Adventures in Kansas; April, Part 2

We arrived in Medicine Lodge around noon. Every 3 years this town has a 3-day mega-event called the Medicine Lodge Peace Treat Pageant (this historical marker says "every 5 years" but all the literature we've looked at says "3"). It is a re-enactment of the signing of the peace treaty. Maybe we will go next year for that.

We wanted to go see Carrie Nation's house. Now, that was some lady! She "was a member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol in pre-Prohibition America. She is particularly noteworthy for promoting her viewpoint through vandalism. On many occasions Nation would enter an alcohol-serving establishment and attack the bar with a hatchet.

Nation was a large woman, almost 6 feet tall and weighing 175 pounds and of a somewhat stern countenance. She described herself as "a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, barking at what He doesn't like", and claimed a divine ordination to promote temperance by smashing up bars. Hmm.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the house or stockade. It was noon time and the museum curators were having their lunch break. We weren't ready to eat yet. Plus we had read about a place in Sun City that was recommended for lunch, so we drove on.

Three miles out of Medicine Lodge, we turned south on Gypsum Hills Drive, a very scenic route! Kansas??

Part of the road was paved and part was not. When we got to the end of the road, we headed back east to go to Kiowa. There was a museum there that was supposed to have the ax that Carrie Nation used to smash those bars.

When we got to Kiowa, we decided Sun City was too far away for lunch. We wouldn't get there until 3 probably. So we looked for a local diner in Kiowa. The locals seemed to hang out at this place.

We ordered Mexican food and sandwiches. Quite tasty! This is where Al asked about those yellow mustard colored fields and where we learned that they were canola fields.

After lunch, we found the museum. It used to be a firestation in the olden days.

Here is a picture of Carrie Nation, but we could not find her ax. The guy manning the museum didn't know anything about the ax. Well, he had a hard time hearing so maybe he didn't know what we were asking either. At any rate, it seems the guide books are wrong. No ax.

Leaving town, I took a picture of this old hotel. The sign says it is a social club.

Someone commented that with all those boarded up windows, it didn't seem to be so social.

Adventures in Kansas; April, Part 1

When our friends, Rich and Carolyn mentioned to us that they enjoyed road trips too, we invited them on our April Kansas adventure. Rich even offered to drive.


We began at 9 in the morning and spent the next 12 hours on a wonderfully, amazing trip to the Gypsum Hills in southern Kansas and a little wee bit into Oklahoma.

I ended up taking around 200 pictures!! I have weeded them out for the blog, and will post our adventure in several parts or days.

We drove to Wichita and off southwest on K-42. After passing Suppesville, we turned further southwest on highway 2.

We told Rich that we like to stop at historical markers. It wasn't long before Rich made a sudden turn off the road for our first marker.


What an interesting story! If you are a history buff, you can read more about Runnymede here.

We arrived at Harper and went into town. At the main downtown intersection of Central & Main, there is a fountain that has been restored. It served the citizens of Harper from 1909 to 1969. When it was originally presented to the town by a group of ladies, it cost $365. We were disappointed that it wasn't restored as a fountain. No splashing water here.

A sign read "The biggest fish in Kansas flies in Harper."

Leaving Harper on highway 160 west, we drove a little past Attica. Highway 160 makes a little curve north but the old highway turns off to the west. We got off on this road to go to the Attica cemetery.

Mr. Grigsby was an interesting guy...

...and a shirt-tail relative of Abe Lincoln.

Dearest brother thou hast left us
Here thy loss we deeply feel
But 'tis God that hath berefft us
He can all our sorrows heal.

Darling wife and mother no one knew her but to love her.

Rich made the comment that maybe they made the 2nd one smaller due to the economy. Ha!

We drove past Sharon, the home-town of Martina McBride. There we saw many fields that were bright yellow. We had to pull of to look at it. It smelled quite sweet.

Later on we found out that this was canola. Carolyn said that it is christened “Canola” from “Can” (for Canada) and “ola” (for oil low acid). I read that canola is a cultivar of either Rapeseed or Field Mustard. These fields did look like a field of mustard! Just beautiful!

Tomorrow I will post further about arriving in Medicine Lodge.

I am in an "older ladies" (ages 50's-60's) Bible study. We've met for years. Such dear friends! This year we studied the book of Isaiah. This morning, we had our last time together until the fall. It was at Mary Ellen's.
Mary Ellen loves birds. And she is a published author now! She wrote the children's book "Flitty, Twitty and Itty Bitty." LOVE IT! So do my grandkids! Such a wonderfully, sweet story about how much God cares for the birds; and He cares for each of us too!
Mary Ellen does such a wonderful job of decorating!

