We were there but 'I don't think we are in Kansas any more'

I am finally home from my trip to Kansas. While we had a wonderful time being together, I think we are all glad to be back home.

We visited several towns where ancestors homesteaded and made their mark in the world, and a few other interesting places as well. Western Kansas is flat and you imagine that you can see to the edge of the world. My cousin observed that you almost see the curve of the earth in the horizon. Now that's flat! The town of Kiowa was our destination there and it is a small, quiet little town with friendly people who know everyone and everything that is going on in town. Our cousin's daughter graduated from the eighth grade while we were there and her class had a total of thirteen students. The one motel (or hotel, if you like) had all of about eight rooms and was owned and operated by a very nice couple who had just moved there. They did all the work at the motel themselves. The motel had not changed it's decor since the fifties and was quite charming and comfortable. However, there was Direct-TV and a small fridge and microwave in each room.

After Kiowa we moved on to Hutchinson and Kansas was still flat. Hutchinson is a good - sized city and boasts a wonderful space and aeronautics museum. The moment you walk into the lobby of the museum , you know that this is a remarkable place. A full-sized replica of the Space Shuttle Endeavour is the first thing that you see but keep looking and you will find incredible treasures there. Look up and find an actual SR-71 Blackbird and a T-38 Talon. And there's so much more. A replica of the Glamorous Glennis is on display as well as the Liberty Bell 7 from the Mercury flights and Apollo 13's Odyssey. I will tell you no more about the Cosmospere; there is just too much to relate. It is part of the Smithsonian Institutes Affiliations Program. So if you ever find yourself in Kansas, go to "Hutch", as it's called locally, and check it out.

For some reason, our next stop, Wichita, reminded me a little of downtown Spokane, Washington, although I suppose that most larger cities look quite a bit alike in their downtown section. This is my father's hometown and so we went in search of his boyhood home and his high school. The high school looked just as I remembered it, except for the toilet paper hanging from the trees as a graduation celebration or decoration of sorts, I imagine. Wichita North is an imposing structure and is in beautiful condition for a school built in 1928. (The outside of the building, anyway; we didn't go inside.) The building is adorned with beautiful carved and colored stonework in murals. Even the flagpole boasts carvings or castings of buffalo heads and eagles. It is the only high school I have ever seen in Wichita but it was definitely worth seeing again. After much deliberation, (because we couldn't remember the street number) we found the house Dad grew up in and an aunt's house where my mother lived for a while. Let me point out that my father wasn't with us and this was not his side of the family that was doing the looking because I'm very sure that he would have remembered which house. But we were finally rewarded for our efforts and all was well. However, Kansas was still flat.

As we drove northeast, the terrain began to change and small hills formed. Another thing that surprised us was the number of small oil wells in people's fields. Some were rusty-looking and not in use at the moment, if at all anymore, but some were still drawing oil. I had no idea there was oil in any abundance there, but we were next door to Oklahoma. I guess it stands to reason, then, that maybe there would be oil there as well. Kansas now was not completely flat, but you could still see forever, it seemed.

Our next destination was the town of Paola; not too big a town but big enough. We found our way to the historical museum in town which is very near the town square - only they don't call it that. I think they said it is the park square because of an interesting story. That plot of land was given to the town by it's namesake, Baptiste Paola, who an Indian. It was given to the town with the condition that if anything was ever built on it, or any part of it was taken for some other purpose than the one it was intended for, the town would go to the Indians in the area. So there. It was intended to be a park and a place for people to enjoy and especially for children to play in and that is the way it has stayed. That's the story anyway.

Paola became our hub for the excursions of the next few days. We made trips to cemeteries and tiny communities that are much quieter now than they were in years past, I think: anywhere that might help us find out more about our family's past. The town of Osawatomie, where John Brown lived is also the birthplace of my mother and we spent a great deal of time there. Both my grandfather and great-grandfather were telegraphers with the Missouri-Pacific Railroad and there is a railroad museum there that is an exact replica of the old railway station that had seen better days. We looked for the house that they lived in there but, although we had pictures of it, we only had one with an address and it couldn't be found. It seems a year ago there was a flood and the house that it might have been had been torn down. Oh well. But when you go and ask questions of the neighbors, you meet all kinds of interesting people. The man who lived next door was a cartoonist for the local paper. We began to look for his work after that.

All this time the weather had been perfect: warm, with a light breeze, and very low humidity. Not at all the Kansas that I remembered as a girl. That changed one night with a terrific storm that woke everyone up. Fortunately, it was just a thunderstorm and nothing more, but it sure changed the weather. I felt like saying, "Oh, there you are," the next morning as this was the Kansas that I remembered. Except it was cold. But very humid. Somebody must have gotten more than the thunderstorm. After a day spent in Fredonia, again looking for lost relatives at the local museum, we came to Friday morning and it was time to say our farewells. My cousin, aunt and I drove back to Wichita and my uncle and aunt from Albuquerque headed back to New Mexico. Friday night found us tired but pleased with the results of our trip and after another thrilling storm, the next morning we all headed out of Kansas to our various homes. So here we all are now, and our trip is physically over. Now begins the task of sorting pictures and documents; going through the mail that has undoubtedly piled up at everyone's houses, just like it has at mine, and trying to catch up on whatever we have to catch up on.

One last thing. I just wanted to say that all the time we were in Kansas, we did NOT see Dorothy or Toto, but we DID see a sign that told us we were on the Yellow Brick Road.