There is an 8 piece band which is playing lots of music from the 1960s and 70s. While I like their sound, it is way too loud and most of the people at the event are clustered at the far end of the space away from the band. 

We got sausages from Ate 1 Six Food Truck. The meat was nicely spicy, but was covered with a sauce which was mentioned on the menu and detracted from the sausage. We topped the meal off with ice cream from Pop's Sweet Shop, which is in one of the Old Town store fronts.

We also had the Combo wings. For $12.99, you get 6 wing thirds, fries and the choice of sauce. Rice may be substituted for fries.

I thought the wings were quite good. The Go Chu Jang is listed as their second hottest sauce. Not bad, but I will try the hottest sauce (Tiger) the next time. Although I read good things about their fries, I thought they were just OK and ate only a few of them.

The counter service was friendly and helpful.

The first stop of the trip was at Red Rocks, the William Allen White House State Historic Site. I didn't have the best experience when I visited Red Rocks many years ago, but had learned that policies have changed over time. In 2006, they made me wait around nearly an hour to tour the home because they didn't want to do it for just one person. At that time photos were not permitted in the home, so we have never had a page about it.

Today, the lady running the visitor center asked me when I wanted to start my tour and was very helpful. Better yet, photos are permitted and there is no charge to tour Red Rocks anymore.

The tour began with a short video explaining who William Allen White was and telling the history of the four generations who lived in the home. It was followed by a 35 minute tour of the grounds, the first floor and the second floor. The third floor is not open to the public because there is only one staircase to the floor.

Lunch was at the Cowboy Cafe in the same building as the Emporia Livestock Sales Auction building. Wednesday as sale day and they don't really encourage the pubic on this day. The main thing at lunch was a $12 build your own sandwich cold cut buffet with salad bar and cinnamon rolls. The other option was a burger and I ordered a cheese burger with grilled onions and French fries. It was a decent burger and fries for $8.59.

The Towanda Area Historical Museum is normally only open the first weekend of the month, but Tricia Lee offered to meet me a 1 PM so I could tour and photograph the museum. The building was constructed in 1904 and originally housed the Towanda Masonic Lodge upstrairs.

Today the main floor has a the contents of the time capsule which was originally in the building, a small barb wire collection and photos. There are three galleries in the space where the Masons used to meet upstairs. One end of the main gallery is still set up as it was when the Masons met there.

On the way out of town, I drove by the Whitewater Fall Stock Farm Barn. The great central barn was built in 1909 and the museum has a nice scale model of the building.

Although it isn't open to the public, a public road passes just a few feet from the barn.

From Towanda, I drove west to Ketchi to Elderslie Dairy, which I just learned about late last year. It is a combination farm, restaurant and creamery. Dining is only available on Thursday - Saturday, but I was here today to visit their self serve dairy store, which is open 24/7.

The first thing I saw in the store was a small typed sign that said that "As of 5/2/2024 The Elderslie Dairy and our cheese making operations have been permanently closed."

There was still goat cheese available for sale, but once the existing stock is gone, there will be no more. I bought Golden Ayr, Goat Tomme, and Westfork cheeses plus Strawberry Gelato. I would have bought all of their house made cheeses, but there is no sense in falling in love with something which isn't made any more.

I ate the gelato right away and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I finally arrived in Wichita, driving through town to the Kansas Aviation Museum. I haven't been to this museum since 2015 and was due to revisit it. The museum seems to be well maintained, but I didn't see much difference in the airplanes displayed from when I last toured the museum.

I made a brief visit to Exotic Pets on the northeast side of Wichita. The small pet shop specializes in reptiles and offers many lizards and snakes.

After a lot of considering, I decided to have supper at B&C BBQ, which has long been my favorite place for BBQ in Wichita. The restaurant was majorly remodeled and expanded in 2029 and the menu also expanded, but I've enjoyed the BBQ so much, that is all that I had, but today I wanted to try something other than barbeque and chose the Philly Dog. The $10 sandwich is described as all beef black angus hot dog from H4 farms, wrapped in jalapeño bacon, deep fried, topped with havarti cheese, peppers, and onions.

The sandwich was quite disappointing, overcooked until the outside was charred. Not a pleasure at all. I could hardly tell that there even was bacon wrapped around the dog.

The large, sweet onion rings were fairly good.

Red Rocks
 
 
 
 
 

Emporia Livestock Sales

Towanda Area Historical Museum

Whitewater Fall Stock Farm Barn
 

Elderslie Dairy Store
 
 
 

Kansas Aviation Museum
 
 

Phully Dog with onion rings