Ft Scott KS….cute town.

Ft Scott KS….cute town , well preserved & more activity than some oldies. Too bad we didn't take any photos but it was just TOO DAMN HOT!

We did go to the library wanting to see if their old newspapers were digitized & possibly finding great granddaddy's name mentioned but it was closed when we got there @ 2pm due to  it's Saturday schedule.

Oh well, back on the road again.

We were both tired after trekking out to see Big Brutus in the heat.

(I now realize I've messed up my dates as I listen to the video I'm posting here....not important.....just a few dates off here & there to be expected when I take so long to post to the blog)

Anyway, after Ft Scott, KS We had no idea of where we were going to camp when after only 145 miles we lucked out & found a Federal Corp of Engineer  camp near Heritage, MO on Pomme du Terre Lake & Dam. 

The camp is Properly named: DAMSITE

Only $10 w our Golden Age Passport.

 It had hookups for electricity & water & bathrooms with free showers,

 lake views, 

lovely breezes 

& clean level parking spots…..this is GREAT!

The only thing missing was the internet….do I care? Nope. Not today anyway.

 Hey! The surprise was that we had TV reception….not cable but we were able to see a few of the Olympics & watch the weather news……

.......still HOT & getting hotter!

Hopefully, we'll be able to find some more Corp of Engineer campgrounds down the road.

We have no further plans for "sights" between here & my visit with my sister & mom in Coldwater, Michigan so I'll just add a few more photos of this DAMSITE campground.

It was really pretty here with the mentioned lake views. It wasn't crowded either so there was no one to block our views:   

TAH DAH! BIG BRUTUS. It's unimaginable!

Jul 28 Saturday Only drove 154 miles today.

Big Brutus in W.Mineral KS

… Pictures speak louder than words, especially with this big "guy".

That's me in the lower right. 

Look closely & you will see two other people on the left.

We never would have even KNOWN about this THING if it hadn't been for our visit to the Chisholm Trail Museum back in Wellington, KS. & our chat with the manager there.

He brought out a map to show us where a few interesting attractions were that we might enjoy visiting.

Big Brutus was one of them as well as the Dalton Defenders Museum.

 

You can barely see me.

This is about as high up as I'll get on this beautiful monster!

Joey on his way up to the control booth or whatever ya call it!

It was a long climb up there but he does it all.

On the road to Brutus no one would have been able to imagine how truly huge he is:

Here's the link to Brutus' website where it's story is told along with statistics on his weights & measurements. http://www.bigbrutus.org/about.html

AND The link below has better photos of Big Brutus than I could EVER take: https://www.google.com/search?q=big+brutus&hl=en&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS435US435&biw=948&bih=436&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=GioSUM6oB5DK9QSMxIHwCg&sqi=2&ved=0CF0QsAQ

Still in Kansas; Coffeyville , Aviation Museum & Dalton Gang Museum

JUL 27 FRIDAY Only drove 154 miles

Coffeyville KS: route #166 ,

Aviation Museum

Dalton Gang Museum (this one will be in the next blog)

Oswego, KS camped Hillside Rv park PA cash $14 

 What I've enjoyed immensely on this Mid-West part of the trip  is the truly personal attention of every place we've chosen to visit.

We learned that so many of the people working in the museums or tourist offices are volunteers.

I've had to make some phone calls to verify some hours of operation & ask questions about RV parking etc & found out that the phone numbers listed online or in brochures are  personal home & cell phone numbers of those that would be able to answer my questions.

Back In Caldwell, KS when I called the phone number I'd found for the Tourist  Information Office a very old sounding man answered the phone "Hello" & when he finally realized I wanted the Tourist office he said…"Oh, yes, yes. Let me give you the cell phone for my daughter, Karyn. She can help you."

When I called Karyn's cell # a little girl answered. I thought I'd dialed incorrectly but when I said I was looking for Karyn she told me to hang on & she handed  the phone to her mom.

But wait, there's more! I was asking when the museum was going to be open & she said she'd meet me there & open it for us & show us around! I didn’t know when we would be there & told her I'd call her back if we were going to go.

We never did  get back to her. C'est dommage!

NOW ON TO COFFEYVILLE, KANSAS'

Aviation heritage Museum.  PASTE PHOTO around here

Well, the same type of thing happened with the Aviation Museum.

When I dialed the listed number for the museum another old sounding voice answered the phone. 

He had a bit of trouble hearing me.

He told me his name was Roskey (don't ya jusst love it?) and that if we told him what time we would be there he would meet us or to just call him when we knew.

We made the arrangement and Rosky was there waiting for us at the hanger.

