Lower Pott County 9/6/08

One of the charms of this time of the year is Sunflowers , the state flower is everywhere.Beautiful,majestic,taller than me at 6'1'' .They line the highways, grow in back yards adding a Yellow and Brown color to the green fields and grass.



I crossed the new bridge and hooked up with US Hwy 24 in North Topeka and headed West. Highway 24 runs 1,540 miles from Clarkston,Michigan to Dowd,Colorado. You pass the Goodyear plant and Cargill Grain elevators. Further down the road is a Television station,and the small town of Silver Lake. I began to notice something interesting, Cars parked on both sides of the 2 lane highway.A garage sale was in progress, then another house on the highway and another.



The particulars of Silver Lake are 1,358 poulation and 568 households according to 2000 Cencus. On this day I think I can say the population has tripled and most ,if not all 568 were having garage sales. I stopped at a couple. I am looking for a couple of specific DVD/VHS and I'm always up for Expanding my Frank Sinatra CD collection. Came up with nothing at the 4 or 5 places I stopped.



5 miles down the road is Rossville,covered last month and maybe 10 miles down the road was St Mary's. St Mary's may be worth it's own entry for an Indian Pay Station and the Academy and College.The Pay station wasn't opened yet so I continued on. Maybe another 5 miles down the road was a sign advertisng the Oregon Trail Nature Park.

http://www.naturalkansas.org/oregon.htm



I'll be honest, I had no idea this place existed and it's about 1 mile off 24 and not visible from the highway. It is a bunch of walking trials, there is not any historical markers, nothing says this is on the Oregon trial. It's a pretty area with a couple of hills that are pretty heavy climbs,one promised a view of the Jeffery Enegry Center, a steep climb,I did not attempt. A silo with portraits greets visitors in the parking lot. The lower left picture has the town of Belvue in the background, if you can see it.

Labor Day

There were more options than time over Labor Day. Indian Pow Wows, Train festivals in Baldwin, the start of Football season in Topeka,Emporia,Lawrence or Manhattan. I choose on Saturday to attend Railroad Days at the Great Overland Station, the former Union Pacific Station that has been restored. The Station itself is worth it's own blog entry, which I will do sometime.

Railroad days is a return to a tradition that happened from the late 80's to the early years of this century.It would last the whole weekend and attract big name entertainment. It basically was a County Fair, midway,arts and craft,a lot of exhibits dedicated to Topeka Railroad history.It went away from several years and now returned in a much smaller format, with great hopes of bigger and better things. I was there early and could have returned for a concert in the evening,but was torn away by the start of Football.

Monday evening brought the return of Hockey Season in Topeka and a inter squad came played on a foggy ice at the Expocentre. Blue beat White for the season year in a row ,2-1 in OT.

August and Beyond

Has it really been over a month since I wrote anything. It's been a busy month, The Olympics and back to back Political conventions. A thing or two didn't pan out, maybe in the fall I'm told.I did take in "Wheat stock V" a day long bluegrass festival in Topeka , held at a hotel on a hot Saturday afternoon, I think the first one was held in the park,outdoors in August. Moving it indoors was a wise choice. It was a fund raiser for the Jayhawk Theatre, which is in desperate need of repairs and refurbishing. If restored to original glory it would truly be one of the great movie palaces of days gone by.The possibilities are endless.

http://www.jayhawktheatre.com/

I didn't know this story until I read the flier,but it's believed that Gypsy Rose Lee started her career right here in Topeka and at the Jayhawk.

I made a short journey to Rossville,Kansas.Located maybe 15 miles North and west on US Highway 24, the Population is about 1,000,smaller that Wasilla ,Alaska by several thousand. The Baseball diamond is in the city park which has a shelter area,a swing and a slide and a new swimming pool. The wood grandstand was featured in the 1976 Bicentennial issue of Sports Illustrated. A creek runs through the western edge of the town and a walking bridge runs across it , in the distance you can see the train tracks and the highway before it.