Wind turbines of the Smoky Hills Wind Farm line the wintery horizon in pastures along the Lincoln and Ellsworth county line, not far from Wilson Resevoir.
A wet, grey afternoon with some unexpected early hours off from work make it a good time to try out one of my Christmas gifts. I received a set of silicon baking pans, so the square one is being used for brownies–mix-type–with a lot of goodies added. We’ll see if I pack them up to share at work.
I can hardly remember a better Christmas since I was a kid back in the Santa Claus days. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, maybe mostly because I was prepared and things went as planned. I even enjoyed the shopping and wrapping gifts, which sometimes I find tedious.
With the car all loaded the night before, Annie hopped onto her place on the passenger seat, and we headed out the morning of the 23rd for Kansas. Even at the more than 11 hours (mostly stops for gas and a dog walk here and there), the drive wasn’t that bad. The weather was mild and putting the car on cruise for long stretches of the interstate made the drive almost easier than my two hours each week day of commuting to work.
Needless to say, it was one of those Christmases of too many presents and too much food, what with a table-filled buffet spread at my sister’s and her kids and families. Then the next day we headed off to my brother’s, the second year in a row that I was together with my two brothers and sister for Christmas dinner. Until last year, there were a good many years in between that for one reason or another we all hadn’t gotten together for the holiday. I think we all realize that we are a pretty lucky group that have our health (yeah, we all have a prescription for high blood pressure, but, hey!) and get along well to boot.
I headed back to Houston on the first day of the new year, but before that I spent some relaxing day drives with my sister as part of what I would say was one of the best vacations for a long time. One of my goals during the trip was to load a cooler with some Kansas cured meat. I like to go back to the very store that I went to with my dad when I was a kid and pick up smoked sausage. Back in my tag-along days, it was called Klema IGA; now it’s Wilson Family Foods, in Wilson, Kansas. The store hasn’t changed all that much, but it’s still a good store for a small town. I wish I could have broad back some of the fresh meat from the cooler because there’s no comparing it to plastic, no-taste stuff I find in the big name super markets out here in the suburbs.
Another place we like to go is Brant’s Meat Market in Lucas, Kansas, about a 20-mile drive that passes by Wilson Resevoir, which is much more impressive to me these days than it was when I passed by it back when I was a college kid going to and from a summer job.
Locally, it's called Ralph's Ruts (Rice County, Kansas). This is one of the few places where you can still see the Santa Fe Trail, which was dug out by the thousands of teams of wagons that passed through in the 1800s.
Geese feeding in a field near Odin, Kansas. These are part of the large numbers of ducks and geese that stop annually at Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area not far away.
The parking lot at Meridy's Restaurant in Russell, Kansas. The buffet is loaded with mounds of fried chicken, homemade mashed potatoes, and gravy that rival Mom's. It's basically a "have-to" on every Kansas trip. (It's right off I-70 if you're making a trip through western Kansas.)
Over the several day trips, we didn’t go but a county or two away from my sister’s house in Lyons, Kansas, but each outing held a new discovery or re-discovery in the central part of the state where I grew up. My car brought back with it some dried Kansas mud from some of the few dirt roads that had not but a few days before been plowed clear of snow. I can say that even though I’ved lived a good long time outside of Kansas, I’ve still got some of that same dirt in my blood. (I’ve got other photos that I wanted to include, but WordPress is kicking my butt right now as I try to insert them.)
This old limestone schoolhouse has been empty and looked the same since I was a kid riding by on the school bus. This is one of the landmarks I was looking for on a day trip filled with memories. This was also the road that kicked up all the mud onto the sides of my car.
The train still passes by the local wheat elevator in my hometown of Dorrance, Kansas, pretty much the way it has for many years.
Filed under: Annie and Dog Talk, It's What I Like, Maps, Geography, and Places, Travel | Tagged: Annie, Brant's Meat Market, Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area, Christmas, dorrance, Ellsworth County Kansas, fried chicken, I-70, Kansas, limestone schoolhouse, Lucas Kansas, Lyons Kansas, Meridy's Restaurant, Odin Kansas, Ralph's Ruts, Russell Kansas, Santa Fe Trail, smoked sausage, Smoky Hill Wind Farm, western Kansas, Wilson Kansas, Wilson Resevoir, wind farm, wind turbines | Leave a comment »