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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Thursday
- April 1, 2020: The closing of many attractions and the need to maintain
social distance have cut way back on our visits to places for this web
site. Today I went to one of the restaurants which isn't as impacted by
social distancing as most. Christy's
Tasty Queen in Kansas City, Kansas has no inside seating, only a few
scattered picnic tables, and most meals are purchased to go. The restaurant
has closed the usual indoor pick up area and purchases are made at a small
window.
We
ordered the pork tenderloins that Christy's is famous for, plus a foot
long chili dog. The large pork tenderloins were crispy, while the pork
is tender, with a delicious coating. The chili sauce was just right for
a dog, flavorful and relatively thick with no beans. It and the Suzy qs,
were so filling that we had an entire tenderloin leftover. It was still
good, reheated two days later.
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Christy's Tasty Queen
chili dog |
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Saturday
- April 3, 2020: I paid a brief visit to a individual burial near the
intersection of K-7 and K-10 in Olathe. The 1856 grave is of Asa C. Smith,
the infant son of Fountain and Emily Smith, who had a farm at this location
until 1865. The grave is maintained by Atmos Energy.
I
drove through Shawnee Mission Park on the way home, though some of the
roads are closed for construction. With the exception of the dog park,
it appeared that people were doing a good job of keeping their distance
from each other.
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Tuesday
- April 7, 2020: Joe’s Kansas
City BBQ may be the most successfully marketed restaurant in the Kansas
City area. They have responded to COVID-19, by having all three locations
offer curbside pick-up. Call in your order, they'll take payment over the
phone and give you a pick-up time when they will bring your order out.
They have even added Sunday hours.
Today
we picked up a half smoked chicken, a short end of pork ribs, beans and
spiced fries at the Olathe location. They traveled well and it was a quite
enjoyable lunch. Linda commented that she enjoyed them even more than usual.
We think that may be because we are having barbeque much less often than
normal.
They
got our order completely correct, something we can't say for all the places
we have recently tried.
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Saturday
- April 11, 2020: Jones
BBQ in Kansas City, Kansas added a refrigerated vending machine this
past week. Their hours are quite limited and this provides a new option
for people who cannot get there between 11AM - 3PM.
We visited early this morning and found only 4 items available,
Chicken wings, rib tips, cake and a sandwich. It wasn't easy to read what
the prices are, but we bought the last wing package, which turned out to
have two smoked wings, a small serving of beans, pickles, bread and tiny
bit of sauce for $4.00. The wings were a little tough but had a good smoky
flavor. The beans were sweet and were nearly 1/4 pork - quite good!
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Wednesday
- April 15, 2020: Although we have stopped traveling and are severely
limited going out because of the COVID-19 outbreak, we are still trying
to support locally owned restaurants. Tonight, we got supper to go from
Snack
Shack on Santa Fe in Overland Park, where we have regularly dined since
it was the Shake Shack in 2011.
The
restaurant has responded to safety concerns by closing the inside to the
public and limiting sales to the window on the patio. Dinning at the outdoor
tables is also no longer permitted. The menu has been slight reduced, but
the quality of the burgers and fresh cut fries are as good as always (though
the fries don't travel home as well as the burgers do).
Business
appeared to be steady.
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Snack Shack |
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Friday
- April 19, 2020: Silo Modern Farmhouse in Lenexa is doing meals on
Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, taking the order the day before and doing
curbside pick up. On Fridays it is a fish boil of shrimp, crawfish and
mussels with andoullie sausage, boiled purple potatoes, corn on the cob
and cheddar chive biscuits. The other potatoes in the upper right were
an extra from the chef.
I
ordered this because the picture looked so good on facebook. Our food looked
great, but wasn't a treat. the biscuits had little flavor - really all
of the food was bland.
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Fish boil |
Sunday
- April 19, 2020: One of the challenges of getting curb side or home
delivery is finding dishes that will still be good when you get it home.
Today we did Stroud's in Overland Park and it traveled well. We ordered
a white meat dinner and a gizzard dinner. Between them, there were 7 meals.
I enjoyed this food a lot. For me, it is the gravy which makes it all work
so well. Gizzards, cottage fries and gravy warm up well the next day in
the microwave. |
Stroud's Restaurant |
Saturday
- April 25, 2020: As we visit restaurants these days, its nice to have
some where the experience is virtually unchanged under COVID-19. Grandstand
Burger in Overland Park is a great place for a burger, pork tenderloin,
onion rings or tater tots. LInda had a cheeseburger and I had the Grandstand
Burger, a Swiss cheeseburger topped with Philly steak. I forgot to request
a cook it to only 168 degrees (the closest they get to medium) and the
Grandstand Burger was a bit dry.
Looking
for a safe way to do a little exploring, we visited some small cemeteries
in eastern Douglas County. Our first stop was Pioneer City Cemetery in
Baldwin City. It was started in 1855 and is one of the oldest continuously
operated cemeteries in Kansas. We came to photograph one grave in particular,
that of Luther Haden "Dummy" Taylor, the only successful deaf pitcher in
major league baseball, He was born in Oskaloosa, Kansas and over the years
was a student, teacher and coach at Kansas State School For the Deaf in
Olathe.
From
Baldwin City, we drove north, stopping first at Dow Cemetery, SW of Vinland,
which was the site of the burial of Charles Dow, who was killed in a land
dispute by a Southern Sympathizer in 1855, in what has been called the
first murder of an American of European descent in Kansas. His body was
later moved to Oakwood Cemetery in Baldwin City, but there are believed
to be over 70 other burials at this location. No burial markers remain
today, just a sign.
On
the way into Vinland, we went by Stony Point Cemetery, which followed Dow
Cemetery and which has a Lutheran Church which was built in 1883 and abandoned
in 1900.
After
taking photos of Coal Creek Library, churches and Grange Hall. we headed
north to Eudora to visit Beni Israel Cemetery which was founded in 1858
by the local community, which was only the 2nd Jewish community in Kansas.
The community moved to Lawrence only a few years later, but continued to
use the cemetery until 1928. In 1978, Lawrence Jewish Community Congregation
reactivated the cemetery. It is in use today and is also listed on the
National Register of Historic Places.
One
of the interesting features of the cemetery is that the Hebrew on many
of the stones is misspelled, which is believed to be because the stone
carvers did not know Hebrew. The "genizah" is where worn-out Hebrew language
books and religious papers papers are buried, because they contain God's
name and cannot be thrown out.
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"Grandstand Burger"
Luther Taylor grave
Dow Cemetery
Genizah at Beni Israel Cemetery
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