All of the food was very good.

Supper was at the 51 year old Laffoon's Frontier Family Restaurant in Kansas City, Kansas. This old family restaurant near The Legends may be the least expensive steak house in the metro.

Added 10 new pages devoted to the Prairiesta Parade in Russell, Kansas.

Friday night continues to be a great party, but if you don't know the people on one of the teams and aren't prepared to be aggressively outgoing, you will probably be happier going on Saturday afternoon.

Updated the page devoted to the 2011 Kansas State Fair.

Linda had a grilled Buffalo chicken salad for $10 and I had a $7 wedge salad that was huge and covered with blue cheese.

I definitely want to try Saints Pub again, but it will not be on a Thursday night when they offer 25 cent drafts.

There was very little on the buffet for someone who wanted to eat lunch rather than breakfast. There was no salad or corked vegetables and the only non breakfast meat was prime rib. The rib was flavored with garlic and was pretty good, but getting it took so long I didn't want to get a second serving. The person who sliced the meat was also tied up cooking omelets in at least 4 pans and running two waffle makers.

The price was reasonable at $12, but I don't plan on returning.

We went on to Baldwin First United Methodist Church on the edge of Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas. This was the first day of the 2011 youth Institute for the Kansas East Conference of the United Methodist Church and the week was being kicked off with a 3 hour reunion for those who have participated in Institute in the 101 years it has been held in Baldwin. My wife attended Institute for three years in the 1970 and our daughters have participated for the past seven years.

Our supper was at the nearby Hickory Creek BBQ. My only previous time at Hickory Creek was during the Maple Leaf Festival when they offered a limited menu. The food is ordered at a counter around the corner from the bar and brought to your table. You do you own beverage service and we had to wait a long time to get the ice dispenser replenished.

Is we waited for our food, we watched the stage being set up across the street for the Baldwin City Community Theatre production of Alice the Musical.

Hickory Creek BBQ was out of several items, so we settled on special - a slab of pork ribs for $9.99, hot wings, and fries. The ribs had been cooked with a spicy rub and were fine without sauce. They were a lot of meat for the money and we had several to take home.

The wings tasted fine, but were not such a good deal with just 6 tiny wing thirds for $6.29. The fries were under cooked and no treat at all.

On our way driving back to Lenexa, we stopped briefly at Gardner Junction Park, which is southwest of Gardner at U.S. 56 Highway and West 183rd Street. The small park opened in 2008 to commemorate a nearby location where where westward travelers split off onto the three different wagon trails to Santa Fe, California, or Oregon.

Hickory Creek BBQ
 

Baldwin City Community Theatre stage
 

Gardner Junction

It is open fewer hours than any of the others 11AM - 3PM Monday till Saturday. The rub adds a great deal to the meat and many people don't use the sauce. Danny is the owner of the store and does all of the plating. He is the son of Jake Edwards whose BBQ restaurant was a KC staple for many years. Danny began his first restaurant in downtown KC 30 years ago. The tiny lunch spot was called Lil' Jake's. He was forced to relocate to Southwest Boulevard by the development of the downtown Power and Light District.

Great onion rings and fries. Very good brisket and ribs. I don't find the burnt ends they are best know for to have as much flavor as the other meats.

Added a new page devoted to the Gernon House, the oldest stone house remaining in Russell, Kansas.

Linda had the $19 grilled salmon, which came with two sides. The salmon and asparagus were very good, the thin green beans were less interesting.

I had the $32 bone-in ribeye. The 18 ounce steak was huge and rather tough. I ordered medium, but the steak was cooked unevenly. A large portion was medium well and another large portion was rare. I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more of the port wine butter sauce and more than a few slim slivers of of mushroom.

This experience wasn't bad, but after 6 visits to Taste, this was the first time that the food didn't stand out for me.

Added a new page devoted to Cheyenne Bottoms & the Kansas Wetlands Education Center.

There were Pelicans, but they were still a long distance away and I tried walking out on a nearby dike to see if I could get closer. I went only a couple of hundred yards when a group of American Avocets started acting very frantic. I walked a little farther and they got louder and moved closer to me. I decided that I must be getting too close to their nests and returned to the car.

On the way back through the Bottoms, a group of the pelicans were much closer to the road.

