Flatlanders

Reflection Ridge near Anthony, KS

Kinda bonding with the Flatland. The nature and the beauty of the prairies is unique and beautiful.  I may have already mentioned that I'm not being flippant when I call Kansas the "flatland".  There was a recent scientific study that actually proved that Kansas is flatter than a pancake!

5-1-14:  Enjoyed a surprise visit at work this afternoon from Justin, Brooke, and Asher after their fieldtrip to the zoo. Grandpa took Justin and Asher on the golfcart to show them the rv park and what his job entails. 

Flat Andrew helping me work in the office

Flat Andrew just happened to be at work with us that day!

dreamliner

This evening we got to watch the Dreamliner do some touch and goes at either Spirit or McConnell from the rv park. This is the gigantic plane that accidentally landed at Jabara Airport last November instead of the air base.  It's so big!

Mac and David

Doug, Heather, and Sheila

5-3-14: Greg and Linda Sue had the McClintock's over tonite to celebrate Heather's graduation!  Can't believe our little Heather Louise is already just about out of hs!  She earned a scholarship for Butler Co JUCO which we are all very excited about. 

May the Fourth Be With You - 2014:  On the way out to stay with the boys, David and I saw another Bald Eagle on 47th street.  So exciting.....we're starting to see them fairly regularly.  Maybe we'll get some good pix soon. Or even find their nest!

trying to plank like their dad

 The boys were a blast! Somehow planking came up and when I told them the way their dad planked, they had to give it a try!  Too funny!

King Me!

 Andrew is getting really good at playing Checkers.  Won't be long til he's playing Panties with us!

Grandpa is still the reader of choice

We closed out the night with a good bedtime story.

Linda Sue inviting Wazoo to get a pic with her

Greg and Wazoo

5-7-14:  Today we visited the Eagle Valley Raptor Center with Greg and Linda Sue.  All the pix and info are in the previous post called "Flying High". I'd def recommend a tour of this place. Very educational.

beautiful niece, Heather

5-9-14:  And we have a grad!  Congrats to Heather McClintock!

b/w shot of the rainbow with my phone

It was a very clear double until I grabbed my phone

5-10-14:  After a day of work and sky-watching, we spent an hour or so in the storm shelter tonite.  Got a little hail and wind, but nothing as serious as they were predicting.  Whew!

plenty of supervision

Enjoyed watching the managers get their new park model. Exciting!

Andrew's sun and sky

Asher's ladybug

5-11-14:  Enjoyed calls from Gus and Laura for Mother's Day this morning. Gus, in keeping with tradition, texted me "don't you have something to say to me today?".  So I wished him a happy Gus day.  And a sweet visit from Justin, Brooke, and the boys this afternoon at work. LOVE the flowerpot the boys painted for me!  They did all the artwork themselves.  Andrew said he did the sun, butterfly, and sky.  Asher did the ladybug.  Looks like we have some more crafters in the family!

Jimmie's Diner

cozy little diner

with an air of the 50's

an updated version of table jukeboxes that were common when I was a kid

Jukebox Daddio

hard to see, but this was the pink room

5-12-14  After working 4 days in a row, David and I were ready to get out today and catch up on some errands and shopping. We first stopped at Jimmie's Diner on  Rock Road.  It was a cool little 50's themed diner that so reminded me of Lacy's in Texarkana. Lacy's has long been torn down, but it was a little diner that my daddy loved to take us when we were growing up.  It wasn't really meant to be 50's themed.  It was just left over from the 50's.  Jimmie's was a little bigger than Lacy's, and updated, but had the same feel and even the same smell. It has some interesting history as well.

