The meal was great. All of the meats were particularly good and the bacon was awesome. It was much more food than we could eat.

On our way to the first stop of the day, we drove though the small community of Dennis, where we found several interesting old buildings and a horse in harness, tethered next to a carriage.

Next we drove by a old farmhouse near Independence, Kansas which is called Belmont Castle. When I posted a 3 year old photo of it last year, some people had complained that the yard is better kept now and it is.

St. Andrews Catholic Church caught my eye while we were driving though Independence, and we stopped to take some photos. St. Andrews was built from sandstone in 1881-1885. Its most striking feature is 154' tall steeple, which the parish website says is the highest point in town. The steeple houses a 1,640 pound bell which was purchased from McShane Bell Foundry Co. in Baltimore, Maryland on September 30, 1908. Adoration was being observed in the sanctuary, so I only took a photo of it from the doorway. We found some lovely stain glass windows in the stairway at the entrance of the church.

Arriving at Riverside Park (started in 1914), we noticed a sign saying "scenic drive," and drove the narrow one way road through the wooded area at the east and north ends of the park. We circled around to the wall outside Schultz Stadium , near the entrance of Ralph Mitchell Zoo, where Chase Hunter painted several murals last year. I particularly like the one devoted to Miss Able, the rhesus monkey from the zoo which was one of the the first two animals to be launched in space and (briefly) return alive.

Also in the park, we photographed the Santa Fe (AT&SF) No. 1050 locomotive, carousel, mini train, miniature golf and other attractions.

We drove through Independence photographing buildings such as the Union Implement and Hardware Building, First Presbyterian Church, and Magnolia Blossom Inn B&B, before stopping at the Kansas Celebrity Hall of Fame on the West Campus of Independence Community College. The exhibits talk about notable Kansans, from southeast Kansas, including well known ones like Bill Curtis and William Inge, as well as less well known ones like musician Rodney Lay.

The Hall of Fame is curated by the Independence Historical Museum & Art Center.

We drove to Neodesha, Kansas to have lunch at Billy's Bar & Grill. We had Horse Fritters and a French Dip Basket. The fritter was a cheese blend stuffed and deep fried tortilla, served salsa. The French dip was thinly sliced ribeye topped with Swiss cheese, on a toasted hoagie bun, with au jus for dipping. They were both good and I really liked the house fries.

Other Neodesha places visited included Blessed Blossoms flower & coffee shop (where we bought some great baked goods), Old City Jail Guesthouse and the Little Drummer Boy Grave  and GAR monument in Neodesha City Cemetery. We had a little trouble locating this cemetery, because Google and Google Maps has no idea it exists. I've sent an update to Google, so the next person looking for it may have an easier time.

Our next stop was the tiny community of New Albany, where we visited the cool "Covered Rail Bridge." I put that in quotation marks, because it isn't covered. the 1905 bridge is abandoned, but is rather striking because it crosses the Fall River at an angle above a low water bridge on 1450 Road. We also photographed the New Albany City Hall and former State Bank.

We drove back to Fredonia, making a stop at the Wilson County Historical Museum, checking on the exhibit about the the historic bakery on the west side of the square, which had many names, Gaede's, Gaede-Fulghum, Fulghum-Wilson, and Wilson-Herndon.

Friends joined us in Thayer, Kansas to have supper at Big Ed's Steakhouse. It had been many years since we last dined at the restaurant which is over 30 years old. Big Ed's doesn't take reservations, so we made a point of being there by 5:30 to get a table, but there were still a few empty tables when we finished dinner.

Meals include a trip to the salad bar and a generous potato side. Getting the steak cooked as ordered was spotty. The small ribeye ordered medium rare came correct, but the 6 ounce fillet and porterhouse were cooked much less than had been ordered.

We checked into our hotel in Chanute to freshen up, then went on to Humboldt, where a pop up Big Kansas Road Trip would be held on Saturday. In advance of the event, there was a Music Crawl in downtown Humboldt this evening. We made it to the last two stops on the crawl and heard Sabra Stockebrand perform at Sticks Golf and Wayne Gottstine at The Hitching Post. Sticks isn't really set up for hosting something like this and it was difficult getting seating. We left a little before the music was finished there and managed to secure seats at the bar in The Hitching Post.

We enjoyed talking with other people who were in town to participate in the pop up event.

St. Andrews Catholic Church

Miss Able mural
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Covered Rail Bridge
 
 
 
 
 

Big Ed's Steakhouse

After parking on the town square, we walked a block to the Revival Music Hall for a Behind the Scenes tour led by Damaris Kunkler. A former Presbyterian church is being turned into a performance space. The work has been going on for several years, but it finally nearing the end. There will be an event here later in the year and it should be fully ready in 2027.

Back at the town square, it was time to meet other Kansas Explorers and travel promoters at the BKRT Kickoff. It was nice watching the next generation of Kansas Sampler Foundation leadership manage the meeting. Among other things, we learned that the next pop up event will be Saturday, October 3rd in Concordia, Kansas. They are still feeling out this new format and are saying that they will be dropping to two of them each year. 

