Tonight we had Coconut Shrimp (Hand breaded fried shrimp, sweet Thai chili sauce), Candied Pork Chop (Marinated pork chop, bacon, brown sugar, Parmesan cheese; served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes) and what turned out to be an enormous side of French fries.

Although the coating was falling of the pork chop, it was my favorite part of the meal, tender with a nice flavor.

Across Kansas Avenue, I photographed the life sized statue of Topeka's Harry W. Colmery who authored The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, known as the G. I. Bill. Colmery's statue is flanked by two relief statues. Colmery is saluting a row of veterans in uniform, while the relief behind him has veterans in work apparel for the jobs they achieved after their education which were funded by the G. I. Bill. It can be found on the sidewalk in front of 919 S. Kansas Avenue.

Harry W. Colmery Statue

Continuing west, I took a few photos from the car, but we drove through to Colby, Kansas, to have lunch at J & B Meat Market. We had a bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, sour cream potato wedges and ribeye sandwich. The steak sandwich had great flavor, but I wish I had known that you have to request they grill the onion on it, which would have made it even better.

In Colby we photographed the famous Wheat Jesus billboard on I-70, Colby Visitor's Center made of local limestone surrounding a grain bin, and the Kansas State University Western Kansas Research-Extension Center. The research center isn't really an attraction and doesn't bill itself as one, but several other places had promoted it as one.

At Fike Park we found four very nice chain saw sculptures, a BSA Statue of Liberty replica and a mural covered rest room.

After a short drive east to Rexford, Kansas, we were met at the Judy McCarty Dairy Learning Center by Jessica BugBee and Shelly Macumber. They are the Program & Outreach Coordinator and Communications Coordinator for McCarty Family Farms, LLC.

McCarty Family Farms is a 4th generation dairy farm headquartered in Rexford, with additional facilities in Beaver City, Nebraska and Bird City & Scott City, Kansas. There are 10,000 Hereford cows at this location.

The Judy McCarty was the mother of the four brothers who head the farms today and was a former school teacher who led tours of the facility for many years. The Learning Center opened in June, 2024 and there is no admission charge nor request for donations.

As you arrive at the Learning Center, there is a sign saying "Come See the Cows." The Learning Center has galleries with interactive educational displays, a gift shop, and a glass wall overlooking a 120 stall milking carousel. It is fascinating watching the cows enter the room, board the carousel, and take an 8 minute ride while being milked. When the carousel takes them back around, they back out and walk back to their barn. The carousel operates 22 hours a day and each cow is milked three times a day.

The Learning Center is open Tuesday - Saturday and visitors are welcome to drop in. Free tours are offered to groups of 12 or more by appointment. Sometimes it is possible to be combined with other smaller groups to do a tour, plus there is an annual open house when tours are offered. We were treated to a tour to take photos for this website.

The tour is in a small, modern bus. We were surprised to learn that the entire tour is done in the bus, which drives through 4 tunnel ventilated freestall barns housing 5,000 cows. "Freestall" barns have individual stalls for rest and sleep. The cows select their own stall and move freely between the stalls, eating areas, and milking parlors. There are even cool brushes where cows can get a back rub. The fans cooling the barns are maintained at a speed that keeps away flies. Everything is done to keep the cows calm, contented, healthy and productive.

I mentioned there are 10,000 cows. The enormous dairy has a second set of four enormous barns and another carousel.

The tour also goes through the area where feed is carefully mixed, the sand used for bedding is reclaimed, water is reclaimed, and enough methane is captured to power 12,000 homes. The manure is used as fertilizer at neighboring farms.

The milk produced at this facility and McCarty's three other dairies is condensed at McCarty's own Condensing Plant across the highway. The condensed milk all goes by truck to the Danone plant in Fort Worth, Texas where it becomes Danon and other yogurt products. 

A tour concludes back at the Learning Center with a chance to try one of the many products Danon produces from McCarty milk. We had a Chobani 20g Protein Peach Yogurt Drink and YoCrunch Vanilla Low Fat Yogurt with Mini M&Ms.

Returning to Colby, we photographed the beautiful mural which was completed earlier this year on three grain bins near downtown by Lissa Sexton and Raya Wagoner.

For supper, we went to L&T Family Restaurant in Goodland, Kansas.  We had been told to go here for fried chicken by Roxie on the Road.

The fried chicken was extremely good and an incredible bargain. Two piece mixed (breast & leg) with a great biscuit and two sides for $8.85. We like this chicken more than many places famous for their chicken. The chicken wings, potato wedges and mashed potatoes & gravy were nothing special.

After diner, we took photos of murals, Mary Seaman Ennis House, Rod Cooper's restored White Eagle Station and Gulick-Cooper House. Rod Cooper's newest project, a three story home which was moved to Goodland from St. Francis, Kansas, about 30 miles away. 

The final stop was Sweet Mom's Treats & Eats, an ice cream parlor which opened in an historic building in June. They don't make their own ice cream, but the scoop of caramel praline I had had was wonderful. They also have rolled ice cream, dirty soda and specialty candies. As the weather gets colder, there will be more food, including chili.

We are spending the night in Colby.

Ribeye Sandwich & Bacon Cheeseburger
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Milking Carousel
 
 
 
 

McCarty Family Farms, LLC
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Grain Bin Mural
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sweet Mom's Treats & Eats

I won a small Kansas Explorers bag during the trivia contest.

The half hour event ended with the announcement that the first BKRT PopUp event of 2026 will be May 2 in Humboldt, Kansas.

After visiting a couple of Hoxie attractions, we drove to PSI to join a tour going to Foote Cattle Company's Hoxie Feedyard, which feeds over 55,000 cattle. For me the most interesting of the operation was the preparation of feed, which began with turning corn into corn flakes, than mixing them with silage and other nutrients using special front end loaders which have scales on the buckets.