Rosky is a wonderful old retired war veteran that opened the hanger just for us.

We were the only people there. Another private, personalized tour!

Before I go on I think I've forgotten to mention that for the last 8 days the temperatures have been over 100 degrees.  It was 104 for 4 days in a row……THIS was one of them!

Back to the hanger. It was like a sauna inside. We were there about 1 hr and I really couldn't handle more sweating …..I mean SWEATING…no kidding!

I was unable to keep my glasses on my face….slippin , sliden & foggin etc!!!

We didn't wish to be rude & cut our personal tour short with Rosky. He was being so generous. Besides, he loved telling his stories too & we loved hearing them.

Hopefully, he was just as anxious to get out of that hot building as we were.

Anyway, here are some of the things inside the hanger that we enjoyed.

AND:  

Isn't THIS a true beauty?

Hopefully this video will work too.

Roskey was so proud of showing us how good this old fire engine could do it's thing.

Well, there's enough on this entry & I need some sleep.

I'll continue with the last two cool things in KANSAS in the next blog THEN Niagara Falls....CAN HARDLY WAIT for that one! I haven't looked at the photos since the day after we took them.

Dalton Gang gone wrong!

Another interesting museum in Coffeyville, KS was this Dalton Defender Museum.
http://www.daltondefendersmuseum.com/
These 4 guys decided that one bank robbery at once was just not enough so they attempted 2 banks in the same town.....at the same time. DUH!
As the robbery was happening the townspeople one by one then two by two sneaked up on them and killed them all. Some of the town folk died as well.

In this museum there was a very well done & informative 45 minute film presentation, a reenactment with actors as well as computer simulations of the order of things happening & how they were fouled up in their grand plan.

Anyway, this short of mine will show you parts of the inside of the museum.

Wellington, Kansas: Museums Galore! " Who Wudda Thunk?"

There was WAY more to see in this little town than one would have ever expected.

Today is the last day in this 50 mile radius of trying to find family history information. We went to library Wellington, KS. They only had microfilm & the not-so-talkative librarian loaded the microfilm into the machine. Gave a lackluster description of how to work it & the print was so small I decided to not even try. It would have taken WEEKS or even months to read all those newspapers.

.

These two sculptures of children were in front of the library

SOOOOOO, I'll pays mi monies to Ancestry.com…. I now realize how GREAT they are. Worth every penny.

Speaking of "penny"; today we ate at Penny's diner. 

  

                                                     

The people that work there have done so for several years & LOVE their jobs. It was so obvious.

There was lots of laughter & they were all good at what they did.

 Our waitress even said; "We sure know how to enjoy our jobs, don't we?"

I feel these experiences are priceless! I'm even smiling as I type.

Now the Glass Museum:  in Wellington I almost forgot the newly opened;  NDGANational Glass Museum. 

 It houses American glassware manufactured before, during & immediately after the "Great Depression"  

Next in Wellington, KS we went to the;
  Chisholm Trail Museum: A museum of Domestic life.

It had over 40 rooms with wonderful, informative & interesting things. The building has 3 stories &amp. This building had been used up into the 1960's as a hospital.

 For the first hour here we were the only visitors in the museum. As we were talking with the manager about our trip & things he said he wanted to show us something & decided to take us into a room with Civil War guns.
 He opened one of the locked, glass cases & handed it to us to feel how very heavy it was.
We could sense the history, erie!

We were there about two hours. It's really  building in need of repair but their collections were arranged in a welcoming way.

Inside the Chisholm Trail Museum: Click on Video below;

While were walking around we overheard the manager talking to an employee about how just yesterday when he was there alone he heard muffled  voices of many people…as if at a gathering of some type. He was unable to make out the actual words. It was just a group gathering  background noise as if in a movie.

He's always had been a doubter of ghosts but said he's really thinks there might be something to them……now!

I was looking up the museums name online to do a TripAdvisor Review & found this about the possibility of ghosts there:

http://www.wellingtondailynews.com/news/x342382096/Night-at-the-museum

 http://www.unsolved-mysteries.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=315

And here's a link to the museum itself: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Wellington/museum.html

And   http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Wellington/exhibits.html

The manager got a map out to show us some spots and things we might want to see on our route. More on that in another posting. (we DID take his suggestions)

Tomorrow we head out from here in South Haven, KS to Ft Scott, KS on the eastern border with Missouri. I've been in touch with a fellow there who is a RailRoad historian there & it'll be interesting even if I don't find more on my great grandaddy whose name was not to be mentioned in front my great grandmother, Kate, his wife.

