We were pokey leaving this morning and took our sweet time getting to Garnett where Ned's dad (Oak) was born. It was fun driving thru some of the small towns and I have to admit I was surprised by how green and pretty Kansas is. This is our 4th cross country trip and we always managed to miss Kansas thinking it looked like the panhandle of Oklahoma. Tomorrow we head to western Kansas so that still may be true, stay tuned. Once in Garnett, we visited the Clerk Recorder's office to see if we could get a copy of Oak's birth certificate. Unlike Calif. the County office does not issue birth certificates. You can only get those thru the state. (guess we're not in Calif anymore, yuk yuk). Ned brought along some family documents and an old map from the County that showed which tract of land his grandfather had purchased in 1916 for $1000. Ned's dad was born in a stone house that used to reside on this 120 acres. Our mission was to find this plot of land. Armed with the township map and modern day google maps on the iPad, we drove down several gravel roads until we finally located the property. It's still a beautiful undeveloped piece of prairie. His grandfather was never successful in farming this plot and sold it in 1919 for $1. Ironically, it is now dotted with oil wells! Ah, hindsight. After this fun adventure I really wanted to bike the Prairie Spirit Trail. As you probably know, I'm a fanatic about biking the Rails to Trails. Ned did some further puttering around in Garnett and I rode about 10 miles to the next town of Richmond. It was really pretty biking thru the prairie and seeing some spectacular wild flowers, but dang was it hot! Maybe doing it at midday wasn't the best plan of action. I was originally going to ride further on, but I was relieved to see Ned in Richmond waiting with a picnic. God Bless that man and air conditioned cars. It was about 95 degrees and just baking hot. Tonight we are in another Kansas State Park campground which leaves a lot to be desired. The showers are without a roof and have no doors, the campsites are on mowed grass with very little tree cover, but thank goodness the lake is cold! Tonight at 6:30 we were the only people floating in it. What do they know that we don't know? Currently there is a 25 mph dry wind, which sure beats the still and muggy weather in the South. today's pics - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:El Dorado State Park, KS
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