I ordered squid bokeum - sliced squid with vegetables stir fried in a spicy sauce. It came with steamed rice and 6 side dishes for $15.95. The generous serving of squid squid and vegetables was very flavorful - spicy, but not too hot. My favorite side dishes were the fish cakes and seaweed. The server asked if I wanted more of any of the side dishes and brought more seaweed.

Lunch was another revisit. This time it was to the 65 year old Nu Grille where I had a fairly good pork tenderloin sandwich, very good chili and great fresh made onion rings.

Tuesday night Linda and I went to another James Beard Dinner at the Broadmoor Bistro in Overland Park. The chef this time was Jason Wilson - Executive Chef & Owner of Crush in Seattle, James Beard Best Chef Northwest 2010.

My favorite items were the fresh green garlic gougère (goat cheese pastries) with sautéed morels, Quilleutte River spring salmon roasted in Douglas fir with dungeness crab salad & a sunchoke sauce, and the house made hazelnut chocolate ice cream, praline, brandied cherries, spruce tip caramel, bacon & cocoa nib cookies.

Chef Jason Wilson & Chef Bob

My favorite dishes were the Tibbs Watt (cubes of beef simmered in spiced sauce with berbere, herbed butter, onion, ginger, garlic and cardamom), Doro Watt (skinless & boneless chicken marinated in lemon, sautéed in herbed butter and stewed in berbere sauce flavored with a pinch of cardamom & nutmeg), Gomen (collard greens cooked with onion, ginger and garlic), and Atiklett (cabbage mixed with chunks of potatoes and carrot cooked with yellow onion and flavored with ginger, garlic and turmeric).

I went on to Eureka to try to get photos of the local waterfalls with more water than they had last Labor Day. The Fall River Waterfall at the west side of town had much more water than it did last September and I drove down to the bank to take photos. It was a good thing I was driving a crossover vehicle, the two rut road down to the bank was very muddy and I don't know if I could have got back out in a car. 

Eureka Lake Falls at the lake north of town also had more water, but still much less than I was hoping for. 

I continued north and slightly west on gravel roads and finally visited Teter Rock. The promontory it is located on was windy and felt very cold, yet starkly beautiful. in the 1870s, James Teter piled rocks at this high point as a marker. A small community called Terterville was build nearby and the rocks and over time the rocks were removed and used. This 16" slab of rocks was erected in honor of Mr. Teter in 1954.

Now driving east toward Madison, Kansas, I noticed that an oncoming pickup seemed to be towing something huge behind it. Imagine my surprise when we passed and it was two elk carcasses hanging off the back.

It started snowing as I reached Madison, but I still took some photos of the downtown with its very wide brick streets and exterior shots of the Santa Fe Depot which has been turned into a museum.

Light snow continued as I drove on to Emporia and stopped at Peter Pan Park to photograph the William Allen White Bust and Memorial for the page about WAW and the Emporia Gazette. 

Than up I-35 listening to KU's men's basketball team lose to VCU. The final stop was at Smoke Master's Barbeque in Pomona, Kansas and I watched part of the game during lunch. 

The sauce at Smoke Master's has improved since my first visit. They refuse to say what spices they use, but one of them is ginger. The pulled pork was nothing special, but the chicken wings were great - smoked and coated with the sweet dark sauce. I would call it Jamaican jerk chicken. They came with a couple of good slices of garlic toast.

Fall River Waterfall

Teter Rock
 

William Allen Memorial
 

BBQ chicken

While trying to visit many attractions, I am usually in and out of a gallery like this in a few minutes, but the large showroom and the glass artists at work were fascinating and I had to drag myself away after a hour.

Next, I crossed Wichita to be at Ty's Diner when it opened at 11AM. With much food ahead of me, I forced myself to just sample Ty's great fresh cut fries and part of a good burger.

The next stop was to take photos of the old Sedgwick County Courthouse. The 1888 Victorian Renaissance style building was replaced in 1959 by an 11 story building across the street, but is still used for county offices.