It was time to start working my way toward home, but there was still time for some more stops. The first was Miller's of Claflin, a 106 year old furniture store in a town of 700 people. Miller's has 80,000 square feet of showrooms spread across parts of 3 blocks. They disguise the large, modern buildings with facades depicting the businesses which once occupied the same locations on the main street.

Then north to Wilson, Kansas where I tried the Sunday brunch at the reopened Midland Hotel. Since there were no breakfast items, it was more of a lunch buffet than a brunch. The only meats were ham and fried chicken. They both tasted fairly good, but they were not hot. The food had been put in chafing dishes, but the warmers beneath them had not been lighted.

Just a block away, I stopped at Wilson Family Foods, a supermarket which makes sausages and smoked bacon. I purchased their smoked beef summer sausage, smoked ring bologna, and 2 kinds of smoked trail stix.

The last brief stop of the trip was to see the 8 Wonders of Kansas exhibit at the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene. The free exhibit filled the two story lobby and quite a few people were viewing it. I enjoyed listening to them talk about which wonders they wanted to visit.

Back in Johnson County, I had supper at Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue in Overland Park, Kansas. I tried the hickory smoked prime rib and it was wonderful! It is the best meat I have ever had at Jack Stack.

American white pelicans

Miller's of Claflin

 Midland Hotel
 
 

8 Wonders of Kansas exhibit

The actual parade began with politicians, including three former US Senators: Elizabeth & Bob Dole and Arlan Spector. The rest of the parade was mostly organized by decade with oldest to newest. Many of the Russell graduation classes from over the years were represented. I'm afraid that the quality of my photos went down shortly into the parade when a woman brought her children to stand out in the street in front of everyone so they would have the best chance get candy being thrown by entries in the parade.

Following the parade, I tried to try out Waudby's Sports Bar and Grill in Russell, but it was packed. My second choice was Meridy's Restaurant & Lounge on the south side of town, but it had an even longer line, so I had a meal with the food vendors at Prairiesta.

I also tried to visit the Oil Patch Museum, but this just wasn't my lucky day. The museum was supposed to be open extra hours for Prairiesta, but no one was there. Still, most of the museum is outdoors and the grounds are unlocked so I saw most of the exhibits. Unfortunately they were all unlabeled.

In the early afternoon, I returned to the fairgrounds for performances by the Nicodemus Buffalo Soldiers Association and the Prairie Duster Drill Team. It was kind of funny how the announcer kept talking about the women's precision drill time serving as ambassadors for Kansas' Biggest Rodeo, but they never said where the rodeo is.

For the balance of the afternoon I drove down to Cheyenne Bottoms to the Kansas Wetlands Education Center which was opened in 2009 by the Fort Hays State University and the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks. Although I don't think many people take advantage of it, the Wetlands Center offers guided van tours of Cheyenne Bottoms. I had a $5 ninety minute tour all to myself. We saw numerous shore birds, but my favorites were the beautiful white pelicans.

In the evening I returned to Russell for a concert by the Fabulous Flippers which included a complementary barbecue dinner. The buffet had a variety of smoked meats. Most of them were average, but I was quite impressed with the pork.

The Fabulous Flippers formed in Lawrence, Kansas in the 1960s and had a successful career which included recording eight singles, one LP and one EP. The band plays rhythm and blues and has a 6 person horn section. Three of the horn players are originally from Russell.

A storm was coming, so the concert started about a half hour early. The band still sounds good and was well received. The first set ended just as it started to rain.

Elizabeth & Bob Dole
 
 

Oil Patch Museum

Nicodemus Buffalo Soldiers

Kansas Wetlands Education Center
 
 

Fabulous Flippers

I took some new photos along Cawker City's main street, including some shots of the nearby stone 1884 library building which is being restored. Then I stopped at the Almost Done Inn to ask Lottie Herod for some twine. She is the nice little lady who has designed most of the Ball of Twine related souvenirs. She measured off about 20 yards of twine and I returned to the ball. 

I had just finished adding my twine when another lady pulled up and offered twine to other visitors to the giant ball.

With the morning over, I headed south, taking more photos at a huge game bird hatchery in Tipton. For lunch I stopped at the Hunter Cafe, a community cafe sharing a building with the library in tiny Hunter, Kansas. I was almost the only person in the restaurant who not driving a truck, wearing a hat and carrying a pair of pliers in a holster on their belt. The daily special was chicken fried steak and it was quite good. The seating was at large community tables and it felt like everyone else in the restaurant knew each other.