Walter Anderson began the nation's first hamburger stand in Wichita in a rented and remodeled streetcar. It was so successful and went on to become White Castle restaurants. A.J. "Jimmie" King went to work for White Castle and eventually bought the Wichita branch of White Castle in 1938 and changed the name to Kings-X. Son, Wayne King, built Jimmie's Diner in 1987 as a tribute to his dad.  Today the Davidson family owns and runs it. We enjoyed the breakfast there and will go back.  I had my first try at fried mush. There is a quote on the website that says "To order scrambled eggs on toast, a Cola with chocolate syrup and hash in the 50's diner slang, you would say 'I'd like two chicks on a raft and drag one through Georgia and sweep the kitchen floor!'' I'd like to try that coke with choc syrup!  Would that be the thing that's dragged through Georgia?

huge moon tonite over the turnpike -- hard to capture

5-14-14:  David and I hit the links today.  Sierra Hills (or Sarah Hills as they jokingly call it cuz it's a small par 3).  Saw another eagle on 47th on the way out. I just played 9 and then walked the last nine as David played.  He'd taken my woods out of my bag for some reason and didn't remember it til we got there. So I got some iron and hybrid experience.  He's very lucky I didn't have my woods. haha. As I was walking around with him on the back 9, we saw a newly hatched bunch of Killdeer with 2 adults. Beautiful sight.  I was trying to get close enough for a pic and hoping for the adult playing dead routine.  But no luck on either.  Enjoyed watching them run around!

5-17-14:  David, Rocky, and I took a little road trip today to find a giant arrow.  The drive over to Anthony, KS was beautiful!! Miles and miles of green prairies and fields.  And the birds of prey were on the prowl.  Love spotting the hawks in KS.  Mostly red-tailed and they are huge!  

this arrow is prob around 30 feet long

prob not the original gas powered beacon

this arrow was pointing northeast

Rocky and I enjoying a piece of history

Giant Concrete Arrow found here

A few months ago, one of my college friends, Ruth Ellen Hopper, posted an article on facebook about the forgotten giant concrete arrows across the US.  I found it so interesting.  In the 1920's, before gps, these concrete arrows -- some up to 70 feet long -- were placed across the country and painted yellow.  They also had a gas-powered beacon tower and hut on location.  They were there to help planes delivering air mail see their way across the USA when visibility was poor. Today a few are left, tho many are on private property.  After a little research we learned that there are 4 in KS and 3 of them are in our area.  The one at Anthony is at their airport and easy to access and get pix.  The others are in Milan and Danville and on private property.  We will get gps info on them and go back that way to see if we can see them from the road. 

one of the few wildflowers we saw today

this guy wanted it worse than I did

As we were leaving the arrow, I snapped what looked like a poppy mallow.  When I got home I saw that there was a bee in the 2nd pic.  Didn't even see it while I was standing there. Cool!

beautiful spot to stop for a sec

I would imagine this is a pretty accurate depiction

Stopped at Reflection Ridge to get a couple of prairie shots with some silhouettes of a pioneer family traveling west. 

 Harper County courthouse in Anthony, KS

on nat'l register of historic courthouses

The Anthony courthouse was impressive, too!

We drove on over to Wellington and spotted the Chisholm Trail Museum.  Will come back and visit that! 

out of the 59 Carnegie Libraries built in KS in the early 1900's, 23 are still used as libraries as this one is in Wellington

strange-looking ipad she's holding

 The Carnegie Library in Wellington got our attention, too!

The Kansas Aviation Museum is housed in the original Wichita Municipa Airport, dedicated in 1935

after a trip to this museum, I get why Wichita is the Air Capital of the World

And maybe the Wind Capital as well

Hubs with the B-52 bomber on display 

5-18-14:  David and I visited the Kansas Aviation Museum today.  It was a very interesting museum rich with Wichita history. As mentioned in an earlier post, Wichita is dubbed The Air Capital of the World. Nearly every kind of plane factory in the US originated or moved here at one time or another.  The museum itself was the original Wichita airport.  Once the airport moved to the west side of town in the early 1950's, McConnell Air Force Base used the bldg. They don't use it any more so there is a strong effort to revitalize the old bldg. Though it isn't as big as some air museums around the country, we found it very interesting.  And it's right next to the base, so we could see some touch and go action of the tankers and fighter jets. We can usually see that from our rv park, but we don't have a view of the runway from our camper. So it was fun to actually see that vantage point.

first control tower to implement the slanted window - and highest point in Wichita

heading on up for our first time in a control tower (I don't usually need a tower)

I truly could've spent all day in the tower watching the sky and the McConnell Air Base action next door

original tower phone

air controllers would shoot this flare gun in emergencies

WWII era mic for the controllers

this was interesting

and kind of a scary thought

artwork in the museum

the grandness of the airport can be imagined in the floors, ceilings, and railings

looks like a great dance floor to me

this may be the closest I get to riding in a hot air balloon

got the time?

