Kansas
Travel Blog
Chronicling
changes to KansasTravel.org and Keith's exploration
& photographing Kansas restaurants, attractions, museums, festivals
and art. Contact him.
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Friday
- May 1, 2015: We had supper at Crazy Good Eats which opened today
at the location which was previously first Big
Bubba's Bar-BQ and later McGuire's
Smokehouse in Olathe. It is operated by an extended family which has
competed at regional BBQ contests as Steer Crazy BBQ.
This
was supposed to be a soft opening, but it was far from quiet. There was
a long line and they were out of half of the items on the menu. My initial
impression is mixed, but I will wait for more visits and their catching
up on things before saying more.
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Crazy Good Eats |
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Saturday
- May 2, 2015: On our way to lunch at the Snack
Shack, we discovered that some of the trees in downtown Overland Park
were yarn bombed late last year.
It
was the first time we had been to the Snack Shack on a Saturday in a very
long time and I was surprised at how busy they were, with pretty much all
of the seating inside and out taken. It turns out that they even have a
shorter menu on Saturday, to make it easier for them to accommodate the
volume of business.
While
leaving the neighborhood, we passed by the Tiki
Heads on 79th Street, to see if they were still in place. In addition
to the Easter Island style carved heads, there are now a number of found
object metal sculptures.
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Yarn bombed trees |
Sunday
- May 3, 2015: I was up early and drove to Wamego where the 2015 Kansas
Sampler Festival was being held. At 9AM the Kansas Explorers Clubs annual
meeting was held and it was great seeing old friends including Wendee Laplant
and Marci Penner who are the directors of the Kansas Sampler Foundation.
Following
the meeting, I renewed our memberships at the Sampler Foundation's web
site and spent a couple of hours visiting the many booths promoting Kansas
attractions and businesses. It was a treat finally meeting Scott Bean of
Scott Bean Photography. I have enjoyed his work online for several years
and he has also given me leads on Kansas waterfalls. Scott introduced me
to another photographer, Eldon Clark, who also has Prairie Fire Grill and
Catering in Minneapolis, Kansas.
For
lunch, I decided to investigate Fulmer's Kansas Premium Meats & Eatery,
a family owned & operated meat market in Belvue. The menu was very
limited and I tried a "taco burger" which was a burger with tomato, lettuce
and shredded cheese. No taco seasoning or sauce.
On
the way to Belvue, I noticed a sign for "Historic Site - Louis Vieux Family
Cemetery, Homestead and Vermilion River Crossing," and drove several miles
north to find that the cemetery and homestead had been turned into a small
park with a heavy metal fence, gate and picnic table in 1979. The 1850s
cemetery was quite interesting. Most of the original markers are damaged
or largely illegible, but they have been left in situ and newer stones
with the same info added at some time.
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Kansas Explorers meeting
Scott Bean
Louis Vieux Family Cemetery |
Monday
- May 4, 2015: I made a second visit to the new Crazy Good Eats in
Olathe for lunch. I think I am in too big a rush to try this place. There
are still problems and I will give it a couple of more weeks and try them
again. |
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Friday
- May 8, 2015: We took out of town family from both coasts for some
Kansas exploration today. They had never seen Kansas west of Topeka and
years ago we promised to take them someday.
We
first drove to Cottonwood Falls and Strong City, visiting the Tallgrass
Prairie National Preserve, a neat old falls & bridge, and the most
beautiful courthouse in Kansas. We had lunch at Ad Astra, a restaurant
that is only open on the weekends and bills itself as a progressive home
style restaurant. The food was even better than I remembered and everyone
seemed impressed. We split a pair of large starters (fried Brussels sprouts
and blue cheese chips). I had an outstanding small ribeye steak and Mary
raved about her grilled cheese which was made with goat cheese, local Cheddar,
avocado, apple wood smoked bacon and apricot bear jam.
I'm
not used to planning travel for a larger group and it took more time than
I planned, so we cut a couple of things and made one stop in the afternoon,
at the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum
which is devoted to a couple of motion picture pioneers. Martin returned
from a cruise on the Snark with Jack London and toured the vaudeville circuit
telling about the trip. He fell in love with the 16 year old Osa and they
eloped after just 5 weeks. They purchased early motion picture equipment
and traveled to the South Seas to filmed their first movie, Among the Cannibals
of the South Pacific, which premiered in 1918. They went on to do many
travel movies, write books, have a line of clothes, and do lots of marketing.
From
the museum we walked a short block to the point that is the starting point
of Google Earth in Mac computers, and two doors farther to the old soda
fountain at Cardinal Drug Center for ice cream sundaes and sodas.
