Snoopy and Magic

Snoopy and Magic
The Thirsty Duo

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Kansas City and Topeka Here We Come


























It was a very short ride from Pomona Lake to Lake Perry which is situated between Lawrence and Topeka just North of I-70. Of course we took the small back roads again, enjoying the rolling farmland with their just mowed appearance, fresh looking golden hay bales all neatly rolled, scattered around the countryside in between heavily forested areas. Lazy cows cooling off as they skinny dipped in the many ponds, colorful butterflies galore as they spasmodically flew between the many gorgeous wildflowers and I must mention the many new looking John Deer tractors. Again, there weren't many signs and we were relying on our GPS which kept telling us to plow through the cornfields and dirt and gravel roads, which experience told us to ignore. The sky was clear and blue and just as we just started over the top of a hill was Lake Perry in all it's splendor. A truly beautiful sight as it is a very large lake and was glistening a bright blue in the sun. We've been on 4 lakes now in Kansas and they just keep on getting more beautiful, we just never tire of them.

Over the weekend the campground was full of campers and boaters. Pontoon boats are very big up here and I was surprised at how many yacht basins there are in Kansas. Saturday morning I crossed the dam and there were many sailboats out across the lake, that was a pretty sight too.

Our campground is Rock Creek Park and at certain times of the day there are huge clouds of little white blind mosquitoes, they don't bite but are a real nuisance as they come inside every time a door is opened then hang around the lights at night until they drop dead, then you have to vacumn them all up the next day. There are also Willows, really cute little bugs that fly and come inside too, I'll get a pic but don't have one for this post. We found a lake in Tennessee that had so many of these you couldn't go near the lake.

I saw my first Oriole yesterday morning, the pic isn't great as he was between me and the sun.
It sure was pretty but I didn't get to hear it so I still can't recognize one by it's song. We've seen a couple of deer and last night as we sat out by our campfire an owl flew across us to the other side of the lake.

This lake seems to have it's resident Canadian Geese but this morning we saw several large flocks fly in over the lake and circle it while it looked as though they were changing leaders, they didn't land but it was a thrill to see them anyway. I do believe we are in a major fly zone so as the weather cools there should be many many more. Once in South Carolina I counted 117 flocks flying in the V formation as I was about to enter an auction house. Naturally I choose the birds over the auction.

I must mention that on our second night here as we prepared to go to bed we saw lightning way off in the distance. Later, around 2:30 A M it got to us. The sky stayed lit up with a new flash every 5 seconds if not more often and even though there was not a lot of thunder, we had a few strong gusts of wind which broke our neighbors awning straps. Due to the inexperience of Kansas weather we keep our awnings put away unless we're home.

The day after our arrival here on Lake Perry we took off for Kansas City since we had to buy dog food at Costco. We spent hours driving around the town going in and out of KS and MO. The KC skyline was impressive to me because I didn't think there were as many tall bldgs. as there were. There were a lot of overpasses with pretty iron bridges over them as well. We checked out 3 of the 4 casinos to see if we would be able to dry camp when it got closer to Boyd's appt. We found 2 where we could stay . We looked for a Chick-fil-A to no avail, they must not be in KS, too bad.

We did find a really cute little housing development named Rock Hill Gardens where the houses were older and just as cute as could be. They mostly had the same design on the outside but with different ornamental features. I took 2 pics.

On our way back home to the RV we spotted a hot air balloon close, by we chased it down and saw it was a mouse wearing a tuxedo, cute.

Our next ride was to the Prairie Band Casino in Holton where we'll spend the Labor Day weekend in their "state of the art" RV park.

Yesterday we rode into Topeka and saw a lot. We ordered Boyd's glasses, the reason we went, and rode around a lot. We were going to a highly recommended place for lunch but didn't see anything on the menu that turned us on so we found Coyote Canyon and liked the sign well enough to stop there but it was closed to get ready for the dinner crowd so went up the hill to the Rib Crib, we had seen lots of them in various towns and were ready for bbq. It was great and we brought some home with us. After lunch we went to the main Post Office down town and what a beaut that bldg was. Built in 1937, it was full of marble and it even had a fallout shelter.

There are a lot of large parks in Topeka, one is Lake Shawnee and we drove all around the perimeter to the RV park. I can't figure why Orlando doesn't have more parks like what we've seen. Another park is that is outstanding is Gage Park.
So far a great visit and I'm sure we've missed a lot.

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