Follow the Sun

Another reason I love Kansas -- you can see miles and miles of sky

Hunter Fromm and me

9-11-14:  David and I visited Jenn, Patrick and their new addition, Hunter.  Hunter was born on Aug 1st and is adorable.  What a pleasant, happy little man.

and likes to check everything out

Garfield took a liking to David and stayed in his lap the whole visit

Jenn, Patrick, Hunter Fromm

Grandpa giving Andrew a compass lesson

Then we drove on over to Douglass to pick up our little men from school.  Grandpa got compasses for them at The Yard.  That helped Andrew get past the fact that his mom was leaving for the weekend.  David, Rocky, and I enjoyed soccer practice with the boys and the Coach (Justin).

I think he's ready to take it camping

Asher found that he could see Grammy through his

Justin said practice is kinda like herding cats

soccer balls sure are prettier than they used to be

shin guards are so complex

the new jerseys are here, the new jerseys are here!

I believe this will help their game

gorgeous drive back to Wichita

Rocky enjoyed soccer practice, too.  He so wanted to chase that ball.  But he was content to just walk around the field a little and watch the boys from our laps.

9-12-14:  50 degrees at noon!  That's what I'm talking about!

9-13-14  I learned a bit of KS highway history today.  A guest asked me why I-35 was a tollroad.  I was stumped.  Truly we don't see too many Interstates as tollroads.  Frank and Sondra told me later that it's because originally the tollroad was privately owned by some corporations.  Then the state of KS aquired it.  Eventually the Interstate system came through and wanted to use that stretch.  So it is an Interstate, tho the tolls go to Kansas.

Cup Plant -- see the "cups" in the leaves?

unique 4-sided stem

9-16-14:  Greg and Linda Sue invited us to meet them at the Audubon presentation tonite at the GPNC.  The presenter was from the Schermerhorn Nature Center in SE Kansas and presented on wildflowers and wildlife of that area. Super interesting.  One of the things we learned that we thought was really cool, was about the Cup Plant.  It's in the sunflower family & the stem is 4-sided.  The leaves actually form little "cups" to preserve water for the plant.

the creeks and ponds are drying up at the GPNC

9-17-14:  This morning David and I hit the trails at the Great Plains Nature Center.  The temps are warming back up to the upper 80's, so we tried to get it in before noon.

the wetlands are lower than usual and it allowed us to see about a million turtle tracks

close up 

Ladies Thumbs

close up of Ladies Thumbs

sumac starting to turn

foxhair

coneflowers

maybe a Tiger Moth caterpillar

blue sage

silver bluestem

milkweed going to seed among the goldenrod

round head bush clover

pretty prairieland

Maximillion Sunflowers

Big Bluestem behind me

goldenrod

a variety of grasses around the wetland

Common Sunflower -- Kansas State Flower

they grow pretty tall

Loose Leaf Thistle

I've grown attached to the prairies and look forward to learning more about them in the future.  So much natural beauty!

Until Next Time,

Maxamillion, Lady's Thumb, and Gayfeather

Oxford Mill, KS

catching a smooch at Oxford Mill

Did a little more exploring of southern KS this week.  We always manage to happen upon some great discoveries!  

David loves selfies!

8-28-14:  Picked the boys up after school today.  Andrew shot outa there like a bullet.  Then Asher came out in full ninja force!

2nd grade is on the loose!

1st grade ninjas are out!

8-29-14:  Greg and Linda Sue are away on a vacay, so I played golf with David today.  Greg........come back!!!!!  It was actually a fun day on the course.  We played at Andover and only played 9.  We walked and it got rather warm. But fun playing with the hubs.

9-2-14:  David and Justin ran some errands in Wichita today.  They came back to the camper for a bit and told me that David was hit up twice today by transients wanting a few bucks. 2 times in one day.  But, alas.  When he and I were getting gas later today it happened a third time! Hasn't happened in all the months we've been here and suddenly they all made up for it in one day.  Oh, and just yesterday David had to call the cops on a young transient and his dog in the rv park.  He was cussing and throwing rocks at campers. Makes me sad.

9-3-14:  David took me over to Oxford, KS to see the old mill there.  It's in use on Sunday's for lunch and by appt for events.  Students at the hs in Oxford cook and serve.  Today it was closed so we took our time checking it out and getting some pix.  Beautiful backroad drive over there.  The roadsides were loaded with sunflowers, goldenrod, umbrella plants, and amber-topped milo. Loving me some prairies!  Below are some of David's mill pix.

The mill's original construction began in 1874 and was made of limestone to help with flooding.

The original millrace was hand dug and ran parallel to the Arkansas River for 3 miles.

Business was good even through the Depression and the mill was expanded.

Really enjoyed the historical mill.  Maybe one day we will catch a Sunday lunch there.  Below are some of the sights near the mill.

bull thistle

milo

goldenrod

Old Avery Steam Co. tractor in Oxford

on display near the river

historical church there

This old church was built in 1873. It was the first church south and west of the Arkansas River, It originally served as the First Presbyterian Church. It was decommissioned in the 1940's and served as the Oxford ladies club for a period of time. The building was taken over by the Oxford Primitive Baptist Church in 2013.

vintage street signs

David on the shaky bridge behind the mill

Epic Center is highest man made point in KS

9-4-14:  Cousin Karen in Ohio asked David for a pic of their grandparents' former home in Wichita. So we headed out to do that this morning and decided to stop by the Epic Center to look for some familiar bricks.  When our kids and their cousins were small, Wanda bought bricks with their name on them to be placed at the Epic Center in downtown Wichita. We found 4 of them this morning.  Not as easy as you might think.

The 22-story high skyscraper was originally going to be twin towers.  But they scrapped that idea fearing they wouldn't be able to fill them up.

pretty brick walkway

Justin's

Ryan's

Bryce's

Nicole's

The Epic Center

Grandpa and Grandma McClintock's home on Luellen St. 

A salvage store that has a little bit of everything

We wrapped up our downtown tour with a stop at The Yard.  One of our friends from the rv park, Renie, told us to try this.  Her cousins own it and she kinda grew up in the store on school days. After school, that is. It's a great, inexpensive place to find, well, all kinds of stuff.

9-11-14:  Never Forget.


Much Love from the Heartland,

The Champeny Family