We
drove on to Fort Scott where several family members were staying for the
night and had supper at Crooners Lounge at the Liberty Theater. It was
the first time we had been there (I first heard of it only the day before)
and they did a good job with our group of 16. We left our friends at a
nearby hotel with other family and drove on to Pittsburg for the night.
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stone barn at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
Cardinal Drug Center
Crooners Lounge at the Liberty Theater |
Saturday
- May 16, 2015: We drove down to Paola, to have lunch at Beethoven's
9th: The Restaurant. The German restaurant is just off the square.
I recently learned that it had changed hands since our last visit and it
was time to find out what changes had been made to update the review.
The
menu and food showed little change since our previous visit. We started
with the Sausage sampler (bratwurst, weisswurst, nuernberger bratwurst
and knackwurst served with sauerkraut and German mustard). I was pleased
that our server told us which meat was which. The first time I ever visited
Beethoven's, not only was my server uncertain, so was the second person
who she brought over to help.
The
Jaeger Schnitzel has been my favorite dish here in the past. I still looked
the same and was good, but didn't wow me the way it has in the past, though
I can't identify the difference. Perhaps it was just an off night. Linda
enjoyed her grilled pork chop more.
Our
serving of bread pudding was huge and looked fabulous, but seemed bland.
We didn't come close to finishing it.
The
biggest change is the Beethoven's is now open Wednesday night, expanding
to being open four days a week.
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The desert selection at Beethoven's 9th: The Restaurant |
Monday
- May 18, 2015: I has been two more weeks and I paid my third visit
to Crazy Good Eats in Olathe at lunch time. The BBQ restaurant opened at
the first of the month.
While
it has potential, I am not happy with this place so far. The prices are
fairly expensive and they are not at all flexible with substitutions. For
example, if you don't care for the side(s) that comes with a dish, you
must pay full price for a side of French fries.
The
servings are not very large for their price points and are served on a
piece of wax paper on a plastic serving tray, rather than a plate or platter.
It makes the serving look even smaller and is just not that pleasant.
My
favorite dish so far is "Mad Meatballs," a starter made of bacon wrapped
meatball, seasoned with their competition rub and glazed with their sauce.
It is good, but not very large for $1.75 (3/$4.45, 5/$5.95). Still, this
is the dish that will probably bring me back in.
I
will let this place mature a few more months before trying them again.
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Friday
- May 28, 2015: We left right after work on Friday and headed south
on US 69 to the most southeast part of the state. I would have visited
a couple of dams near Fort Scott, but it was raining hard as we passed
through town.
For
years, Cafe on the Route in Baxter
Springs was a good restaurant with an interesting menu in neat old building
on Route 66. Thanks to Diners, Dinettes and Dives, it was nationally known,
but it suddenly closed over 2 years ago. New owners purchased it last year
and after several months of work, opened with the same name about 6 months
ago.
At
first glimpse the restaurant looks much the same, but they have added a
second dining room. The menu is dramatically changed, with the dishes being
much simpler now. But the food was well prepared and the prices are very
reasonable. The onion straw appetizer was quite good and were the rib eye
and salmon, which were the two most expensive items on the menu. The meal
came to $37 with tax, but most meals are in the $7-11 range.
We
spent the night in Coffeyville, making just two stops along the way, one
to photograph a beautiful sunset at a flooded river and once to investigate
a town which is no more. Treece had a population of 138 in 2010, but was
abandoned in 2012 and most buildings and other facilities demolished due
lead pollution resulting from past mining. Linda spotted a memorial marker
for the town and I got photos to use later on Facebook.
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Cafe on the Route
Treece Memorial Marker |
Saturday
- May 28, 2015: This morning was overcast but not rainy. We photographed
an interesting abandoned bridge on the way out of Coffeyville and went
on to Independence to investigate two small, natural waterfalls and a dam
on the Verdigris River. The river was so high that the dam was totally
hidden by water, but at least one of the smaller falls will make its way
on to our Kansas waterfall list.
We
went on to revisit three large waterfalls with the high water. The only
totally natural falls was Butcher Falls
on the Red Buffalo Ranch near Sedan. The 15' drop and the rock banks make
this spot pretty spectacular.
Cowley
Lake Waterfall had changed quite a bit since 2008. A portion of the
rock face has broken off and instead of being a straight 25' drop, the
water falls about half way, then hits rock and sprays out. It has also
become a popular attraction and there are now as many people there at one
time as there were all day in the past. My page about the falls is the
main promotion the falls has.
The
other big falls was the one in the spillway of at Eureka
Lake, north of Eureka. There was only a trickle when we saw it in 2011,
but this time there was so much water that we couldn't even get very close
to the falls.
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