It was very windy, and blowing dust lowered the quality of my photos.

For lunch, we drove to Midway Cafe in Selden, Kansas. The little restaurant was busy and food came out slowly. The server brought us a couple of chocolate chip cookies and apologized for the delay.

We had a fish basket and chicken fried steak.

Back in Hoxie, we toured the former County Jail. It had operated nearly 100 years before closing 3 years ago. The county's prisoners are housed in a different county now. It was followed by a visit to the 7 Rhodes Beef Co. and the Sheridan County Amusement Company. The Home Based Business Market had sounded interesting, but it closed at 2 PM, before we could go there. Other people were also disappointed it closed so early.

The next community we visited was Quinter, where we found a cute old railroad depot with adjacent garden, some interesting murals and an old style water tower with a windmill for the letter "I" in Quinter on the side.

In Ellis, Kansas we had a 4 PM appointment to get new photos of the BK&E miniature train ride at the Ellis Railroad Museum. The General Motors Aero Streamliner has been greatly changed since I last photographed it and Brian LeFebvre met us there. It had been even longer since I had last been inside the museum, so I took new photos in it as well.

Before leaving town, we photographed the new mural on the Ellis Public Works building. We also photographed several nice Halloween displays.

Driving to Hays, I was able to replace some photos which I have lost, of the original "Rome" town site that preceded Hays and of the adjacent railroad bridge which replaced an original trestle bridge where lynch mobs hanged at least four persons around 1870 in two incidents. The the historic marker is now gone.

Supper was at Paisley Pear Bar, Bistro and Market in downtown Hays. The menu is somewhat limited and we had a turkey, apple, brie sandwich, a pear club sandwich & lobster bisque. I had read good things about the cheesecake here, but after learning that the cheesecake is not prepared in-house and the pumpkin bars are, we shared one of them.

The rest room was unusual, in that you have to go through the kitchen to get to it. They said that with the old building's plumbing, that was where it had to be.

The night was spent at the Holiday Inn Express.

Hoxie Feedyard
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Quinter depot & water tower

General Motors Aero Streamliner

Getting back to Hays, we headed east of Old US40 instead of I-70.

In Walker, Kansas, we stopped to see if St. Ann Catholic Church was unlocked, but no luck, so I still just have outside photos. Across the street, we found a home with the yard filled with junk lawn mowers. Driving down the alley to take photos, we found that they continued into 2 more yards.

In Gorham, Kansas, we photographed to more Paper Moon locations, plus St. Mary's Catholic Church.

In Russell, Kansas we found a number of interesting old buildings and the old sign which is all that remains of the Sky Vu Drive In, which closed about 40 years ago.

Driving through town, we found a nice Halloween Display. When I stopped to photograph it. the owner (who was mowing in the back) came up to set up one of the figures which had blown over the night before, so it would be in the photo.

We had lunch at Waudby's Sports Bar & Grill in downtown Russell. It is in a neat historic building, which give it, its name. We had a Chicken Ranch sandwich (Think chicken Philly) and a grilled cheeseburger. The food was good, if not outstanding and the prices were quite reasonable. I would give them another try.

Returning to I-70, we headed east straight to Abilene, where we went to Dickinson County Museum for its Farm Toy Museum, Heritage Hall & Mural Open House.

There was a big turn out for the event which included their new Farm Toy Museum and brand new mural. This was one of the rare times when the 1901 C. W. Parker Carousel and 1904 Wurlitzer Band Organ were operated by the original steam engine.

The final attraction visited today was the OZ Museum in Wamego, Kansas which closed in January to March this year for renovations. Although they did some worthwhile changes like adding LED lights and ADA accessibility, the exhibits still look much like they did when I first visited the museum in 2008. There is a little about the Wicked musical near the end now, but I would like to see more about Wicked.

For supper, we revisited Sheridan's Frozen Custard in Topeka, Kansas. Although most of their buisness is walk up or drive through, there is a small dinning room at one side and we had a chicken sandwich, chili dog and hand cut fries. Service was very friendly and helpful. This was actually my favorite food of the trip.

Sky Vu Drive In
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Farm Toy Museum
 

OZ Museum

I tried to order a turkey leg and yams, but the yams weren't ready yet at 1:30 PM. The restaurant is only open 1 - 8 PM Wednesday to Friday and Noon to 8 PM on Saturday & Sunday.

So I went with a leg and fries. $18 + $5. They took about 10 minutes to come out and I took them to a nearby park. The generous serving of crinkle cut fries were good. The very large leg was better. I particularly liked the flavor of the skin. My only issue is that while they supplied many packages of ketchup (which I didn't use) there was just one small container of BBQ sauce. Once I got past the skin, I wanted the sauce to compliment the mild smoky flavor.

For many people the leg would be big enough for two.

After photographing the now empty Quindaro Bank and still active Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church (1924), I drove to an ice cream parlor named Hey Sugar on Strawberry Hill. The lady behind the counter was quick to offer tastes of those ice creams which interested me and after sampling 3 of them I went with a scoop of Peanut Caramel Candy Bar.

The ice cream comes from One More Scoop Kansas City on Vivion Road in Kansas City, Missouri.

This evening I photographed a neat glowing Halloween Display at at home in Lenexa which had a great Patrcik Mahomes and Kansas City Chiefs display last year.
 
 

Turkey Leg

Hey Sugar on Strawberry Hill

Bryant's was already sold out of ribs, chicken, brisket & burnt ends and I ordered the last serving of three large chicken wings ($13.50 including a generous order of fresh cut fries). We also had baby back ribs ($13.50 without a side) and we decided that we like them even more than the spare ribs.