Thursday, 5-22-97

Our day started earlier than normal. We were up and around by 8AM. We wanted to be over at Lois and George’s place by 9AM. Steven stayed home from school today to travel with us. We had a McDonald’s breakfast, topped off the gas tank of the motorhome and headed over to pick up George and Lois. We took them to Lois’ hometown of Hazelton, Kansas to put flowers on the graves of Lois’ relatives. The trip there was pleasant with occasional light rain showers.

During our travels, I’ve noticed that the miles seem to be longer in Kansas than in California. When I saw a sign, telling me how far it is to the next town, it seemed to take longer than usual to get there. Even when the next exit was only 3/4 mile ahead, it seemed more than a mile to the exit. All this is subjective of course, but it seemed to be the case most of the time.

In the Hazelton downtown area, nearly all the businesses boarded are up and the area looks like a ghost town. The only places open for business in town are the U.S. Post Office and a bank. I guess the residents of Hazelton have to go to the nearby town of Kiowa for most of their needs. Even the school is closed. The playground is planted in wheat and part of the school building has been turned into a private residence. We proceeded to the Rose Hill Cemetery just outside of town and found the family plot.

Kay and Lois at family gravesites

Lois put on her gardening hat and gloves. I pulled the shovel, Lois brought with us, out of a motorhome storage compartment and she commenced to dig a hole next to the headstone on her mother's grave. Lois' mother really liked roses, so Lois planted a small rose bush next to the grave marker. Lois also put some flowers next to the headstones of her brother's grave and her sister's grave. This is a Memorial Day tradition for Lois.

After we left the cemetery, I stopped along the road to take a picture of a wheat field with the town of Hazelton in the background. While there, Kay’s cousin Dean drove up and stopped for a short visit. He has been a wheat farmer for many years and really knows wheat. He showed me more about wheat than I've known before. I was shown what happens when a head of wheat freezes and how a properly filled out head of wheat should look. It was nice to see Dean and visit for a while.

Lois and Dean

When we finished our visit, we went back through Hazelton and headed for Kiowa. We wanted to take Lois to a small museum in Kiowa. It was disappointing to find the museum was closed. It was close to lunch time, so we went to the "Dairy Bar" for our noonday meal.

We chose this place because it is where Dean’s wife, Marilyn works. Marilyn was surprised to see us. She took our order and cooked it for us. I don't see fast food put together like that very often these days. I watched as fresh tomatoes where sliced and fresh lettuce leaves were pulled from the head to be placed on our sandwiches. I ordered one of my favorite foods on the menu, deep fried okra. The Kiowa Dairy Bar is the only place I've seen this on the menu.

We ate our meal in the motorhome. It was raining outside which made a pleasant sound on the roof. While we were eating, Marilyn came out to the motorhome for a short visit and tour. After our meal, we headed back to Wichita.

We had a pleasant drive through the country on our way home. I saw a barn that was meant to be around for a long time. The barn had the conventional shape of a barn and it was painted white, but it was made of concrete blocks with a steel roof. The barn looked like it was 60 or 70 years old.

The countryside is very green because of all the rain that has fallen lately. Of course the wheat is still green. It will be next month before the wheat is ready to be harvested. Steven played solitaire on the notebook computer and Lois worked on crossword puzzles as we drove back to town. After dropping Lois and George off at their house, we arrived back at Jim and Donna's place in the mid afternoon.

I checked out the weather on the Weather Channel and watched a bit of TV. Donna’s sister Debbie and her kids came over for a while. We visited with her and gave some of her children a tour of our motorhome. The kids really liked the motorhome and I thought one was going to try to stay with us. After everybody left, I looked in on the local news on TV and then off to bed. It has been a full day.