Grand Tour - Missouri, Kansas, Illinois - Day Four

We left Mom's at 9:30 am to drive the 200 miles to Maize, Kansas for a visit with my cousin Andy and his wife Lois.

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At Emporia, Kansas, we entered the Kansas Turnpike and drove through the Flint Hills, a unique and unexpected terrain.  We were on a tight schedule so we didn't stop at the Knute Rockne Service Area.  We will on the way back and will post more information about this area and about why the rest area is named for the great Notre Dame coach.  All my Domer friends out there know, but the rest of you may not.

Andy and Lois Sciolaro with Marilyn as we wait for the
Thunderbirds to fly.

We arrived at the Sciolaro's and were treated like visiting royalty...or at least like visiting Platt cousins!  They have a lovely home with a front and back yard that evidences the loving care of almost 40 years of residence.  I will take some photos of the back yard before we leave so I can share them with this blog.  After delicious lunch on their patio and plenty of visiting, we hustled over to a position adjacent to the air base to watch the Thunderbirds, the Air Force high performance team, perform as part of a weekend air show.  It was exhilarating as always.  It always reminds me of my days in San Diego and the annual performances of the Blue Angels at NAS Miramar.  It is difficult to take video with all the bright sunshine, but I was able to get a short clip of an F 18 flying over our position.

After all that excitement, we drove back to Andy's and enjoyed a tour of Wichita.  It is a very nice town and has taken care to create some interesting public spaces, especially along the two rivers that run through the city:  Arkansas (pronounced Are-Kansas in these parts) and the Little Arkansas (same pronunciation.)  We saw some areas that we would visit later that day.

After another delicious meal, we drove back to the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers for the viewing of the fire pots at the Keeper of the Plains. "The 44-foot Cor-Ten steel Keeper of the Plains sculpture stands elevated on a 30-foot rock promontory, surrounded by a plaza which describes the Plains Indian way of life. Pedestrians can access the area via two bow-and-arrow-inspired cable-stay bridges which span the Little and Big Arkansas rivers. Fire drums on boulders at the foot of the Keeper dramatically light the night. Plantings of sage, bottlebrush, medicinal herbs, prairie grasses, yuccas and cactus add to the sense of place and time. Renowned Native American artist Blackbear Bosin donated the Keeper of the Plains to the citizens of Wichita in 1974."

After enjoying several views of downtown Wichita from this vantage point, we returned home to two delicious desserts, marking the end of an enjoyable day in Kansas.

You can view more photos of our day in Maize and Wichita on my Picasa site:  https://picasaweb.google.com/111139278872202723241/VisitWithTheSciolarosOfMaizeKansas