So I drove north to Go Chicken Go in Olathe, which is part of a very popular Kansas City area fast food chick chain. After picking up a half order of fried chicken gizzards and drove to the municipal park at Cedar Lake to enjoy my meal outside. I really love those gizzards with the hot "G sauce" and learned years ago that the roll can be exchanged for a second service of the sauce.

After lunch, I hiked to a spot below Cedar Lake Falls for a few photos and video.

Cedar Lake Falls

After lunch I revisited the Overland Park Arboretum. I hadn't been to this neat collection of gardens and there were several new attractions. I was fascinated by the Train Garden, with its model of downtown Overland Park.

Train Garden

So we tried another Shawnee restaurant, McLain's Market, which opened about 5 months ago. It is the 5th location for McLain's Bakery, which has been in the Waldo neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri since 1945. Their newer locations are all in Lawrence and Johnson County, Kansas.

Tables were well spaced out and everyone was wearing masks, so we felt comfortable dining in. Food is ordered and paid for at the counter and we had the smoked turkey sandwich, chicken salad sandwich and loaded fries. Both sandwiches were good, with the roasted red pepper spread on the turkey sandwich a nice touch. The fries were particularly good with their cheese, chives and bacon. Kind of a deep fried version of twice baked potato.

We drove up to Kansas City, Kansas to visit the drive through Day of the Dead Art Exhibit sponsored by the Central Avenue Betterment Association. It was nice, ut we were surprised at how little there was. We anticipated something that was a block or more long, but it was about 40'.

McLain's Market

Día de los Muertos

My favorite part of J. Gilberts was the atmosphere, though it was so dark that I got no good photos.

I had lunch at Beef Burger Bob's. Beef burgers are loose meat sandwiches, which originated at this restaurant when it was in nearby Fredonia and was called The Iceberg. 

I got a small beef burger, made onion strings and cherry pie to go and ate in the car. The onion rings, which appear to be just dredged in flour and black pepper, which were greasy but yummy. This was the first time I was there early enough in the day that they still had pie. It was fairly average, but a treat to find in a restaurant like this.

This Friday & Saturday is the annual open house and Outhouse Tour in Elk Falls, Kansas and I try to get back to it every few years. There were 21 decorated outhouses in the festival this year. There are other activities such as arts & crafts and a free ham & bean feed.

My next stop was Hubble's Rubble in Howard, Kansas. The sculptures were created by Jerry Hubbell, a realtor and rancher. Jerry has had no formal are training, but took welding lessons when he began farming. Some of these folk art metal sculptures are more than 30 years old.

After a brief pass through Howard and a few photos downtown, I visited the lonely grave of Benjamin F. Hobbs, which is in a field along k-99, north of town. He was the first teacher of Elk County and passed away at the age of 23, in 1871. In 1933 teachers students in Elk County raised money to erect a marker and a fence separating the grave from the land around it.

I was back on the road, with the next stop in Beaumont, Kansas for some fresh photos of the exterior of the 1879 Beaumont Hotel. The hotel has its own airfield and airplanes taxi up the street to the hotel. Across from the hotel is an 1885 Frisco water tower which is believed to be the only wooden water tower still in use in the United States. A new depot has been erected across the railroad tracks from the water tower.

I drove on to Wichita where I got supper at the drive through window at Broadway Burgers & BBQ. The grilled cheeseburger and fries were good, but not a candidate for our Kansas Best Burgers List.

After a brief stop at the Keeper of the Plains for photos, I went on to Botanica, where Illuminations is taking place each night except Christmas, Christmas Eve, Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Eve. Executive Director Marty Miller met me and showed me all the details of the walk through and drive through Christmas Lights. 

Almost 10 acres of theme gardens have nearly 3,000,000 of the lights along a one way route which allows visitors to be socially distanced while walking about a mile indoors and outdoors. The drive through version of Botanica Illuminations is a mile long route with nearly 1,000,000 lights. I also had a chance to photograph the carousel from Wichita's Joyland amusement park, which was restored and opened in 2019 with a new pneumatic organ, the "Mini Monster."

"Let it Go" outhouse

Hubble's Rubble
 
 
 

new depot
 
 
 

Illuminations

I drove on to the Nifty Nut House. The 83 year old Nut House is known for making their own fudge, roasting their own nuts, and selling several hundred products in bulk by the quarter pound or more, as well as having the walls lined with favorites like Moon Pies and candy cigarettes. I made more purchases here.

I intended to try Bill's Charcoal Grill and was waiting when the restaurant opened, but decided to try somewhere else after seeing that the staff was not wearing masks.

After a short search on my phone, I decided to try Tad's Carryout and was very glad I did. Tad's is a year and a half old carry out only restaurant at the location of the former House of Majestic Eating. The old "House of Majestic Eating" sign is still up, as well as graffiti style signs for Ted's on the front and side.

There is a small area inside the front door for placing orders through a window. The menu is short, but varied and I went with 6 fried chicken wings & seasoned French fries for $9 and a $3 piece of fried catfish. The wings were quite spicy and were complete wings, not thirds. The piece of catfish was actually 2 fairly large pieces. Their coating was less spicy, but went well with either hot sauce or the house special sauce.

The rain had settled in to stay, so I cut my exploring short and headed home.

Nifty Nut House mural
 

Tad's Carryout

Chicken wings

The one at the right is the Haskins Street Christmas Display, which is impressive day or night and continues to grow each year.

After checking on several on the east side of Topeka, we picked up carry out from Herman's Meats, which we first tried a couple of months ago. The popular "chopped meat" sandwich, which combines 4 different meats, was not a hit for me, but the chicken wings were good.

After dark, we started checking more displays and found a couple of new ones in the far northwest part of town. We also stopped at the Topeka Zoo which has a new walk through "Zoo Lights" this year. There was enough visible from outside that it is even worth checking out drive by.

Zoo Lights

The Sunday brunch menu has only 7 entrees and we tried chicken Caesar salad, biscuits & chorizo gravy and steak & eggs.

The biscuits and gravy was my favorite. The chorizo made a great gravy and the castle made biscuits had good flavor and a lovely crispy outside.

The Brown Butter Pear Cake was a big hit with all of us!

Despite being open only 3 days, there were no opening jitters and excellent service.

Steak and Eggs