Travel to 105 Kansas Counties

Well I am going to embark on a new adventure. I stopped at Alma yesterday and took this picture at the Wabaunsee County Courthouse. After taking this picture I rode west on The Skyline/Mill Creek scenic drive winding southwest to Alta Vista. This road shows up as Old 10 Rd on my GPS. It is a meandering 17 mile road through farm and pasture with many curves. There are old one room schools and farmhouses made from native limestone. It is an interesting ride.

This posting starts my expedition of traveling to all 105 counties in Kansas and I will take my picture at each courthouse to show I was there. I have it planned for about 5 trips with the shortest being 250 miles in northeast Kansas and the longest being about 1,850 miles when I travel along the northern two tiers of counties and then head south to Oklahoma line. That trip will probably take about four days. I have it all programmed into my Garmin GPS and it looks like the total of the trips will be about 3,800 miles. I will begin further travels once the weather cools off. I will keep you posted of my progress.




Thursday August 30.

Yesterday I went to Shawnee County courthouse.











Today I went to Jackson County in Holton.





Brown County in Hiawatha



Nemaha County in Seneca





Pottawatomie County in Westmoreland










and Riley County in Manhattan. The pictures I took are posted to the right under Kansas Counties.

The reason for the trip today was to go to Frankfort to see my mother who is in the Care Home. That doesn't take long because she does not know me and can't talk, at least of anything that makes sense. After leaving Seneca I came down through Centralia where I went to 4th & 5th grade and Vermillion where I went to 1st to 3rd grade. We lived on farms near both towns and moved to Frankfort in 1952 where I completed grade and high school.

As I was heading out of Frankfort I seen Jim Fry and his mother, Athena, sitting outside so I turned around and visited with them a while. Jim and I graduated from Frankfort High together and have kept in touch throughout the years. Jim and Helen Roeder were married one week after Mary and I and I was Jim's best man. We were in the National Guard together in the Marysville unit and both got called up to active duty in May 1968. I stayed in Colorado Springs and Jim went to Vietnam.

The crops look good up north, especially the soybeans. The weather was nice and cool this morning. I had trouble with my camera and couldn't get the time delay to work so only got pictures of the bike. That is easier than setting up the tripod anyway. The courthouse in Seneca is directly across the street from the school that burned down. Today I rode 240 miles.


Sunday, September 9, 2007

Today was a great day to ride and I rode 327 miles. The temperature was in the mid 60’s to upper 70’s throughout the day, a perfect temperature to ride. I left home about 9 AM and headed up K-4 highway to K-92. Oskaloosa was my first stop which is in Jefferson County. Their courthouse is newer and is plain.

From there I headed up 59 hwy to Atchison. They have an old courthouse and it is very pretty with a clock in the tower and shows I was there about 10:40. There was much going on downtown with a flea market in progress and many people downtown. Atchison is the birthplace of Amelia Earhart and has many other historic places to visit.

I headed north out of Atchison on 7 hwy and then a county road to Troy in Doniphan County. This is a nice drive and designated a scenic Kansas highway. Doniphan courthouse is also a pretty courthouse.

After Troy I headed back down 7 hwy through Atchison and on to Leavenworth in Leavenworth County. I rode by the US Penitentiary but decided I didn’t want to visit there. Again they have a nice looking courthouse and there is much to see and do around the area with museums, Old Ft. Leavenworth, and the National Cemetary.

Then I became lost. For some reason when I loaded the information for Wyandotte County in my GPS I got it wrong and ended up in Edwardsville looking for the courthouse. I had to ask several people before I found out the exact location. I headed back up I-435 to I-70 and headed east into Kansas City with the hopes of getting off at the 7th Street exit. Nope, it was under construction so I got off at the next exit and was forced to go south on U-69 across a bridge. As soon as I could I made a u-turn and headed back north. It was on 7th street and was easy to find. The courthouse is also a beauty.

I went back to I-435 and onto I-35 to the Santa Fe exit and into Olathe to the Johnson County Courthouse. This one has a modern design and is very attractive.

I then headed south on 169 hwy which is a 4 lane road to Miami County. Along the way I had a motorcycle pass me that must have been doing 140 mph. I was traveling 70 and he scared me when he zoomed by. I could see a mile ahead and he was out of sight in less than a minute. The clock on the Miami courthouse in Paola shows I was there at 3:05. This is another old courthouse that takes up a square block and is very pretty.

From Paola I took a county road about ten miles west and then went one mile north to 68 hwy where I headed west past the huge Wal-Mart distribution center into Ottawa. Franklin County Courthouse was built in 1893 and was named a historic place. It is a grand courthouse.

I went north out of Ottawa on 59 hwy. They are beginning work on this road to make it a four lane. The next stop was in Douglas County in Lawrence and down Massachusetts Street. They have a grand courthouse and the clock places me there at 4:30. There was a lot of activity in downtown Lawrence and part of Massachusetts was closed off.

I headed for the Turnpike and was home around 5 PM. I have now been to 16 courthouses and only 89 to go!

All the pictures except the first on this site came from : http://skyways.lib.ks.us/counties/

Go there to learn more about the Counties.