Staying in the Oldtown area, I went to Cero's Candy. Cero's changed hands from The Mental Health Association of South Central Kansas to private owners last November and I wanted to see if there were changes. The caramels which I purchased to take home were a hit. The only change is that in 2008 the price was $20/pound and now it is $24.

Just a few blocks away, I retried another of my favorite Wichita restaurants -  B & C Barbeque. It is difficult to visit my favorite Unique Restaurants in Wichita, because so many of them are not open in the evenings or on Sundays. I forced myself to have just one plate with a small sample of every items on B & C's great BBQ buffet. I am glad to say that nothing has changed here. It is a great meal for $10.17 including beverage and tax.

Then a few blocks northwest to the Kansas African American Museum. It occupies a handsome building which was the home of Calvary Baptist Church from 1917 to 1972. Much as I loved the building, the exhibits were quite limited. The was a large temporary exhibit about "Women in Church Hats." The most interesting permanent exhibit had African artifacts. If I hadn't settled down to look through a Gordon Parks' photo book in the library, I would have been through in a little over 10 minutes.

This was everything that I had planned in Wichita for the day, so I pulled out The Kansas Guidebook for Explorers and started calling historical museums in some of the outlying communities to see if they were open. I struck out with Valley Center, Clearwater, Derby and Wellington. 

When I called the Salter House Museum in Argonia, the nice lady explained that they were going to do major renovation and the house wasn't ready for showing. However, after a brief conversation, she said that if I didn't mind the building being dirty and cold, she would meet me there at 3PM.

The Salter House was the home of Susanna Madora Salter. In 1887 she was the first woman in the United States to be elected as a town mayor. She was a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union and men had nominated her as a joke, only to find that she got 2/3s of the vote. The 130 year old home is in poor condition, but the community has just received a grant which will allow the building to be stabilized and stop the water from doing further damage. 

I was met at the home by Carol E. Pearce, a nice retired lady who apologized for the condition of the home. She said that the board responsible for the building did not want photos taken of the interior, and the only photos from the interior of the home which I will use, are close ups of some of the items on display.

Following the tour, I followed Carol to the Argonia Cemetery where we visited Susanna Salter's grave. She lived over 100 years.

The day ended just a few miles from where it began, this time at Stroud's Restaurant. I thought the servings at the Kansas City area Stroud's were huge, but these were even larger. I made a heroic attempt to eat my order of chicken gizzards and still took nearly 2 pounds back to the motel in a box.

Cero's Candy
 
 
 
 

Kansas African American Museum
 
 
 

Salter House Museum
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Stroud's Restaurant

I am really glad I did. No other web site tells you more than to follow the signs to the well. Unfortunately many of the signs are missing or damaged. Even having been to the well before, I drove right past it without noticing the last turn.

After stopping at Bomber Burger in Wichita (a little dive with some of the best hamburgers in Kansas), I continued south to the unincorporated community of Drury, which is almost to the Oklahoma state line. The old mill dam on the Chikaskia River had been recommended repeatedly for my Kansas Waterfalls page. The beautiful dam will soon be on this site.

Supper was at the original NuWay Cafe in Wichita. The loose meat style burger was good, but the homemade onion rings were great. I just wished I wasn't a diabetic and could have had a root beer float made with NuWay's great house made root beer.

The final stop of the day was at Lake Afton Public Observatory, south of Goddard. They have open hours each Friday and Saturday evenings and I enjoyed looking through the Giant 16 inch telescope at the M81 galaxy and Orion Nebula. I hope to return for one of the monthly nights when they permit visitors to take photos through the telescope.

Bomber Burger

Drury Mill Waterfall

16" telescope at Afton Observatory
 

Added a new review of Stapleton #1 Historic Well in El Dorado, Kansas.

But the food is good and there are quite reasonable lunch specials. For $6.95 you can choose from 25 dishes served with house specialty chicken noodle soup and your choice of a chicken pot sticker of homemade egg roll on the side. 

I ordered the yellow curry with chicken. the sauce was very good, spicy, but not terribly hot, with a hint of anise. The curry had large cubes of potato the could have been cooked a little longer. The egg roll , was just OK, but I was quite impressed with the chicken soup.