Texaco bi-plane - Stearman Navy Trainer

9 cylinder Wheeler Whirlwind AC -- one floor was dedicated to various plane engines

never thought of props as being so pretty 

view from the 2nd floor

a piece of a bomber from the war

another plane I'd never heard of

and Wichita can claim it as well

Swallow

bomber model

machine gun from a WWII plane

many feet have crossed this floor 

David checking out this flying machine

whatever happened to TWA?

Kansas Black Aviator Hall of Fame

David on the 2nd floor observation deck

whoosh!

this engine isn't running, but my hair is taking off in the wind

magnificent plane - B52

standing under the wings was a little spooky because they were flapping in the wind

Lockheed T-33

another big plane

impressive nose

the smallest plane on display outside

reminds me of the one on display at SLP in Texarkana

Beechcraft Starship

Impressive!

Really enjoyed learning more about Doo-Dah and her aviation history

Find Nicole

Niece, Nicole, posted this on FB from her rafting trip in TN.  Can you see her?  Hint:  She's not in the raft. And she's not the one trying to climb in.

5-20-14:  Me Day in Derby!  David went with Mac to several cemeteries to decorate graves of family and friends for Memorial Day.  I took this opp to go over to Derby to get my hair and nails did and do a little shopping and even had lunch with myself!

As I was browsing around the final store before heading home, I got a call from David telling me Mac had a little accident.  They had each gone home for lunch and Mac was heading back over to get him so they could attend Gary Cushman's funeral. Mac hit a curb turning onto 47th and possibly hit the gas instead of the brake.

this is prob what tore up his engine

He ran over a speed limit sign, did a 360 or 2, then straightened out and came on over to the rv park. David said when he went out to get in the car (not knowing any of this had happened), a car with a couple of ladies pulled in behind him asking Mac if he was ok.  Then a firetruck came in with siren on, then a cop.  It was quite a situation. Thankful that Mac (or anyone else) wasn't hurt!

He had a hard time watching it being towed away

 Did a number on his car tho.

Juanita Goff - my mom

5-21-14:  My Mother's birthday in Heaven. Still miss her smile!

How funny is this?

Fun to see evidence of the City of Wichita's sense of humor!

Drew and Casey Graves playing Panties by the Pool

5-24-14:  Hey Panties Peeps!  Gonna have some competition in Texarkana!

Texas Brown in the Ozarks

Jackie and Dave spotted this tarantula at their cabin on Table Rock Lake.  This is but one of the things I miss about the Ozarks.  There is no shortage of beauty and wonders of nature.  Jackie doesn't love these fuzzy critters as much as I do.

not sure what they dunked em in for baptism

5-25-14:  And one of the reasons I love being in the flatland is this sweet family above.  This morning we went to First Baptist Church in Douglass to witness our Andrew get baptized.  That's awesome in itself, but to make it even more special, Justin was the one who baptized him.  And just before that big event, Brooke was re-baptized. AND, all this on their 11 year anniversary.

As a memento of his baptism, I made a vase of flowers for Andrew out of Wanda's buttons and new buttons to remind him to Bloom Where God Plants Him!

The hilarious moment of the day was when Voyt, the pastor, was talking to the congregation about discipling and serving we are needed: whether it's Douglass or Udall or wherever. 5 year old Asher hollered out "Or Japan!".  That was funny enough, but then Andrew chimed in and said, "then you'd have to speak Chinese!" Hey, at least they were listening to the sermon!

 What a sweet, special day.

Blessings and Happy Adventures to you all from

Clyde Cessna, Mary VanScyoc, and The Red Baron