Wilson State Park

Good morning, my friends. We find ourselves in Sylvan Grove, Kansas, this morning and at a truly lovely state park. We held off leaving our previous stop until around 11:00 a.m. in order to arrive at the new spot at check-in time. It gave me some time to work on my slow stitching. I finished off the Kitten #10.

Here are the ten kittens I have for this quilt so far.

Next up, I'll be starting on covered bridge #4 for the Grandpa's Bridges quilt.

It's hooped up and ready for me to take the first stitches...probably sometime today.

We needed to get diesel fuel before heading out, and so we drove a short distance to a truck stop in Topeka, Kansas' state capital. Topeka is also known for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which overturned Plessy v. Ferguson and declared racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional.  Also, Annette Bening is from Topeka. We saw her recently along with Jodie Foster in their documentary Nyad, which we enjoyed very much. Along our way, we crossed over the Kansas River. 

I was hoping I'd get a glimpse of the Capitol building, and that's exactly what I got...a glimpse.

I found a better picture online.

(Image credit: "Kansas State Capitol in Topeka (44441302334)" 

by Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.)

And if you, like me, are wondering about that figure at the top, wonder no more. It's known as "Ad Astra."  The title is taken from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera, which translates "to the stars through difficulties." It honors the state's American Indian heritage, and conveys the ideas of aspiration and inspiration.

While we were fueling up, I noticed these enormous grain elevators on both sides of the road. We know Kansas produces a lot of grain in the form of corn and wheat (and probably others). We have only to look at the musical "South Pacific" to know that: "I'm as corny as Kansas in August...".

Stopping at a rest area down the road, we found a little bit of an explanation about these. We both got a chuckle knowing they're called "prairie cathedrals."

Here's another one just down the road from the rest area.

Also at the rest area, we saw this historical map of Kansas, showing the many routes settlers took as they moved west.

We passed by this sign:

So take a good look. It's the first stretch of highway in America's interstate highway system. We surmised they chose this particular 8-mile stretch for its lack of twists, turns, and mountains.

And lemme just tell you, Kansas is flat, flat, flat. There are none of those pesky mountains obstructing your view.

Except for here...

where it reminded us of Washington's Palouse region. Flint is named for the abundant residual flint eroded from the bedrock that lies near or at the surface.

We saw a few barns along the way. Most of the barns were too far off the road or hidden behind trees, and they refused to be photographed. 

I liked this next one with the rustic barn in the foreground and modern wind turbines behind.

Also...this little chapel. It was far off the road. I don't know anything about it, but I like seeing these little chapels when we travel.

We passed through Fort Riley. It's an Army base. It is home to soldiers and families of the 1st Infantry Division known as "The Big Red One" which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2017.  There are approximately 15,000 active duty service members assigned to Fort Riley with more than 18,000 family members, 29,000 veterans and retirees and 5,600 civilian employees who live in the region and/or work at the post. The 1st Infantry Division as well as National Guard and Reserve units from several states use the modern training facilities at Fort Riley to gain skills necessary to defend our nation. 

Fort Riley is named in honor of Major General Bennet C. Riley, who led the first military escort along the Santa Fe Trail. The fort was established in 1853 as a military post to protect the movement of people and trade over the Oregon, California, and Santa Fe trails. In the years after the Civil War, Fort Riley served as a major United States Cavalry post and school for Cavalry tactics and practice. The post was a base for skirmishes with Native Americans after the Civil War ended in 1865, during which time Gen. George A. Custer was stationed at the fort.

Regarding Custer, he arrived in December of 1866 to take charge of a new regiment. The following spring, Custer and the 7th cavalry left Fort Riley to participate in a campaign on the high plains of western Kansas and eastern Colorado. The campaign proved inconclusive but resulted in Custer's court martial and suspension from the Army for one year—in part—for returning to Fort Riley to see his wife without permission. Other people who called Fort Riley home at one time or another include both the famous (Jackie Robinson), and the infamous (Timothy McVeigh...boo, hiss).

Eventually, we approached our turn off from the interstate at Salina. It's named for the Salina river, named in turn for it's high salinity content.

We were headed toward Wilson Lake, and we could see it off in the distance.

Turning toward the park, we could see the bridge we would cross.

From the bridge, the lake looked like this.

Following a rather winding stretch of road, we came to the park entrance, and drove to our site.

And wow...what a view!

Looking to my right, it looked like this. You can see the dam off in the distance in the upper right.

We got Smitty out for about a 45-second walk. There was no grass, and so he didn't stay long.

After dinner, we sat out under our personal shade tree and watched boats out on the lake. 

We could watch as people launched and retrieved their boats.

Smitty watched from his window perch.

Overhead, we could hear the beautiful song of a western meadowlark. I tried like heck to get a picture of it, but it was hard to see among the dense and blowing leaves. This is what I got. Yeah...there's no bird there.

Instead, I found this image online. Interestingly, the Western Meadowlark is the state bird of Oregon, and yet, I've never actually seen one in Oregon.

(Image credit: "Western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)" 

by Tony Varela Photography is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.)

This morning, I captured this image of a coot who's been hanging around our campsite in and near the water. I love their feet.

Okay, and that brings me to this morning, although it's nearly noon now. I was awake for a couple of hours last night. It was very windy, and the wind always sets me on edge, even when we're not in tornado country. So, I slept in a little this morning, and I'm posting later than usual today. 

Next, I'll be getting dressed and working on my slow-stitching. Mike has perused the material we have about the park, and he finds nothing that says he can't fly his drone. There's a timed bass fishing derby going on, and so all the boats took off from the launch early this morning. We're seeing them speeding all over the lake as I'm writing. Gotta get the most bass in the least amount of time, doncha know. We have just one more day here (moving on tomorrow), and so we're just going to relax and enjoy the view.