I also had ordered an appetizer (my sacrifice for this art) - Tasty Thai Beef Jerky (Mom's special recipe) for $7.95. The sweet jerky was very good. It was sweet and fairly tender. The jerky was served warm, but I liked it just as well cold at the end of the meal.

Added a new review of the Fort Harker Guardhouse Museum in Kanopolis, Kansas.

Add a FaceBook page for www.kansastravel.org. Please Like it at www.facebook.com/pages/KansasTravelorg

We were quite happy with the $16 buffet. It was nothing unusual, but it had plenty of good food. Highlights include cheese blintzes, sausage, salmon crapes, roast beef and made to order omelets.

Added a new review of Saint Francis de Hieronymo Catholic Church in St. Paul, Kansas.

The burgers were very good. The $8.99 Kobe Burger is American Kobe beef with pickled red onion and truffle butter. The $7.99 Smoke Burger had apple wood smoked bacon, smoked gouda cheese and chipotle-cocoa ketchup. The girls were worried that their well done burgers would be dried out, but they were just as juicy as my medium.

The onion rings and regular French fries were average for fresh cut, but that still makes them better than 90% of what is served at restaurants. None of the the house made sauces impressed us, but the fries and rings were fine without dipping.

Tonight's supper was at the 12 week old New York Dawg House in Overland Park. Dishes sampled included Coney Island & Chicago style dogs, bratwurst, Italian sausage, chili, onion straws and waffle sweet potato fries. The meats were good, but my favorite items were the onion straws and chili.

Added a new review of B.R.G.R. Kitchen and Bar in Prairie Village to the Guide to Unique Kansas Restaurants.

Kobe Burger

New York Dawg House

Supper was a revisit of Winstead's in Lenexa, Kansas. The small Kansas City based hamburger chain continues do do a good job. While I am not that impressed with the burgers, which are pressed flat and a bit dry, the other items (including onion rings and chili) are pretty good. I wish they would go with larger burgers, instead of layering the small burgers in doubles or triples.

Added a new page devoted to the Wooly Works Alpaca Ranch in Abilene, Kansas.

The menu is mostly breakfast items so Linda tried the $8.29 breakfast burrito which was described as a tortilla stuffed with eggs, onion, ham, green peppers, tomatoes, cheese and salsa served with seasoned breakfast potatoes. The burrito was huge, at least 3 eggs, and pretty good.

I started with the $2.95 house salad, which was large enough to be a meal and was not brought to the table until the rest of the food was brought out. It was a good salad with great lettuce, tomato, croutons and lots of cheese. The dressing was served on the side and wasn't enough for the salad, but the server asked if I needed more, just as I was running out.

Other than breakfasts, there is only one other salad and 8 half pound burgers which are priced from $8-9. Ray's doesn't list any side items, but the burgers come with a choice of fries, rings or half and half. The Soul Burger Number One came with apple wood smoked bacon, swiss cheese, and cognac & sherry sautéed mushrooms with grilled red onion. The large burger came on a toasted bun and other than being more cooked than I wanted (possibly a communication issue) was a very good burger.

Neither the onion rings or fries were fresh made, but they were both pretty good, with the rings being the best.

Added a set of photos of Janis Ian's concert to mightymac.org. and a new review of the Sandzén Memorial Gallery on the Bethany College campus in Lindsborg, Kansas to the list of Kansas art galleries.

Soul Burger Number One

We had supper at Quick's Bar-B-Q & Catering Company in Kansas City, Kansas, which we hadn't been to since 2009. The service was good as always.

We sampled pork ribs. sausage, beef brisket and burnt ends. The sausage was the best. All of the meats were good, although I wouldn't call Quick's burnt ends, burnt ends. They are more like pulled pork. The baked beans were the best side of those we tried, but none of the side dishes were great.

