Here's the Church, Here's the Steeple, Open the Trap Door and See the.....

Monday, October 10th was an absolutely beautiful sunny, cloudless day in Kansas! So, my cousin Michelle, her friend Marcella and I decided to go out exploring, with our cameras of course. We stopped to view our first destination, St. Michael's Catholic Church in Kimeo from a distance, but Michelle was a bit disappointed to learn that instead of practicing my composure of a faraway church, I was more into the fence posts....again.

St. Michael's was established as a congregation in 1870, but this particular house of worship was erected in 1870.

 It was a nice church and all, well maintained, but not super interesting.

When my surroundings do not immediately interest me, but I don't have the freedom to leave, I begin to explore. THAT'S when things get interesting! Usually quite quickly! I said to Michelle, "I wonder what's under those doors?". This piqued her interest and she was a good sport to give them a lift to see!

 Here she is...carefully opening it back...(these two photo's were a reenactment...sorry, I didn't think we would really have anything of interest).

After lifting, the lid, we looked down the hole...nothing much. And then I said " Huh, look at that piece of black caulking....it almost looks like a snake! hahaha". Marcella screamed loudly that it WAS a snake! EEEEEEKKKKK!!!! Michelle QUICKLY dropped the lid to the cellar! (What a rude awakening to the snake, he most likely suffered permanent hearing loss!!!).

After Marcella had ran from the area screaming, I said to Michelle..."Hey, can you lift that up again so I can get some more pictures?". Oh yeah! Up went the lid as I squatted at the edge of the opening leaning toward the snake, but being VERY careful not to fall in the hole. This was probably not the smartest idea I ever had....fortunately, it was only (I found this out weeks later) a Western Rat Snake and not anything poisonous that could/would have lunged at me to strike!

We must have disturbed him for about 5 minutes or so when he decided to travel down the wall into the depths of the basement of the church. Michelle had a stick that she began to clear cobwebs out of his way but this caused him to lose his grip and he made it to the bottom a bit faster than I believe he intended.

We watched to make sure he was ok...he slithered away into the darkness cobweb and all! SLAM went the cellar door as we went to locate Marcella.

Moooooooo..ving along.

Sunday evening, I joined Michelle for an outing with her photography club, the Clay County Shooters. We were to meet near Manhattan, Kansas at the Tuttle Creek Dam. We had a brief downpour and strong gusts of wind upon arrival and the weather wasn't looking very promising, especially for views of a nice prairie sunset. But, we caravanned anyway toward location number one

 The first stop was at the edge of a small lake, the sky was extremely overcast and I didn't feel the scenery was all that spectacular. However, there was a large flock of migrating Franklin's Gulls.

The sky did lighten up for a few minutes, allowing me just enough time to capture the only area that I found interesting, which ironically, was not the water.

Stop number two, provided more excitement for me. There were a few dozen cows. Very curious/agitated cows. There were only 2 vehicles that spent any time at this location. Of course, we were one of those!

The cows quickly moved in to investigate. Trotting actually, I was surprised as I had never seen a cow move that quickly! And mooooing very loudly as they approached! It seemed as they were cussing us out for trespassing!

As I exited my Durango  to get a closer look, I was careful to leave my door open just in case I needed to retreat to safety!

I was brave enough, for a half a minute, to pose and turn my back to them, making sure to wave my finger at them, warning them to stay!

 See what I mean...they looked ANGRY!

 I was worried that this lady wouldn't be allowed passage back to her vehicle. But, she was able to walk through the crowd without incident.

 On to stop number three, we were all hoping for a picture perfect prairie sunset, but that would not happen tonight. Nor would we see the full moon as it rose in the opposite direction, also obscured by heavy clouds.

Here's Michelle, doing her best to impersonate her favorite adventure photographer, Peter Lik!

Exploring Leonardville

On a dreary Sunday afternoon, Michelle and I took off to explore the area around Clay Center, specifically...Leonardville. While on this vacation, my preferred scenery seemed to focus on windmills, barns, and fences. So, sorry for the redundancy, but for the next several days, I was just enthralled with this type of stuff.

Driving up from Wichita I kept seeing fields of red. Come to find out, it was milo. And now I was able to get up close and personal with milo!

Milo, also known as sorghum, is commonly used in the U.S. as a feed grain for livestock. It is, however, in other areas of the world, used as a grain for human consumption.

 Also in Leonardville, is an old church. Unfortunately, it has been unoccupied for several years and vines have taken over the exterior. I would like to think that at one point in time it was a very quaint and beautiful church.

A barn on the outskirts of this farming community.

Although summer had long since passed, I was fortunate to find a few sunflowers still in bloom!

Cowtown!

