Birthday boy

35  years ago, our son was born.

35!!

 In 5 years we will have a child celebrating his "over the hill" party!  What does that make us????

Happy Birthday, Josh!!

We love you and are so proud of the man you have become!

Triathalon

Our son, Josh and his wife, Staci have been training for quite a while for a triathlon.  

I cannot even begin to imagine how difficult this is.  So proud of them!!

 Congratulations!!!

Kansas day trip, part 3

After leaving Pfeifer, we really didn't have a plan.  We kept driving south and got to the town of Loretta, and decided "what the heck, let's go west".  Some people would probably go nuts driving with us.  We just have fun and don't worry about it.

We came to Liebenthal.  It is a little town, population about 100.  Another beautiful church there.  We didn't take the time to stop as the sun was getting lower in the sky and we didn't want to get home too late.

We stopped in La Crosse, where they have a barbed wire museum with this pretty large ball of barbed wire.  It isn't the largest ball of barbed wire.  Texas holds that record.

Kansas DOES have the largest ball of sisal twine though, over in Cawker City.  Haven't ever seen that yet.  (I'm not sure what sisal twine is.)  I have heard that there are 4 other towns in other states that make the same claim.  Cawker City's twine keeps growing all the time so maybe it is true.

My pharmacist husband looking at these old medicine bottles

Wonder Lotion - for horses, dogs and mankind.

The oldest wood frame bank in Kansas was moved here to La Crosse.

There is also a museum in the old Timken railroad station

I'd like my dentist to be a vet surgeon too, don't you think?

And then there is this post rock museum that shows how they made post rock fences

All these museums are together on the south side of town.  And free to enter.  Donations are accepted, of course.  

As we were driving home passing through Nickerson, I had to take a double look.  Ostriches and zebras??

A blurry picture since we were driving by - but I thought, "what in the world?"

I looked it up when we got home.  Evidently there is a B&B in Nickerson, Ks called Hedrick's Exotic Animal Farm and they have all kinds of wild animals there.  You can just take a tour there or spend the night.  Never knew it.

We had a fun day trip to western Kansas!  Emptied a tank of gas in the car, but worth seeing places we've never been to before!

Kansas day trip, part 2

 We left the town of  Victoria, drove south 6 miles and west 2 to  find the George Grant Villa.  Mr. Grant was a wealthy Scotsman who purchased 80,000 acres of land from the Kansas Pacific Railroad in 1872.

Mr. Grant wanted to colonize the area with Scotsmen and Britons and build his own empire.  He named the town Victoria in honor of the Queen of England.  His colonists were mostly wealthy young men.  In 1873, 38 men, women and children arrived along with several head of black and red Angus cattle.


These gentlemen farmers from "across the pond" found Kansas pioneer life too difficult so most returned to a more civilized life.  The Villa, where Grant lived and died still stands and is privately owned.

We drove further south to the town of Pfeifer where another beautiful church stands.

 When you enter, there are these stairs to the right.  We climbed the creaky steps to the balcony.

 Such magnificent buildings these pioneers built!  I don't believe modern architecture can compete.

Beside the church is an old two-story schoolhouse.  In 1904 there were 150 students!   The current population of Pfeifer is 68.

 We then drove west out of town on a dirt road - Schoenchen Road - to the cemetery.

Like the grave site at Victoria, you again can see the artistic grave markers that are unique to the German-Russian immigrants who were buried here over 100 years ago.  There are 50 iron crosses.

 Most of these are in the German language.

It is interesting to see the inscription of "Wife of....." on several markers.

Going further west on this dirt road, you come to the Smoky Hill Bluffs.  Lots of limestone was quarried from this area and built the churches, schools and homes in the area.

We continued our adventure, driving on various roads and coming across more very interesting Kansas locations.  Continued on next post....