Years ago I'd heard some stories about their getting married in Indian country….where we're now traveling and how he was quite a rogue who actually died of syphilis; some have said.

 Kate (Nanny to me, I hardly remember her) even though estranged from him had promised to see to his burial. She followed through on her promise.

 I'd love to know more about both of them.

  

CALDWELL KS: LOTS of history here. Who Knew?

Re Lots OF HISTORY HERE:The Chisholm Trail
http://www.thechisholmtrail.com/
From the above link:  In the latter half of the 19th Century, cattlemen rounded up longhorns by the millions in Texas, cropped their ears, branded their hides, and drove them north across the Indian Nations into Kansas. Somewhere along the way, without intending to do more than work for a hard day's pay and board, they launched the legend of the American cowboy.

BAWDY BAWDY BAWDY

Leaving Oklahoma on into Kansas

Leaving Oklahoma Hwy #64 to NorthEastward on #81 on into South Haven, Kansas. Where we camped for 3 nights with plans to visit several small towns within a 50 mile radius or so.

Kansas is the temporary destination in my search for some family tree information.

My Great Great maternal grandfather, EB Wingate, had been a civil engineer that not only headed some KS railroad planning & construction  in 1885 & 1886 but he worked on the Panama Canal too.

My idea is to visit libraries in some of the towns where I've seen his name mentioned online in town newspapers. 

Most newspapers in small towns have not yet been digitized & shared with Ancestry.com so I'll try to see what I can find.

All of my "older" relatives are already gone so I'm on my own unless I run into some other Wingate family members searching as well.

Not hoping for much but it's a small adventure that is taking us to some small Kansas towns & country roads we never would have seen but for this quest.

My darling husband has been more than patient with my endeavor.

 I thought he'd be bored to death but mostly his iPad was his salvation!  Mine too because I stopped feeling guilty about all the time I was spending trying to find my grandpa!

Here he is all cozy in our "shoe box" of an RV watching TV on the laptop.

=======================================

July 24, 25, 26 

Oasis RV campground South Haven, KS.

( Some maps don't even show this town. ) 

This camp's moniker does NOT fit how it looks! Anything BUT an oasis.

BUT it has a nice Passport America 50% discount with great WI FI & is right in the middle of a 50 mile radius of four towns I wish to do some library exploration:

•  Caldwell  ( LOTS of history here )
• Wellington 
• Winfield
• Arkansas City (nickname Ark City)  What's funny to me was to find out that they do not pronounce the first word in "Arkansas City"  in the same way as the state of ARkansas is pronounced. (where we don't pronounce the final "s" They say "arKANSAS City" like Our- Kansas City.

 Maybe that’s why they gave it the nickname Ark city, eh?

As I mentioned the Oasis RV camp has FABULOUS internet so we are staying three nights in order to catch up on things online & just rest a bit.

Now off to the library in Caldwell, KS   

The 30 something librarian was a volunteer who is a city girl from St Louis, MO, who married a man who had inherited 300 acres of farm.

 She said she had a REAL awakening with the life style change from city to really county life but it's worked out.

 They now own 7000 acres! She loved to telling her story….we loved to hear it! Her name is Lisa Moreland…& laughs when she says it because she'll say "Lease More Land", asked if we "got it" & laughed again. Just darling. (I'm still mad at myself for not taking a photo of her)

From being a city-girl she now farms More Land than she ever could have imagined!

She told us they just recently hired their first employee. SAY WHAT??? 7000 acres farmed by her husband, two teenage boys & herself!!!???

 Plus she volunteers twice a week at the library for 12 hours. My oh my!

When she told me THAT I was dying to know if she actually got to drive the big John Deere machines…I was jealous just thinking of it….I know, I'm weird.  

She said she DID but only as a back up when needed.
Actually, she said they use CASE machines (the red ones) I love that kind of detail being the Virgo that I am….just hope my brain can take it all in & keep it there; probably not but I'll enjoy the moment anyway.

This gal was the real-deal. I just loved her. I could have listened to her for hours but we only got to listen for about 20 minutes because the library was closing & she had an appointment…..for a massage.  I'm SURE she needed it!

She was able to answer a question about some plant fields we didn't recognize (there aren't many we DO recognize….corn was the easy one..teehee) Their farm is just across the Kansas border into Oklahoma & they have been luckier than most with the crops this year. 

Oh, the first crop we asked about is Milo. It's a feed-crop.
 I liked the looks of it.     

The second one turned out to be soy beans.

Soy Beans; who knew?

They have absolutely no smell.
 Either that or I don't!

The drought, however, has been fierce!  The newspapers & radio stations in the area are full of the drought news & crop loss news.