The day we left Oklahoma City it rained early, but by about 9 am not much was happening so we headed north. It's only about 170 miles to Wichita, so the trip wasn't a long one. We had gotten somewhat of a recommendation for a rv park in Wichita while in Oklahoma City, so we found Blasi Campground and registered for four nights. As most campgrounds/rv parks go, this was not one of the better ones. Unfortunately, Wichita is not one of the better places for good rv parks. But, we didn't spend much time there, so it wasn't so bad. There was really one thing about the park that was pretty interesting. Two of the three main electrical boxes must have been getting really hot during the hot weather as they had big shop fans blowing air past them 24 hours a day, AND there was a hose hooked up with a nozzle pointing at the boxes so they could spray water on them if it got hot enough. Never seen anything like that before. Never saw the water on while we were there.
We were in Wichita to see Rita's brother, Bud, and family. Helen (wife) had been suddenly struck with an infection of her spinal column last spring and became paralyzed from the neck down almost overnight. After emergency surgery and massive doses of antibiotics, she slowly began to recover. After three to four months of hospitalization and time at a rehabilitation facility, Helen was released to return home about a week before we arrived. Progress is slow, and it is likely she will have to take antibiotics the rest of her life, but she has the spirit and determination to make the recovery. She pretty much needs someone around all the time as she has to use a walker to move around and is not real stable at that. If she should fall she would not be able to get up by herself. It's a big burden for Bud and their son, Ray [lives at home and attends Wichita State University working on an advanced degree].
It is always good to get together with Bud and Helen. We always laugh a lot and have fun. And we hadn't seen Ray for a number of years so that was a bonus for us.
On Friday night we decided to drive to Yoder, KS for dinner. Now, Yoder is about 40 miles west, and a bit north, of Wichita. But, the Carriage Crossing Restaurant & Bakery is in Yoder, and it is run by the Amish, so the food is good. They are known for the family-style meals. You can see their menu on their web site at www.yoderkansas.com. But family-style wasn't for us that night, so, Rita had chicken fried steak & I had catfish [doesn't sound Amish to me, but it was good]. Kind of a long way to drive for supper, but we'd heard about the restaurant quite a few times, so it was worth it to us.
One of the more interesting attractions in Wichita is the Keeper of the Plains, a 44-foot tall, 5 ton stylized steel sculpture of an Indian Chief standing at the confluence of the Big and Little Arkansas rivers (pronounced in Kansas as R-kansas) in downton Wichita. This land between the two rivers is sacred ground to the Native American people and is also home to the All-American Indian Center. The sculpture was designed by Wichitian and Native American artist Blackbear Bosin (1921-1980) and constructed by Tom Washburn of Architectural Metal Peoducts. It was erected on May 18, 1974 to clebrate the United State bicentennial.
In 2006 the statue was raised another 30' to the top of a man-made promontory following a six-month restoration project. Originally placed looking in the wrong direction, it was turned to point directly to the east, facing the sunrise, which is believed what Bosin had in mind.
On Saturday we drove the motor home to Newton, Ks - about 35 miles north of Wichita, to attend the graveside service for Buddy McDaniel - my oldest cousin (81) on my mothers side. Buddy grew up in Newton, and then lived most of his life in Wichita. Lillian, his mom, passed away about 3 years ago, and then his partner of about 50 years, Frank, died about 3 months later. Some say he was never quite the same after that. Unfortunately, I never knew Buddy very much. Only saw him a few times over the years, the last time at his mom's 90th birthday about 9 years ago. As we found out after the service, we should have spent time getting to know him.
As a young teenager, Buddy found his life-long love while working at the Newton movie theater - he fell in love with movies. Not just any movie, but the ones of the 20's & 30's & 40's. And he loved music, mostly from the same era of the movies he loved. He had various jobs, even worked at a Wichita tv
I'm not sure if he ever sold any of his records, but he had an EXTENSIVE collection of records - 33's, 45's, & 78's. Thousands of them. When I was about 12 or 13 we visited Lillian and Buddy in Newton, at the hotel she managed. Buddy had a room, floor to ceiling, all 4 walls [9' walls], nothing but records. Nothing I had ever heard before. And the collection must have been much larger at his death. We happened to have the chance to see most of the records at an auction house just south of Newton the day after the service. Impressive, if you're into that music. Unfortunately, some of it wasn't worth a whole lot. And the older records were very fragile. Some had broken while being itemized and categorized for sale by the auction house. I'm kicking myself because I didn't bring the camera to the auction house.
'Nuf said about all things Newton. It was an interesting day & a half. Had most of mom's family there. Nice to have that many together again. That afternoon we were in the motor home on the way to Phillipsburg and got there about 10 pm, where we have been ever since.
That's it for now. Will try to bring everybody up-to-date soon.
rod, rita, lucy & rozella
Ps: I'm posting this without pictures just to get it out to you. Hope to get pictures in.
No comments:
Post a Comment