I enjoyed the wings a lot. The burger didn't really come together in a way which worked for me.

The pups (which look like corn dogs, but do not contain corn) were invented for Old Setter's in 1948 and this weekend is the one time each year that they are offered. They are made by Morning Grange #227 from Spring Hill, which uses the money to support the Johnson County Fair 4-H Project auction. They have also established a scholarship fund for college students who have attended high school in the Olathe, Gardner, and Spring Hill areas. They have awarded over $100,000 in scholarships.

After work, I went by the Williams Family Cemetery in a quiet residential area of southeast Olathe. Although there were at least 3 times as many burials, only 4 complete standing stones remain, with a 5th laying on the ground behind one of these stones. This cemetery in on the east side of Quivera Road near 148th Street.

While in Merriam, I drove on up to Shawnee Mission Parkway to one of the newest fountains in metropolitan Kansas City. 

The Bear Pit is a lovely fountain which most people have never seen. It is next to the Merriam Visitors Bureau at Merriam Historical Plaza, at the intersection of Shawnee Mission Parkway and I-35. It commemorates the bear pit at Merriam Park, which opened at this location in 1880 and operated for nearly 20 years.

The sculpture is the work of Kwan Wu.

Bear Pit

She did tell us that everything is locally sourced and made to order, from scratch, in house. When I asked if that meant that they have fresh cut fries, she said, no. She did go on to say they were still something special, large fries and extra crispy. They were regular sized, battered fries, that I ate only a handful of. 

Toad's burger (1/3 lb hamburger with sautéed mushrooms, Swiss cheese and red wine onion jam) looked great, but fell flat. Frey Pie (beef and Guinness Shepherd's pie with crispy scalloped potatoes on top) was a better choice.

The odd thing about the menu is that although The Boardroom doesn't open until 4PM on weekdays and 11AM on weekends, a large portion of the menu is breakfast dishes. Perhaps for late night?
 

While we were leaving the building, a meeting room full of white bearded men in red clothes caught our eye. We had happened across a meeting of Santa America. Christmas season is coming.

We had lunch at BRGR in Prairie Village. It had been a couple of years since I had been to the grommet burger restaurant and I was a bit disappointed. My cheese burger was OK, but I felt the bun took away from the sandwich. The bun didn't have much flavor and neither absorbed juices from the burger and didn't compress. Between them, the combined burger and bun were two thick to easily eat and the juices all ran out onto my hand, the plate and the table.

Mary & Nick joined us later in the day to drive to Atchison, Kansas to check out the 2019 version of the Haunted Atchison Trolley Tour. Atchison, Kansas was named the "Most Haunted Town in Kansas" in the 1997 book Haunted Kansas: Ghost Stories and Other Eerie Tales. The 1 hour ghost tours are offered Saturday evenings in September. Additional evenings are added through October and there are some tours in early November.

The tour changes each year and there were several homes included, which have not been on the tour the other times we took it. The stories about some of the homes which have been on other year tours have also changed. The tours are entertaining, but good still benefit from more live and less recorded narration.

For supper, we drove to Cedar Ridge Catering & Banquet Hall, in the country, about 5 miles northwest of Atchison.  We had last visited this restaurant in 2013 and were surprised how little it has changed. The Saturday night menu is unchanged, family style, all you can eat, chicken noodle soup, chicken, brisket, pulled pork, baked potatoes, green beans with bacon, and two kinds of hot cobbler with ice cream. The price is even unchanged, 

There were two changes. The meal now includes a wedge salad, and they have reduced their days open from Friday, Saturday & Sunday, to just Saturday & Sunday.

We had about a 40 minute wait for a table, and one of the things we checked out while waiting, was a large display of reasonable priced pumpkins, being offered for sale on the honor system. Large pumpkins were only $6.

BRGR Burger

Atchison Trolley
 
 
 
 

Pumpkins for sale

There was much water in Deep Creek, but there were still several families wading and having fun in the low water crossing. I took some fresh photos and videos of Deep Creek Waterfall.

Continuing into Manhattan, Kansas I photographed Midwest Dream Car Collection, an automobile museum which just opened in April. The 25,000 display area has about 60 vehicles on display. The collection has no obvious theme and contains vehicles as diverse as a 1907 Henry Ford Model-R, a 1958 BMW 600 which has a 26 horsepower engine & 66" wheelbase and his and hers mustang convertibles which belonged to Sony & Share.

For supper, I checked out Keltic Star Public House in Aggieville, the popular entertainment district, just south of Kansas State University in Manhattan. I liked the atmosphere, service and menu and was pleased to try several items on The Pub Platter: Bangers & mash, fish & chips, shepherd's pie and Cornish pasty. Unfortunately the only one of the four that I enjoyed was the shepherd's pie. It was the smallest serving on the plate, and although I could have had a meal of the balance of the sampler, I rarely get to Manhattan and decided to cut my losses and try a second restaurant.