Then on to my primary destination of the weekend - Russell, Kansas. This week was Prairiesta, the every 10 years all county celebration, and the community had offered to defray part of my expenses if I visited. The afternoon began with a visit to the fair grounds where a large crowd was watching wheat being thrashed with machinery from the 1940s and earlier.

Then I went to downtown Russell where several of the streets were closed off for a carnival, beer tent, food vendors and stage. The Deines Cultural Center was hosting a quilt display and an exhibit of art related to this year's Prairiesta theme - "Windmills to Wind Power." A large nearby tent housed heritage demonstrations like corn shelling and weaving.

It was also a good opportunity to visit the Heym-Oliver & Gernon Houses, both of which are fine restored post rock stone homes and are normally open only a few hours a day on summer weekends.

I went on to the Fossil Station Museum, arriving just minutes before it was scheduled to close, but the nice young lady who was working, generously stayed late to give me time to take some photographs and to do some research on Native American petroglyphs in Russell County.

I drove to the nearby community of Bunker Hill to have supper at one of my favorite spots, the Bunker Hill Cafe. They no longer serve elk (darn!) so I had Buffalo ribeye and catfish. A little after I ordered, I remembered that they only accept cash. I explained to my waitress and she added up what the meal would be. Including the coins in my car, I was just able to cover the meal. That was embarrassing.

Returning to Russell in the evening, I attended the historical pageant, which was a large event held outdoors at the fairgrounds. The pageant was hosted by Marshall Allen Bailey  of Dodge City, who opened the program by leading the crowd in singing the Kansas State Song, "Home on the Range." The program was presented in part from the stage but there were other sets to side and a wide area in front of the stage permitted cattle, horses and people to pass through as part of the program.

The motels in Russell had all been booked before I was contacted, so I had to drive 28 miles south to the Cheyenne Bottoms Inn which opened just a couple of months ago in Hoisington.

Hunter Cafe
 

Wheat threshing

Deines Cultural Center
 
 
 
 

ribeye and catfish
 

historical pageant

Wood Fashion Cafe is in a neat old building which once housed a gas station and garage. They use local, natural ingredients whenever possible and have a list of their suppliers on the tables. They weren't very busy and the chef spent about half of his time on a computer in the corner of the dinning room. He saw me taking photographs and kept looking to see if I was taking more, but never asked why.

I liked their pork chop and really liked the tart rhubarb gorgonzola sauce that came with it. They were out of the asparagus which I wanted to try. The smashed potatoes were good, but not really my dish. The menu says they serve both Marcon and their own pies. I asked about the ones they bake, but their baker had been unavailable for a couple of days.

Wood Fashion Cafe

I had the Buffalo Chicken wing appetizer as an entry, with spinach as a side dish. The spinach was covered with garlic and was wonderful. Linda had the "Jammin' Salmon" - blackened and grilled Atlantic salmon served with chipotle rice, black beans and spinach. The salmon seemed just grilled, not that spicy, which was fine with her.

Lunch was at the Santa Fe Cafe in Overland Park, Kansas. I hadn't been there in about 3 years. When we walked in, there was a band playing country music in the back of the other dining room. The band is called Not Quite Country and plays at lunch each Monday. I overheard a woman at the next table say, "that is the least offensive music I have heard in a restaurant." <G>

My hand breaded pork tenderloin was large and good, but I particularly liked the lightly battered, sweet potato fries. Linda had half of a grilled chicken salad - which was still quite large..

Still, the Sedgwick County Zoo is the finest large zoo in Kansas or Missouri.

Driving northeast, I stopped Cassoday to check on the Cassoday Bike Run which takes place on the first Sunday of each nice month. I knew was going to be big when I excited off of the tournament and found that the Kansas Turnpike Authority had added a second toll taker who was walking up to motorcycles making change from an apron.

There is no easy way for to tell how many bikers were in Cassoday. People were coming and going and there were hundreds of people present while I was there. The Cassoday Cafe is undergoing renovation and is currently only open on Bike Run Sundays, but the Cassoday Bike Run has long outgrown the Cafe and the bikers are served by many vendors lining the few streets of the tiny town.

I stopped for lunch at Bruff's Sports Bar & Gill in Emporia. I started with the "hot" wings - $7.50 for 8 wings. There weren't that hot, but had plenty of sauce and tasted pretty good. They came with a generous cup of blue cheese dressing for dipping.