This juice mix is grape juice, diet sprite and sliced lemons. YUM!

She is such a good cook! Mary Ellen likes to try new recipes out on us. We all loved this cottage souffle!

Easy Cottage Souffle'

6 eggs
16 ounces small curd cottage cheese
1 lb Monterey Jack cheese grated or I used cheddar
1 cup biscuit mix
1/2 cup melted butter, divided

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat eggs in a medium-size bowl.
Add cottage cheese and cheese; blend well. Stir in biscuit mix and 1/4 cup melted butter.
Place 1/4 cup butter in souffle' dish then add the souffle' mixture.
Bake for 45-60 min.

We read Isaiah 52:13-53:12 about the suffering and glory of Christ.
Everyone wrote out griefs, sorrows, sicknesses, transgressions that they have seen and experienced during the past few days. Or possibly some from long ago too. We put these slips of paper in a cup. It represented the cup that Jesus drank. He bore all our griefs and sins.

"He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
and the punishment that brought us peace
was upon Him
and by His wounds we are healed."
Isaiah 53:5

Playing

Monday night was game night for our community life. We played Imaginiff.

There was one extra space so we added Pastor Dave's name.

The question came up:
Imaginiff Pastor Dave were a manager of a store. Which store would he manage?
Dairy Queen
Victoria Secret
Burger King
KMart
All for a Dollar
Banana Republic

So how would you answer that?
If you don't know him, he loves a good bargain and likes to go to thrift stores.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Last weekend we took the girls to the circus.
I have this book. I purchased it from the school when they were selling old books. It was just like the 1st grade reader I had when I was little. I thought it would be a good book to read about the circus.

Just like Janet, Jack and Penny acted out "circus", I told the girls we should pretend circus. So we got out some of our "wild" animals and had a circus!



We made a circus train.
Sophia pretended to be a "dood titten" on the train. And sometime a bad titten too. "I meow dood and meow bad." "But when we go back to Newton, I will be a hooman."

Hannah was a wolf. "When I'm a mean wolf, my eyes are red. But when I'm good, my eyes are green." Al said "this is a high intensity circus!"
************
The girls spent some time making necklaces. Hannah made one for her Samantha doll and one for her friend's Julie doll. Then another one for herself and her friend.
Sophia made this necklace to wear to the zoo on field trip day.
We made this one for Papa. You can't see the "K", but this is a KU necklace.
I taught Hannah how to say Rock Chalk Jayhawk, go KU! It was very difficult for her to say that. It would come out Rock Hawk.

"My daddy's team is easier. Go Pack!"

Easter

We celebrated the Voran Easter on Saturday evening at my parent's.

We all read portions of the Easter story. Except Sophia.

Her mommy read her verse, except for one word that Sophia could read - JOY!

And what JOY to know Christ is risen!

Hannah did a great job reading her verse!
I sure couldn't read words in kindergarten!
(but I did know the Japanese hiragana alphabet!)

The girls and their mommy made these Easter cupcakes.

Grandma Lois had hidden eggs outside.








On Sunday, after church, we had the Graber Easter.
Just before we were going to leave for Pretty Prairie, Jill called.
Hannah was running a 101 temperature!
It was so sad that they would not be able to go celebrate with us.

We went to the Prairie Sunset Home to see Allen's Dad.
The rest of the family were also there.
Dad didn't seem to recognize us at all. He didn't say one word the hour we were there and just would look at us with a confused look on his face. But he does seem to really like the workers.

We are so impressed with the staff there. As we were leaving, I saw one worker lean over and give a kiss to one of the residents. It was just so sweet.

There were no little children to hide eggs for this year.

So sad, but we did have 2 older girls who said they would do it. We put some money in some of the eggs.






Sid grilled burgers and we had all brought food. We goofed again, bringing some of the same dishes. We think too much alike. Taco salad and potato salad.


One year 3 of us brought green bean salad. We decided we HAVE to e-mail and each one bring one big dish and decided ahead of time what that one thing is so we don't duplicate our dishes.


The BIG hit though was this:

PEANUT CRISP BARS

Combine in large saucepan and bring to boil:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup light corn syrup

Blend in 1 cup peanut butter.
Add 6 cups rice krispies. Blend well.
Press into buttered 9x13 pan.

Melt package (or two if you want it really chocolatey) chocolate chips in the microwave and pour over top.

Cut into squares before it hardens so it is easier to remove when it is cool.