Today began with a drive to Augusta, where I photographed an old silo which has been painted by Diana Burress. Diana is a real estate agent who does a lot to increase her visibility in the community. She also plants a field of sunflowers for the public every summer.

I headed south toward Douglas, but along the way found myself passing Meadowlark Farm Orchard and Cidery. I purchased their cider at Old Town Farm & Art Market a coupe of years ago. I've been wanting to visit the farm, but they never responded to inquiries about when they are open. Since I was driving nearby, I drove over and saw a sign that they had opened at 10 AM.

After parking I walked over to the farm store, where I was warmly welcomed. I purchased some hard cider to enjoy later at home. The staff saw me taking photos and encouraged me to visit the cidery and to visit the apple orchard.

I had lunch at Betty's in Douglas, Kansas. Arriving a little after 11, they weren't very busy when I arrived, but were pretty full by the time I left. I ordered a Betty Burger, small French fries and onion straws. The single burger is a quarter pound and is $5.99. A large selections of extras are available at no charge and I had grilled onions, raw onions, mustard, onions and pickles. Cheese is extra, but only $.36 (that isn't a typo). The fries and onion straws were good as well, but wanting to retry another nearby restaurant and had only a few of each.

My second lunch was at Louis Rose Hill Cafe in Rose Hill, Kansas. I dined here last summer and was very happy with the Bob's Blaze Burger (sautéed onion & jalapenos, pepper jack cheese, and cayenne). I really enjoyed it last year and was considering getting the same burger this year, but made a small change to the Cajun Blaze (sautéed onions, Swiss cheese and cayenne). The restaurant was very busy, perhaps too busy, the burger was dry and not very tasty.

I had read many good comments about the chicken fried steak sandwich and tried that as well (no, I didn't have more than a few bites of any of these). It was dry almost crunchy. I wouldn't try it again.

The onion rings were the best part of the meal, but I enjoyed the onion straws at Betty's more.

Before leaving Rose Hill, I stopped by Jurassic Art, which has dozens of welded grassroots art creations by Phil Brinkley. I didn't notice as many new works of art this year, though it is harder to remember if I have seen a given piece before. Phil came out in the yard too talk with me and invited me inside to see the two wheel motorcycle which he turned into a three wheeled dragon in the past year.

He also showed me some small pieces which he is making to sell and some very cool trophies which he is making for a car show this fall.

Back in Wichita, I revisited Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the Catholic cathedral. I was last there in just 2021, but the remains of Father Emil J. Kapaun, US Medal of Honor recipient from the Korean War, had since been identified and interred in the church since then.

There is a small display devoted to Father Kapaun in the hall, with the interment in the east transept of the cathedral. The building is open tot he public during week days, but the doors are kept locked and you enter through the Parish Office at the rear of the building.

Before leaving Wichita, I drove over to the Wichita State University campus to revisit the Pizza Hut Museum, a museum in the building which housed the first ever Pizza Hut. The museum was unexplainably closed during hours it is scheduled to be open, the last time I was there and I wanted to make sure it is open. It was open and I made a brief tour. The museum isn't very large and it doesn't take long to see all of the exhibits, but I do find them interesting. The visitor registry shows several people a day visiting the museum.

I drove back north to Emporia to check on the extension work which has been done to the David Traylor Zoo. Unfortunately they had closed the zoo at 3 PM as part of Zoo keepers Week. Their Facebook page had given no notice. With it being a very hot day and no other stops planned in town, I stopped by the Emporia Library to read for a while and get out of the heat.

I drove north to Americus to have supper at Rolling Hills Bar and Grill. I've read a lot of good things about this restaurant. The entry which gets the most positive comments is the chicken fried steak, but I wasn't in the mood for that today and went with ribeye. It is was only $36, but I ordered it with a couple of upgrades, sautéed mushrooms and onion rings as one of the sides.

The upgrades were only $1 each and I thought the mushrooms were particularly tasty and a generous serving. The ribeye was cooked medium, exactly as ordered. It was tender and had good flavor. The French fries were also very good. I don't' know if I had ordered onion rings too many times before, but I didn't care much for these.

I had seen good things about the pies and tried the sour cream and raisin, which is one of my favorites. It was pretty good, but I think I will try a different pie the next time I go here.

Path to orchard

Betty's

Louis Rose Hill Cafe
 
 

The weeds have grown up around Sir Allen the Knight

Father Kapaun Tomb
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Rolling Hills Bar and Grill

Brobeck's has somewhat limited hours and is closed on Sundays and Mondays, but we learned tonight that this year they are going to be open from 11 AM - 4 PM on Sundays when the Kansas City Chiefs have a game.

The Farmstead began as a petting zoo in 1978, and was renamed in 1985 to honor Deanna Rose, an Overland Park police officer killed in the line of duty. It has grown greatly over the years, particularly in the past 15 years, but the most popular attraction appears to still be feeding the goats.

The old truck shown in the photo is new to the field since the last time we visited.

For lunch we revisited 7.8.5 Kitchen, LaVale Jackson's soul food restaurant on Gage Blvd. in Topeka. LaVale is from Topeka, but both of his parents are from Louisiana. He is still the only person working in the restaurant when we have been there. He takes orders, cooks, cleans, etc.

