyone knows is crazy but his craziness is loved by all who get to know him. He's one of the very few good guys around, honest, sweet, generous,funny, compassionate, caring, and kids flock to him and he always has time for them. That says a lot about the kind of person he is deep down. You have to know him to appreciate him, a diamond in the rough some might say. Anyway I love him, he's made my life terrific and I wouldn't trade him for anyone. Happy Anniversary Boyd, I hope we have many many more.

On our way home from the truck stop, we took a ride down Old hwy 50 to Lebo. We caught a glimpse of deer eating some farmers crop but there was plenty there for all, saw an old cemetery on land donated by a family originally from England after they had acquired their wealth. The sheep and kids (baby goats) were found too. I took pictures of the rolling countryside but the camera just couldn't do it justice. So serene and green it must be like heaven will be.

We're on little back roads most of the time, there is so much to see and it's all wonderful. I can't explain this to people who ask me "why don't I want to stay home?" You're only on this earth once, unless you're Shirley McClaine, How could you not want to see this beautiful country? It's all so different and you never know what's going to be around the next curve or over the next hill. We see so much that interstate drivers don't see. Farms, lakes, gardens, wild animals, domesticated animals, fruits, graffiti on trains and the people are so much fun to see, meet and talk to.

Back to the CG and the big reddish brown squirrels, hummingbirds and turtles. We're in a pull thru right alongside the old Neosho River where the snake birds fish all day and the cliff swallows fly over every morning and evening catching bugs. Over by the dam we see big white egrets, seagulls and big white pelicans, birds you normally wouldn't associate with Kansas. Bugs! We sure have those, poor Magic was loving it outside in the x-pen until a horsefly bit her, now she's afraid to go outside. The little white bridge separates the two cg loops but we've been the only campers once again in this beautiful park.

It's 11:37 and the A/C is still off. It's been so delightful the whole time we've been here and it's been a great place to ride our bikes too. We're all packed up and ready to go as soon as I finish this.

Welcome To Kansas

We're moving right along and I'll soon be caught up.

When I used to think of Kansas I thought of nothing but corn fields as far as the eye could see, actually southeast Kansas is nothing like that. It has cornfields, sure, where can you go and not find them? Probably Nevada. It's really very scenic with an amazing amount of lakes and rivers, we are in what I think is the Flint Hills section. They also have giant rabbits as you will see in the photo. The weather has been unseasonably cool and delightful. It feels like fall in the mornings and we don't need the A/C in the evenings or mornings. The cottonwood from the cottonwood trees are floating through the air. There are hummingbirds galore and I can barely keep the feeder full of nectar. I'm having such a great time.

Our first 4 nights in Kansas were spent in a city park facing the Spring River in the little town of Baxter Springs. We had water, 50 amps and there was a dumpsite available too so we had everything we needed. We arrived on a Thursday morning and there was only one camper there at the time, a full timing couple in a large fifth wheel who were visiting relatives in the area. A short while later a man came in pulling a small trailer and got out of his truck to case the area. Coming back from walking M&S we asked him if he'd ever camped at the park before and was it a pretty safe area. He answered yes, he camped there many times since he was a retired police officer from Baxter Springs. In fact, he said, there would be a lot of retired police chiefs from the area camping there over the next 3 days and not to worry as they would look out for us. Now that was a good thing to hear since we knew nothing about Baxter Springs.

There was a small dam with a waterfall near the bridge we had come over on Hwy 166 and in the afternoon it really sparkled. It wasn't until a few days later that we were told the river was polluted although that didn't stop the many boaters, fishermen and canoeists that came and went over the weekend.

The main reason we stopped in that little town was the proxcimity to several nearby Oklahoma casinos. One being only 8 miles away, named Downstream. It was a beautiful casino but a very tight one. They gave us free play since we were first timers there but it didn't last long. We stayed until sometime the next morning and had a great time feeding the one armed bandits the money we had saved from Eureka Springs. They had a great live band that you found yourself keeping time to while you poured away your savings in a way that you didn't even care.

As we went around exploring the town we saw the sign with the Rainbow bridge then before long we found the real one. It's not in use anymore but Boyd probably crossed it when he traveled the old Route 66 from California to Pennsylvania when he was in the service.

We also drove down to Miami, OK to visit more casinos like Bordertown, High Winds, Buffalo Run, The Stables and Quapaw, my favorite.

On the way to Miami we took another highway that took us to Picher, OK. There had been a tornado rip the town apart this year I think and I hope to never see anything like it again. We who live in Florida can thank our lucky stars that we have so much time to prepare for our hurricanes, many times there is no warning for these people and it's absolutely unbelievable. I saw firsthand what Hugo did to South Carolina but at least they had a week to get out.

The last photo in this episode is something I saw in Missouri for the time, horse apples. They're very interesting and I don't know yet what they are good for except for a short conversation. Let me know what you think.