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.