One of the events will continue to be on the first Saturday in May and the location will be announced at the fall event.

As usual, there was a Kansas travel trivia contest. We won a BKRT jar opener. Over many years, we have been blessed to win several prizes, including a BKRT car flag which waved over our vehicle during the event. Following the meeting, there was a chance to catch up with friends. 

We shopped at Wishing Well Play Co. on the square. The toy store has a nice interactive play area at the back, though no one was using it.

On a very strong recommendation from a dear friend, we changed our lunch plans and went to Union Works Brewing CO. The large restaurant and microbrewery is in the former Wonder Bread factory and opened in June 2024. They would normally have been closed until supper time on Saturday, ubt opened for the BKRT event. They were busy, so I think it paid off for them.

We had a bacon cheese burger, smoked wings with Buffalo sauce and fries. All were quite good. (Thanks WenDee!)

After hurring back to the square, at 12:30 we were the first people waiting in line for the Monarch Cement Plant tour scheduled for 1PM. At the kickoff, they said that there would be just 20 places on the van for tours which would take place at 1, 1:30 & 2. The van pulled up at 12:40. There were about 16 spots in the van and there were already more people than that waiting. They loaded right away and announced that they would make a couple extra trips. 

I think they ended up making many extra trips. When we left town after 3 PM, there were still 15-20 people in line and they had kept loading and going about every 20 minutes. 

The van was driven by Mitch King, a chemist who is the quality manager for the plant. The tour went by the 62 acre solar array which provides enough electricity to run the plant during the day. They have to burn coal at night. The tour remained in the van all the way and Mitch showed us the area where the ingredients are mixed, the large pre-heating tower and the long rotating kiln. 

Following the tour, we revisited the Humboldt Historical Museum. This is one of the museums where the displays tell you about the people who donated artifacts, rather than about what they are or their context. But there are two exceptions, the bed where Walter "Big Train" Johnson was born and Annex 5 which has an amazing collection of folk art by Lewis Howland.

We stopped to buy groceries at "Our Market." We would have bought more, but they were out of their house made beef sticks.

Returning to the square one more time, we went to Halsey's Frozen Custard where we had an Epic Oreo Concrete (oreo, hot caramel, hot fudge & vanilla custard) and a Kook Barrel (triple chocolate cookie, hot fudge and vanilla custard). A barrel is a concrete where they make a hole and pour the sauce into the center rather than mixing in. I though the concrete had a perfect combination of flavor with a nice crunch from the Oreo.

The final stop in town was around the square at Neosho Valley Woodworks, which we first visited and met Pat Haire in 2023. This is the most amazing craft shop we have found in Kansas. It is a master artist's studio, furniture & millwork shop, and living museum. The woodworks is filled with vintage machinery from the late 1800s. These aren't what you would normally think of as power tools, but powered by line shafts, with leather belts running between the equipment and various pulleys. Today it was filled with people who were mesmerized by what they were seeing and learning about.

On the way home, we had an early supper at K&M BBQ in Spring Hill, Kansas. K&M has been in its large current building since 2007, but has been in operation for over 35 years. We had a half chicken with onion rings & fries, and a 
Killer Combo sandwich with beef, pork & sausage on a bun separated by two slices of bread. 

The meats were all good, though I didn't care for the bread or the bun. The onion rings were fine. The fries were under cooked and I think they had been bagged well before we arrived at the restaurant. I ate two and left the rest of the order untouched.

BKRT Kickoff
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Union Works Brewing CO

Monarch Cement Plant kiln running left to right
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Epic Oreo Concrete & Kook Barrel
 

Pat Haire

But this restaurant continues to get high ratings, so we tried them again. I'm happy to say that the experience was better today. We had wings and a fried chicken blt. All were good, with the wings and pub fries standing out. 

Knub's Pub bakes the wings, rather than frying and warns that they take 20 minutes. I ordered mine "Cory spice" which has n additional extra spicy rub and a little more baking, with Buffalo sauce. The sauce was very good and frying is not missed. The blue cheese dressing for dipping is a little watery and would not cling to the chicken.

The fries are fresh cut and dusted with unnamed seasoning. It will not take 5 years for us to return again.

Fried chicken BLT & baked wings

This was our first visit to Mediterranean Taste, which opened in 2021 and has built up very strong ratings. There are just 8 tables, so we went early, but there were only two tables occupied and we soon had the restaurant to ourselves. The staff were very nice.

We went with a chicken kabob wrap and Beef & Lamb Gyro wrapped in tortilla bread. The chicken was OK, but I thought the gyro was very good.

Mediterranean Taste has a large selection of desserts made in house, including on this day, 11 varieties of gelato. After a friendly debate, we decided on a walnut baklava (they had three baklava varieties). I really liked it. It wasn't as sticky sweet as much of the baklava which I have had.

Gyro & wrap