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.

New signs to announce Flint Hills in Kansas

You have seen it here first.

This past week I traveled to Wichita driving cars for Ed Bozarth. As I was heading south on the turnpike south of Emporia I saw some workers installing a limestone facing like the one pictured. Then returning from Wichita going northbound they were placing another limestone near Matfield Green.Saturday I went to Denver and back delivering a pickup for Bozarth and upon my return I seen where another of the limestone’s was in place just east of Junction City and also one in the westbound side of I-70 just west of the Maple Hill exit. I suspect these limestones will be engraved announcing your entrance into the Flint Hills of Kansas. I took the above picture today just west of Maple Hill. They look to be very attractive signs and should make tourists & Kansan's take notice of the natural beauty of the Flint Hills.

Update Monday August 27. When Mary arrived at work this morning she asked the head of Tourism and she said, "The signs are being done with KDOT money. They will say “Welcome to the Flint Hills”, will be lit, and nicely landscaped around them."

Trip to Little Rock, AR

Mary and I went on a short vacation to Little Rock, Arkansas. Even though they set a new record high of 106 on Saturday we still had a good time. We arrived at a Comfort Inn Saturday afternoon within walking distance of the Clinton Library. Saturday evening a van from the hotel took us downtown for dinner. We ate some excellent pizza at Gusano’s Pizzeria. We walked a short distance down President Clinton Blvd. Mary was entertained by a Michael Jackson mime.

Sunday morning we ate in the hotel at their complementary breakfast then went to Mass at a nearby church. Before we left home I questioned Mary about me taking trousers to wear to church and we decided since we were on vacation we would wear shorts. As the priest was giving the announcements at the close of the Mass he gave a talk about dress code and to not wear shorts to church. Since I couldn’t hide under the pew I listened then left quietly after Mass.

After Mass we drove around some and would have liked to walk along the river walk but it was just too hot to enjoy that. About 12:30 we headed for the Clinton Library and ate an expensive brunch while waiting for the Library to open. We did enjoy going through the Library and spent about 3 hours doing so. One forgets how many things happen during eight years of a presidency. We both had the narrative handsets so we could listen to President Clinton explain each exhibit. It was laid out by the year and was easy to follow. We took a trolley downtown to a Clinton gift shop and then back to our car.

Since we ate a large lunch we were not real hungry for dinner. We had the hotel van driver take us back downtown and walked around some. They were having an Alice Cooper concert by the river and there we some weird people showing up for it. We went into a restaurant close by where the band was playing. We didn’t realize how loud they were until we left the restaurant.

Monday morning we ate at the hotel then headed for Eureka Springs taking two lane roads most of the way. It is much more interesting than the interstate. We arrived in Eureka Springs about 1:30 and went downtown to walk the hills going into many shops. We went into the lower ones first then drove up the hill to where most of the better shops are. Most of the shops were air conditioned so it wasn’t too bad. We bought a few things and went to find our motel about 4 PM. We stayed in the Best Western of Eureka Springs and later went to eat at the Forest Hill restaurant. We were not impressed with it.

Tuesday morning, August 14, was our 42nd anniversary and we started for home. We took the back roads through Arkansas and came into Missouri where we took a 90 highway that I would like to ride on the motorcycle sometime. It was probably 50 miles of curvy roads through the back country. It amazes me how many people live along this road in very poor homes. It seemed like there was a home every mile and sometimes several in a mile. Some places it was hard to imagine anyone living there. We came out south of Joplin and finally found a Shoney’s where we ate breakfast about 9:30. We went up highway 71 north of Carthage then took 2 lane roads through Pittsburg, KS and on to Topeka arriving about 2 PM.

We had a nice leisurely trip and really enjoyed it, in spite of the heat.