Day 9: Catch Up and Little Creatures

It's Friday... and we are back!! 

WEDNESDAY:  It was fun, family time from 2:30 Wednesday afternoon until 9am this morning (Friday) with some time-outs for sleep.  The time from leaving our room in Garden City, Kansas to seeing Karen's Aunt Ruth Ann in Emporia, Kansas was fraught with delays, delays, delays.  There were numerous road delays.  And trains in Kansas are a traveler's worst nightmare.  There are tracks everywhere: they go across major highways and trains are all over 100 cars long. In defense of the long drive, the scenery was gorgeous.  Right now all of Kansas is so incredibly green. It did the soul good to see all the grass and grain fields.

After arriving in Emporia we took a covid test because of Aunt Ruth Ann's health.  After test was completed, we couldn't raise her--she had her air conditioning on, phone off, is hard of hearing, and a tree trimming crew was chipping their newly harvested limbs they cut from the trees overhanging the street.  But all the distractions were worth it when we finally connected.  So much catching up.  Cousin Joyce came over for dinner and then we went to Joyce's to spend the night. Karen and Joyce stayed up until after 11 talking and putting a jigsaw puzzle together.

Prather Falls in Chase County Kansas

THURSDAY: Kansas roads and the Gasaway's have issues, even as we drove Joyce's car (these miles don't count in the mileage pool).  Thursday morning we were going to see Prather Falls just 22 miles from Joyce's. We took a wrong turn and ended up on the Kansas turnpike quickly heading toward Wichita, adding another 40 miles to our trip--lesson in patience!!!  We picked up cousin Mauree just 6 miles from the waterfall.  She was a great help because she knew about the falls and had some interesting history and had stories to tell of her earlier visits to the falls.  Karen almost stepped on a turtle (very small) but instead took a picture of it (first small creature).  The falls comes from a reservoir--not a river like we think of.  The water is NOT snow melt--very interesting.  We followed Mauree back to town so it was only 22 miles.

We had lunch out and then Chuck and Joyce went to Joyce's - talked and eventually napped.  Mauree (Ruth Ann's daughter) dropped me off at Ruth Ann's and went on her way.  Ruth Ann and Karen talked about Karen's maternal side of the family, went through pictures and had a great time.  Joyce and Chuck came and picked Karen up (Joyce and Ruth Ann only live 1 1/2 miles from each other.  Karen was going to walk but it was 100 degrees and Karen had a box of "treasures" to bring home.

We went to Joyce's for a couple of hours, worked on puzzles, and then it was off to dinner and bingo at the American Legion.  What a riot!  This was a first for both of us - playing official, organized bingo.  It is a far cry from just putting chits on a piece of paper.  Had fun but didn't win anything.  Got home about 9:30 and finished putting a puzzle together while talking.  Got to bed a little after midnight.  We slept in the basement, but Karen heard one clap of thunder.  Joyce, sleeping upstairs, said her weather alert went off, but being a true Kansan knew it wasn't anything to worry about.

FRIDAY-today:  We left Joyce's home at about 9am and took a leisurely drive south and east, south and east, south and east.  Truly the roads in Kansas are straight so we would drive south for a while, turn left and drive for a while and turn right.  A while being between 10 and 25 miles.  On a map our route resembled stair steps descending to the south and east. Beautiful country--green. 

There was quite a transition in scenery as we have driven east across Kanas into Missouri.  From very flat land which gradually transitioned into lush green rolling hills. The rolling became more pronounced with tree filled ravines.  The hills here in Missouri are MUCH taller - maybe 300 feet!  Forests of deciduous trees are now the norm.

Grand Falls

We went to Grand Falls just outside of Joplin, Missouri.  It was right alongside a country road, very interesting location.  After exploring the falls, along with a beautiful butterfly (second little creature), we drove alongside the river until we can to a little park where we had lunch. It may seem a bit of embellishment to call the falls 'Grand' as we are accustomed to much taller - but this is Missouri, and there aren't nearly as many places for water to drop far.

Then we drove to where we are spending the night, Neosho, Missouri.  It is a quaint little town with a "courthouse square" in the middle of town.  We walked around some and at 3pm 2 hymns played on the town carillons so all of downtown could hear.  I seem to remember hymns being played in Emporia also at noon, 3pm and 5pm.

Got dinner, came to the room and are catching up.  Enjoying God's land and little creatures.