Blogs from Kansas, United States, North America - page 19

We got a fairly early start from Shamrock yesterday morning. In short order, we were in Oklahoma. We really went through Oklahoma fast as we obviously were just passing through the panhandle. We then arrived in Kansas. Wow, I've never seen so many "amber waves of grain"! We took a break in Garden City, KS & changed drivers. With Kay behind the wheel, we left town. At the edge of town, we passed a building with a great sign, "Stay Slim, Eat Beef." I asked Kay to turn the car around so I could take a picture. She said no way was she going to waste time so that I could take a picture of such a bogus sign. And by the way she asked, how's that eating beef & staying slim working out for you? ... read more

June 9, 2010: We have thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the western United States. Seeing all that we have has been a blessing to us as a family. We have been reminded once again of how lucky we are to live in this great and beautiful country! Spending this time together has created so many great memories; we hope that Isaac and Grace will remember parts of this trip for a lifetime. Now it's time for us to make our way home. We're grateful for safe travels and for friends and family to return home to at the end of this road trip. Though we'd love to hit the lottery or to be independently wealthy so we could just keep going, we're grateful to have jobs to return to so we can set sail again to ... read more

Sunday May 23rd This morning we visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene. We view a film about his life and his presidential years and walk around the beautiful grounds which contain Ike’s boyhood home. We then head south to historic Council Grove where many wagon trains stocked up on supplies for the trek west along the Santa Fe Trail. Many stately homes and public buildings. We find a great campsite at Lake Council Grove just outside town. We are finding that “camping” apparently means “RVing” nowadays, and frequently campgrounds do not have spaces for tents, or if they do, the campsites are “primitive”, ie. no running water or restrooms, just a picnic table, fire ring and an occasional “vault” (pit) toilet (definitely not to my standard). This campsite was a pleasant surprise, with a nice ... read more

finished packing, getting ready for the 5 hr drive to the airport. Will arrive in BKK at 11.20 am on Friday. Hope my dear son Joe is at the airport to pick me up. If not, oh well, just a little hassle with the taxi drivers on my way anyway. Spend the weekend with family, then Dan's and I are heading for Erawan Falls and park. Have a house rented on the river and will explore the area and relax for a few days. Hope to get my internal clock on Thai time. Then back to BKK and off to Lao with Joe and Jess, spend a few days exploring, tubing and who knows what with Joe! Back to BKK and off to Koh Chang. Then it will be beach time! Before I know it, Song ... read more

As many of you know, I just spent the last week volunteering at a hospital in Port-au-Prince (PAP), Haiti. Actually, I was in Petionville which is basically just a suburb of PAP. Just now I found the website for the hospital (http://www.haitihosp.org/lHopital_de_la_Communaute_Haitienne/Home.html) and became a fan on Facebook. Feel free to check both out if you want. As for my experience, I am still digesting most of what I saw, smelled, heard, and felt. The destruction in Petionville was relatively scarce compared with the utter devastation in downtown PAP. When we drove through downtown last Saturday we passed by blocks and blocks of crumbled, flattened, and teetering buildings. There were vast stretches where literally every building was affected and nobody was inside. After seeing that, I began to understand why even our ICU patients moved their ... read more