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.