Topeka, KS

Quick, what's the capital of Kansas?  Oh darn, you guessed it!

We left Paul and Sandy's early this morning after spending a great weekend with them.  Good conversation, good wine, and even got in a good (depends on who you listen to) game of golf at Saddle Brook Golf Course near their house.  Weather was a little (?) cool, but it gave Sandy and Vi a chance to try out Paul's new golf cart cover.  They stayed warm, while Paul and I froze our katookus (that's a technical term) off.

After traveling through the sandstone canyons of Utah and the mountains of Colorado, we spent today driving across the wide open prairie - all farmland and cattle country.  Crossed into Kansas and tried to click our red heels together to travel through the state faster, but didn't succeed.  Lost another hour when we crossed into the Central Time Zone.  We saw an interesting sign for the Cathedral of the Plains at Victoria, KS, so we got off I-70 to explore it.  Quite an impressive structure, build in the 1909-1911 time frame.  The area was settled by the Volga Germans - similar to the German heritage Vi has from the Russian Odessa area.  The stone for the cathedral was all quarried from the local area and the parishioners were charged with providing wagon loads of sandstone and the labor to build the cathedral.  It's a Capuchin-Franciscan church and is one of the eight wonders of Kansas (guess we'll have to look up and see what the other seven are).

Crossing the plains, we again encountered hundreds, if not thousands, of windmills out on the windswept plains.  Didn't have to worry about any navigational skills - get on I-70, stay on I-70, have breakfast, repeat!  Stopped around 4:30 here in Topeka.  Had dinner at a local brewery called the Blind Tiger.  According to their propaganda, they have won many prizes at the American Beer Festival.  We agreed that their beer was great!

Tomorrow we may just drive through Missouri over to Bellevue, IL and relive some old memories from Scott AFB.  Be a good opportunity to travel a shorter distance and perhaps play some golf at Scott.  Will let you know how that all turns out.