There were three wraps posted on the menu posted on the wall by the counter: turkey club, burnt ends and spicy chicken. You also get to choose if they are covered with honey wheat or jalapeno cheese coverings. I picked the burn ends (onion, pickles & cheese) on a honey honey wheat and the spicy chicken (jalapenos, cheese & hot sauce) on jalapeno cheese wrap. 

They were large sandwiches for $5.99 and the two of them without side dishes made a filling meal. I enjoyed booth sandwiches, but would have liked a little more pickle, onion and cheese in the burnt end wrap.

For supper, we made our third visit to B.R.G.R. in Prairie Village. For my money, B.R.G.R. is the most successful of the upscale hamburger places which have opened in the past three years. Linda's 1/2 pound Roadhouse burger (bacon, Wisconsin cheddar, onion straws, bbq sauce, corn bun for $8.50) was cooked just right and I loved my huge short rib pot roast (Zinfandel braised, carrots, mushrooms, celery, herbed gravy, mashed potatoes, onion straws for $13).

The burgers are a bit pricey, but everything else is reasonable. Beverages were $2, a large side of the best onion straws I have had this year was $2.50, and I added a great wedge salad for $2.50

Our server was very good, always they where we wanted her, but never hovering.

Added a new review of Ted's Old Iron Farm and Museum near Columbus, Kansas. It is the more obscure but fun Kansas attraction which I found in 2010.

B.R.G.R.
 
 
 

Ted Old Iron Farm & Museum

Added new review of the Empire Power Dam Falls in Riverton, Kansas. The man made waterfall is the most impressive water feature which I have found in Kansas. There are now 30 different waterfalls on the Kansas Waterfalls page.

Updated the many pages devoted to the Kansas section of Historic Route 66.
 

Empire Power Dam Falls

I had brought along my camera "just in case" and was delighted when they announced that photography was permitted. Even flash photography! Janis' voice has lost nothing over the years and I enjoyed the concert very much, particularly when she sang At Seventeen and Married In London.

Added new reviews of Riverside Park and John A. Mathews Park in Oswego, Kansas. Little Town Well in John A. Mathews Park was the site of one of the first white settlements in southeast Kansas. 90 acre Riverside Park overlooks the historic Neosho Crossing and Neosho River Falls. 

Little Town Well

Added a new review of Beloit Falls near downtown Beloit, Kansas

There are many good seafood items, the more interesting ones tonight were bacon wrapped shrimp, steamed clams and shrimp scampi. Despite being more well done than I would choose, the roast beef was tender and tasty. The best vegetable was kale seasoned with garlic.

Added a new review of the Eureka Spring Site in Eureka, Kansas.

The beef ribs had good flavor, but were not very meaty. Still, the half slab was a lot of food for $13.99 with one side. The pork rib tips were only $10.49 with one side.

Added a new review of Rocky Ford Waterfall on Soldier Creek on the land of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation near Hoyt, Kansas.

Rocky Ford Waterfall on Soldier Creek

Thank you to Ken Ratzlaff who provided directions to the falls and posted photographs of the waterfall at theratzlaffs.net.

Added new reviews of the Wilson County Historical Museum in Fredonia, Chanute-Wright Brothers Memorial in Chanute, and St. Aloysius Church Historic Site in Greenbush, Kansas.

We started with $6 shrimp scampi appetizer with 6 nice sized shrimp in olive oil with parsley and a lot of sliced garlic. It came with Italian bread to sop up the extra oil and garlic.

Linda had the meatball grinder with provolone cheese and I had a hand breaded pork tenderloin sandwich. Each came with choice of French fries, potato salad or chips. The fries weren't fresh cut but were well cooked. I liked the meatballs a lot!

We were the last customers of the lunch period and enjoyed interacting with Anthony's children as they played in the dining room.

I definitely plan to return to Anthony's Diner when we are more hungry. Most dinners are under $10!

For supper we went to the Dragon Inn, a Chinese Restaurant in Prairie Village. The dishes tried were crab rangoon, hot & sour soup, beef with green peppers, and Peking shrimp. The prices were reasonable, but I found all of the food bland.

shrimp scampi
 
 
 

Dragon Inn