We were the first ones in the restaurant a little after 11 AM, but there was a steady stream of customers behind us, either dining in or making orders to go. LaVale tried to convince all of the carry out customers to take photos of the menu and call in their future orders in advance. 

He warned me that my chicken wings would take longer than many things and we did have a fairly long wait for our food, but we thought the food was worth it. 

The catfish was as good as we have had in the past. This time we went with the sandwich with just one filet, rather than entrees. It came on Texas toast with two sides for $10. The yams, green beans and greens were all good. The beans included a slice of sausage.

The wings were surprisingly reasonably priced with 4 complete wings and two sides for just $12. The wings were flavored nicely with a dry rub which included cayenne. The French fries appeared to be fresh cut and were very good, as was the red beans & rice.

For supper, we tried the newly relocated Burnt End BBQ in DeSoto, Kansas. They used to be in Overland Park, but switched to this location about two weeks ago. The restaurant was busy when we arrived and all table were full a few minutes later. They have a bar, inside seating and three outside tables with lawn games.

Our server had a great personality, but made multiple errors. I'm not going to hold that against a place which has been open 2 weeks. We would have ordered some fried cornbread bites, but while we were looking at the menus, a sample of them was brought to our table. The cornbread fan in our party says that they are good.

The menu is long and it will take several visits for us to feel we know their products. Tonight we had pork ribs, chicken wings and onion rings. The ribs were good, chicken wings had a very nice, sweet flavor and the onion rings were average. I want to try their onion straws in a future visit. The Burnt End Old Fashioned was a nice cocktail and priced at $12.

We were surprised that after such a short period of being open, the half smoked chicken listed on the menu has already been dropped.

7.8.5 Kitchen
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Burnt End BBQ

Presently the restaurant is open only Fridays and Saturdays and is carry out only. 

The restaurant has a small counter with all the food preparation out of site. There is also a display of rub, sauce & BBQ competition trophies and a nice large, comfortable place to wait for your food order.

Another jazz muscician came in to order food while we were waiting and Gerald came out to see him when our food was ready. He also made a point of meeting us, asking our names and being very welcoming. When he learned that we do not live nearby, he invited us to eat in the waiting area, but there is only one tall surface and it would mean holding things in out laps. He said that the city is supposed to be getting him some picnic tables to go in the lot next door. Next year he plans on having live jazz (other artists) in that space outside.

I had searched nearby parks online and the closest place I could find picnic tables was in the Red Bridge neighborhood about 9 miles away. As we drove there, I had the bag of food on my lap and the smell reminded my of Wyandot BBQ in Kansas City Kansas. 

We got a two meat, 2 side special, selecting beef brisket, pork ribs, baked beans and and French fries $25, with a sausage link added for $6. The meats were all served in the same styrofoam box and garnished with pickles, onions and a roasted, whole jalapeno pepper.

When I ordered the sausage, I learned there was a choice of beef, andoule, or jalapeno and chedder. When I asked the man at the counter which one he thought was the best choice, he said that people asked that question a lot, but he didn't know because he didn't eat any of them. I ordered the beef and it was my favorite of the the meats which we tried. Nicely seasoned and smoked.

The pork ribs were also quite good, had a nice flavor from a rub and did not need any sauce. The brisket was fine, but my least favorite of the three. The fries suffered a bit from the delay as we drove to the park to eat them, but were still fairly good. The beans had two types of beans, not much seasoning and neither of us cared that much for them.

The sauce was similar to many of the newer BBQ restaurants, thin and not very tomatoey. The only thing I used them for was to dip the fries, but the sauce pretty much all slid off the fries.

Gerald Dunn
 
 
 
 

brisket, ribs, sausage

The chicken, which is finished in a deep fryer, was pretty dry and I added some of the Boss Man's sauce. ''The smoked ketchup is still good on the fries.

I also stopped by the Rock Island Bridge, a former railroad bridge over the Kansas River in Kansas City, Kansas, near Hy-Vee Arena in KCMO. It is being repurposed as a performance and event space and is scheduled to open in the spring of 2025, but it appears that there is a lot remaining to be done and it doesn't look like work is being done at this time.

Rock Island Bridge

There are two fields again this year, One is to the east, where they have grown sunflowers many times. The second is close to their Sunflower General store. The sunflowers there appear to be several days slower, which is nice, as that will mean there will probably be nice fields to visit for a longer time. 

There were many people visiting the fields already.

At lunch we tried The Weather Room in downtown Topeka. In May of this year, People Magazine called this restaurant the most beautiful in Kansas. (Actually, the list said the 50 most beautiful in the country, but it listed one per state). It is attractive, but I will let you be the judge from the photo at the right. That is actually the most attractive of the three rooms and isn't actually used at lunch.

We had a grilled chicken sandwich with house made chips and Cyrus Smash Burger with house made French fries. Both meals were good. I preferred the fries to the chips.

The sandwich had marinated grilled chicken, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato,  and red pepper aioli on a brioche bun. The chicken was much bigger than the bun.

The burger had two thick beef patties. I wouldn't call it a smash burger, but that is good for me. I prefer a thick juicy burger.

The Weather Room