Buford M. Watson, Hr. Park, United States Travel Journals & Blogs

Mike Jones Exploring National Parks 2016
- Jul 17, 2016, 6:18pm · ☀️ 33 °C Altitude: 262 m
  United States Kansas Douglas County Lawrence Kansas River 38.98149, -95.2601338°58’53” N 95°15’36” W
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
Day1
Lawrence Kansas - near Eudora Kansas
July 17, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
Started first leg of our trip at zero-dark-thirty on Sunday morning from Columbus Ohio to a quaint little town that I have always considered as my second Hometown. This is Eudora Kansas. It was here in Eudora where I spent some of the most- cherished years of my childhood. Though the town has grown considerably and it has obviously matured after more than a half of a century ... it still felt like home. We only had time to stop for a photo opportunity of the old family homestead but I ended up chatting with the new owners of that house that I always considered to be a mansion. Our neighbor house actually was and is a mansion now known as the Pilla House. More wonderful memories just gazing upon that house and recalling dear Mrs. Pilla. I then took a quick stop at my dear ole Holy Family Church. Though the church building has been closed for many years to be replaced by two generations of subsequent church buildings ...the memories rushed upon me as I stood at its front door. The stories that I could tell about my fantastic time spent at this parish church and its school but the focus of this trip is a family reunion in Wyoming and stopping along the way to visit a few National Parks and Monuments. I regret not having the time or energy to actually visit old friends and classmates but we had to get to nearby Lawrence Kansas (home of KU - the Jayhawks) to get some much needed rest and nourishment before beginning the next important leg of the trip. Fantastic first day. Good number of miles traveled and good gasoline mileage which helps even though we have had good gasoline prices so far. These prices are much better than they have been in the recent pasy.Let's hope that it stays that way.Read more
0 likes
Traveler Go West Young Geezers
- Sep 13, 2021, 11:32am · ☀️ 81 °F Altitude: 876 ft
  United States Kansas Douglas County Lawrence Plymouth Congregational Church United Church of Christ 38.967285, -95.23687738°58’2” N 95°14’13” W
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
Day7
Lunch at the bakery
September 13, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F
We decided to bury our sorrows in food from the aforementioned Wheatfields Bakery. Gordon had a mushroom spinach quiche with an everything salad…and I mean everything but the kitchen sink. I had a turkey cranberry relish sandwich which was every bit as huge as it looks in the photo. I asked for a box to take what I didn’t eat and then had to give it back when I devoured the last crumb. We also picked up a loaf of multi-grain artisan bread, beef and pepper empanadas for dinner, and a bran muffin and croissant for the road tomorrow.

Credit cards? What credit cards? I’m focusing on trying to walk in a dignified fashion having packed away all that goodness.Read more
Mark Foard
How come you guys don’t weigh 300lbs? Has the stress of the credit cards burnt off the extra calories?
9/13/21Reply
Traveler
May be. Gordon is determined not to gain weight this trip so he brought the bathroom scales. Every day he faithfully weighs himself. I weighed myself about 3 days into the trip and it showed I was 20 pounds lighter than when I left. I’ve seen no need to go through the exercise again. I figure I’m good. 😇
9/13/21Reply
Mark Foard
👍🏻
9/13/21Reply
6 more comments
2 likes
Traveler Go West Young Geezers
- Sep 11, 2021, 11:38am · ☀️ 81 °F Altitude: 892 ft
  United States Kansas Douglas County Lawrence Heartland Community Church 38.972244, -95.23640438°58’20” N 95°14’11” W
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
Day5
Lunch at the Black Stag Brewery
September 11, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F
It is only 11 am, a bit early for a flight of beer to sample, but we are from Florida where it is noon. I may use this excuse for the entire trip. We had 1865 Black Stag dark lager, 7 Mile unfiltered IPA, 1988 Helles Frozen Over German style lager, and the Mad King Oktoberfest Marzen style beer.

Heather had a Not Your Grannies Turkey Sandwich with apples and candied jalapeños (yikes!) Gordon had a club sandwich. Their smoked turkey looked, tasted and smelled like they had smoked it in their kitchen from a real honest-to-goodness turkey!Read more
Bonnie Benedict
Candied jalapeños an be found around here. Usually referred to as Cowboy Candy. I like them. A bit of sweet, a bit of heat.
9/11/21Reply
Traveler
We’ll we might need s!
9/11/21Reply
Traveler
Some.
9/11/21Reply
Karen Anderson
The "Not Your Rannies Sandwich" Yes please!! So did you call it day after that meal? Drooling over here!
9/11/21Reply
2 likes
Traveler Southwest
- Jun 28, 2015, 11:59pm · 🌙 21 °C Altitude: 282 m
  United States Kansas Douglas County Lawrence University of Kansas - Lawrence Campus Anschutz Sports Pavilion 38.954344, -95.25579638°57’16” N 95°15’21” W
- Show trip
- Add to bucket listRemove from bucket list
- Share
Day4
University of Kansas
June 28, 2015 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
85 degrees and sunny (all day)\
514 miles
7 hours 18 minutes
1000 smashed bugs on the windshield
1 mass
150 fruit flies that found, grew or emerged from the fruit we left in the van overnight
1 University
1 Capital
3 amazingly well behaved kids who actually enjoy road tripping (who wouldn't want to Van-Go)

Today, before we left the Lou, (and after we found a car full of fruit flies) we went to mass at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. It is an enormously beautiful cathedral. It may have been the longest mass we've ever been to. Paul looked at Elizabeth and said, " We may have to skip Denver because this mass is so long." It was nice though. I like taking them to different churches so they are comfortable going wherever they are if they decide they want to go to church.

We hit the road again for a long haul today. We wanted to knock out a bunch of hours off from St. Louis to Denver via Kansas City. We passed through Kansas City and headed for the University of Kansas on recommendation from our friends. A good one, too. What a beautiful campus and area. They told us to start at the Oread Hotel. We stuck around there for a late linner (lunch/dinner). We ate at the Bird Dog in the hotel. We ventured up to the rooftop as recommended by the hotel staff. Pretty awesome view of everything including the campus. We like to see campuses if we can, not so the kids can get a feel for different ones around the country.

As we drove into a beautiful sunset that painted the Kansas sky pink with temperatures in the 80s, I get a text from my sister-in-law saying, "Seriously, you are leaving a disaster in your wake." with a radar pic from the national weather service that says, "Missouri: tornado warning just northwest of St. Louis!!! Please take cover now if inside red line." What?! We saw nothing. Not a drop of rain. Not an ominous cloud. I am not sure how it missed us since we should have been driving into it. Very strange but we are happy we missed it.

We arrived in Hays around 10 pm. We are staying at a Fairfield Inn. It is a nice Marriott for a lower end variety. Though, we needed a rollaway bed for one of the kids and it was more like a rollaway box spring. My kids aren't picky but Matthew couldn't sleep on it. Paul couldn't even kneel on it for that matter. He said it is worse than crawling through the tubes at the City Museum. He'd be better off on the floor. Ewww . No, we didn't do that. All three kids slept sideways on the one bed. We'll see how they do considering Ben and Elizabeth shared last night and Ben, in a dream, nearly pushed her off.

We will get up early to drive to Denver tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Can't wait. Though we are only there for one night and one night in Colorado Springs. I'll take it.

See you tomorrow. Good night.Read more
0 likes