The burger was less appealing. Despite my requesting that it be cooked to only medium, it was well done and dry. The bun that it was served on was over toasted. At the same time, the wedge cut fries were not cooked enough.

The final stop of the trip was in Reading, Kansas which was hit by a category 3 tornado just two weeks earlier. I was impressed with how much clean up has been done so far. It took a while to be able to see just how much damage had been done, but then I started realizing that there were holes in the ground and blank spaces where buildings are now missing.

This evening, I posted 3 pages of photographs of the Reading Tornado Recovery.

Cassoday Bike Run
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Reading Tornado Recovery

I already have photos of many of the birds at the Raptor Center, but we did photos with a 5 week old American Kestrel, spectacled owl, vulture, American eagles, golden eagle and others.

Driving back toward Wichita, the second stop of the morning was at the Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Goddard. When I first visited Tanganyika, it was a private wildlife park hosting special events, but it opened to the public as a zoo, in June of 2008. Tanganyika is slowly growing. At this time the emphasis is on personal encounters with the animals and there are opportunities to ride camels & ponies and feed giraffes, Ringed tail lemurs & other animals.

Returning to Wichita, I stopped at West Street Burgers, a small burger joint with just 12 chairs and a drive through window. The burgers are made to order and extremely reasonably priced. A half pound burger with choice of side and a beverage are only $5.69! I ordered a burger medium well with grilled onions and fries, adding an order of onion rings.

With only three tables, I sat down with a man who was already dining. He saw me taking pictures and asked why. We had a good time, talking about West Side Burgers and other places. I got a lead on Big Larry's Burgers in Valley Center, which I will investigate on another trip. 

The burgers were processed, rather than hand formed, but were perfectly cooked. The bun was rather ugly, but was toasted and tasted fine. The fries were fresh cut shoe strings. I would rather have thicker fries, but these were very good. The fresh cut onion rings were less impressive, I didn't care for the breading.

Although it tasted great, I moved on without finishing the food and tried a second burger joint a little over a mile east - TJ's Burger House on West Douglas. TJ's is much larger, with seating for many times as many people as West Street and the menu has a much larger selection.

I ordered a $5.89 mushroom Swiss burger. The 7 ounce burger was over cooked and a bit dry. It didn't come with any side dishes, so I selected half orders of fries and rings. These were also hand made.

The fries were a little under cooked, but still good. The onion rings were better. 

I drove a little farther up Douglas Avenue and found a parking spot near the Arkansas River. River Fest was going strong with many activities along the river including peddle boats, canoes, kayaks, a zipline across the river, live music from a stage on the river, bicycle races, and many food vendors. The kayaks, canoes and peddle boats were free with a River Fest button.

It was another very hot day, but the breeze off the river did a pretty good job of battling the 100 degree heat.

After about an hour of taking photographs, I returned to my hotel to get out of the ot sun and work on photographs from the festival. In addition to the 6 pages of photos from the Sundown Parade, there is another page devoted to the River Fest overall.

In the evening, I returned to check out more of the entertainment and some of the food vendors who had looked good during the day. The corn on the cob was good, but the Cajun shrimp kabobs didn't have enough meat. Chan's chicken on a stick turned out to be as good as it had looked in the afternoon.

Many of the businesses near the river were doing special events. One of my favorite things was the free entertainment at Ruben's Mexican Grill Blockfest.

Swainson's Lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus)

West Street Burgers
 
 
 
 
 
 

TJ's Burger House

peddle boats, canoes, kayaks
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ruben's Mexican Grill Blockfest

The sausage was good and I think it comes from the same supplier as the nearby B&C BBQ. The ribs weren't very meaty and didn't have much flavor from the smoking. There was a choice of sweet and hot sauces.

The corn on the cob was much better than most of the BBQ restaurants that serve it. Usually they have cooked the corn too long.

Then I drove downtown for the Sundown Parade which kicked off this year's River Fest. Arriving 45 minutes early, I was surprised at how many vehicles were already parked and I had a fairly long walk to the parade route. 

It was 100 degrees, so I mad a point of selecting a spot near the reviewing stand, but in the shade. The parade had 60 entries and took about an hour. The only thing I missed was there were no marching bands.

Windwagon in the Sundown Parade