Before leaving Wichita, Michelle, Katie and I decided to check out Cowtown. I really had no idea what to expect, but if any of you have been to Greenfield Village in Dearborn, it would be very similar but with a Wild West theme! The "theme" for the month was "The County Fair". So, you have a representation of a frontier town from the oh...late 1800's but the "fair" was in town.

Folks in period clothing strolled the streets and acted in the manner that was era-appropriate. This man was a camp cook for a cattle (or other animal) drive.

And what would a County Fair be without livestock?

This flour bag swing was just too much temptation for this young visitor to ignore!

Women in their finest strolling through town to pick up needed supplies.

Of course, I did have to examine the Apothecary shop!

This woman sat in the front window of one of the stores sewing lids for jars.

There was a rumor that there was a Long Horn on the back forty. So, I passed through a baseball game (play was stopped as they changed positions) and wandered back to the barns to see for myself!

Apparently, the steer was interested in meeting me as well.

He passed me then checked me out from a distance. A few minutes into our stare down, he started to flare his nostrils and paw at the ground and began to trot to my location. He won. I didn't want to upset him anymore than I already had.

So, I located Michelle and Katie and Michelle demonstrated for me the proper way to make friends with livestock!

The Sunflower Parade...A Celebration of 150 Years of Statehood for Kansas

When planning my itinerary months earlier, I had planned on staying in Wichita for a day  or two, arriving on October 8th. Coincidentally, my cousin Paul (whom I was going to visit in a few days) was in Wichita for a conference. So, his wife Michelle and daughter Katie decided to meet me in Wichita to start our visit off early! And Michelle had exciting news! The following morning there would be a parade in town to commemorate 150 years of statehood for Kansas. This was a HUGE deal. And as luck would have it....I was in the right spot at the right time! The highlight of the parade was to be a herd of 30Longhorn Cattle driven by the Kansas Livestock Association! Now this may not sound exciting, but the week prior Michelle had just gone on a photo shoot in Eastern Kansas somewhere to capture these steers being driven (no not by motor transport) across the state. It sounded pretty cool, so I had to check them out!

We arrived a little after 10 to ensure a great view. I eventually found the perfect spot near the beginning. A dumpster was in the street directly behind me and there were a few barricades in front of it held down with sandbags. I really wanted a picture of the cattle coming toward me, not of their sides. So...I positioned myself IN the street about 7 feet from the curb, smartly using the barricades for cover. I mean, these are WILD cattle, I don't think they'd stampede and trample me, but.....we know how my luck sometimes runs! These two officers surveyed my situation and strongly advised me to get on the curb. I assured them that I was well prepared and would take appropriate action should the need arise but I REALLY wanted to stay and I promised I wouldn't make any movement as the cattle approached. I guess they figured it was a lost cause and walked away most likely thinking I might be more bull-headed than the approaching steers.

As traditional with all parades, it started off with the flag bearers, I thought it was rather interesting and appropriate that the Native Americans were represented as well.

Following the honor guard, was Kansas Governor, Sam Brownback. a personal friend of my cousin Michelle. They had a quick hello while trotting by!

And then the moment I had waited (not very long) for.....the 30 head of Longhorn Cattle!

I was VERY careful not to make a peep, not move any part of my body except for my hands. Now this may appear as if I am using my zoom, but....I'm not. I was that close! I suddenly felt VERY vulnerable behind that little dinky barricade and I'm not even sure I was breathing!




I was kneeling on the sandbags looking up at them. EEK! Please do not trample me!!!

















WHEW! Danger had passed and not one steer had made a motion of moving off course. I stood up and returned to the curb.





Recently I found a YouTube video taken by the Kansas Livestock Association of this section of the parade. I have added their link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW0iYQB98D0

The Sunflower Parade was at least 100 other entries. Supposedly each town was encouraged to join the parade in whatever they felt represented their section of Kansas. There were quite a few that had the Wild West theme, one float had a group of folks square dancing, one had a bunch of folks in bathtubs (I'm really not sure what that was supposed to represent). My cousin had been approached the day before to join in as a Lutheran Circuit Rider, however, he had to fulfill his obligation to attend the conference and did not a familiar horse to ride. That would have been awesome!

And as in any parade, there were bands. At least a dozen, I think probably more. They all did a fine job!

And cousin Michelle, knew oodles and oodles of people from ALL over! She would get excited and run out into the parade to say hello! She has always been a social butterfly who has a knack for remembering names and faces! And always stops to say hello and chat, if only for a minute or two!

Another hug to an old friend!

And every requirement for an official parade is to have the Shriner's!

About an hour after the festivities began,

the Shriner's brought up (almost) the rear.

After all, we were in Kansas, in Farm Country it is very logical that a large piece of farm equipment signal the end of the parade!