The second restaurant I tried was Bourbon & Baker, in the downtown Manhattan, about a mile away. The trendy small plate restaurant was full, but they were able to seat me at the end of a long table, away from another party.

I tried two appetizers, starting with duck fat French fries. The fries were made with Kennebec potatoes and served with a broiled egg and Mornay sauce. I was sure about the egg, but left it in place while pouring the sauce over the top. I wouldn't have believed it, but the combination of flavors and textures was fabulous!

The second dish was called "Ain't no thing but a chicken wing." Jumbo wings, with citrus herb brine, buttermilk, deep fired, with citrus almond pecan hot sauce. The dish reminded me of the wonderful Korean fried chicken wings at BLVD Tavern in Kansas City, Missouri. I enjoyed them, but think I would have liked them better with a different brine. The leftovers were good a couple of days later.

I spent the night at the Hampton Inn in Manhattan. It was a nice motel room with a comfortable bed and total price under $100. Something that is getting harder to find in Kansas.

Midwest Dream Car Collection

Keltic Star Public House
 
 
 
 
 
 

Duck fat French fries

The auto parts store is filled with fun automobile memorabilia. The only thing keeping this different from some museum, is the lack of labels on the carious things displayed around the building. It is very cool.

The shop provides modern parts for antique cars and Randy is famous for inventing  6-volt Alternators which work better than the original charging system in old vehicles.

It was only a couple of blocks walk to the Clay County Museum, which moved into a new building, across from the County Courthouse, at the beginning of this year. The former museum building was a former hospital, which has now been torn down. 

This new building was once a furniture store. They are still settling into the new space and there is a lot of work that still needs to be done.

I was particularly impressed with what they have done with the stair case in the center of the largest gallery. They have rebuilt an old log cabin around the base of the stairs and as you up the stairs, you see into both floors of the cabins.

On the way back to the car, I checked out some of the vendors at Piotique Festival, but didn't make any purchases.

Before leaving town, I revisited Clay Center Zoo in Utility Park. The park is managed by the Clay Center Public Utilities and the park is across from the power plant. Much of the building of the park was done during the Great Depression, when utility customers would work in the park to bay their bills.

A badly needed construction project is in progress at the zoo. Although the few animals in the zoo appear healthy, they are confined in tiny 1930's cages which don't meet the needs of the animals they way we feel is appropriate today.

For lunch, I drove east to Nelson's Landing in Leonardville, Kansas. When we first visited the bar and grill in 2016, we saw a lot of sports photos on the walls and learned that the bar was owned by the parents of then Green Bay Packer and former Kansas State University wide receiver, Jordy Nelson. Although he has since retired, he is still a draw and one family posed for a photo with a life size image of Jordy before leaving the restaurant.

This visit, I tried the Buffalo chicken wings, brat with sauerkraut and fries. The wings were large, but not much different then what I heat from the freezer at home. The brat was better.

The best thing was the pie, which is baked in a separate kitchen in the same building. The chocolate peanut butter pie was one of the best slices of pie which I have ever had.

It started raining during my drive to the Wakefield Museum in Wakefield, Kansas. At the time I arrived, it was pouring, so I read in the car until it let up, only to find the building all locked up during open hours when I finally went to the door.

On a hunch, I looked up the museum's phone number on my smart phone. My call got the answering machine, which confirmed that the museum should be open, but gave another phone number for the museum president, Joy Shandy who agreed to come open the museum, from her home in a nearby museum. She said that the volunteer scheduled to work had canceled.

Joy showed me through the two story museum which is packed with items. She said they will start construction of an expansion in the near future. I hope the expanded museum will give them a chance to rework the displays. At this time, the museum is primarily preserving items and displaying them. Many artifacts have no context and are only labeled with the name of their contributor.

It continued to rain, so I limited my remaining stops to places that were primarily inside. Back in Manhattan, I stopped at Kansas State University to revisit Call Hall Dairy Bar and the Insect Zoo. Call Hall on the KSU campus has housed the KSU Dairy Processing Plant since 1964. It also has the Dairy Bar where ice cream, milk, cheese, meat and sandwiches are sold to the public. I enjoyed a scoop of good butter pecan ice cream in the dairy bar and purchased some cheeses to try later. The bar also sells eggs and frozen beef and pork from animals raised at the University.

My last stop was an early supper at 4th & Elm, a bar and grill in Wamego, Kansas which has been getting good online ratings. It is an attractive building and they were preparing for some type of outdoor event later in the day. The menu looked pretty straight forward bar food and the mushroom and Swiss burger was much like those in other bar & grills. The house made potato chips were good.

Clay County Museum
 
 
 
 
 
 

Clay Center Zoo
 

Nelson's Landing
 
 
 
 
 

Wakefield Museum
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Call Hall Dairy Bar

4th & Elm