Todd George Parkway

The long awaited link between Colburn and Woods Chapel extending Todd George Parkway finally opened. There is a link in the middle connecting to the new Strother Road exit on I-470, which was under construction most of Zach's first year while I took him to day care at Pat's house in Lakewood.

The road parallels I-470 through undeveloped farmland. It was mostly soybean fields browning in the fall weather the first times I drove it.

I had heard that this block of land belonged mostly to the Mormon church, who had owned it for a long time, almost stretching back to when they were driven out of Independence over 100 years ago. I don't know if that's true, but there's no buildings on it except for a single farm silo.

It ends at Woods Chapel at a big Lee's Summit water tower in a place that was undeveloped farmland just 3 or 4 years ago and is now the edge of development around Lakewood, with a big busy intersection.

It's new and unspoiled and it's so fun to have a little country drive in an area so close to town. I wish they would make it into a park.

Through the Looking Glass

I don't remember taking these pictures, so it's a complete mystery how they happened. One can only assume that a wormhole opened in the space-time continuum and I happened to be there to snap a picture of another place in the Multiverse. Then the space aliens or the Men in Black erased my memory of the event.

Cow Kisses

When we were at Uncle Dale's house in Medicine Lodge, the cars were parked outside of the fence around the yard. The cattle moved in at one point, and Tyce warned us that they would lick the cars.

When we looked out they were clustered around the car and they were indeed licking it all around. There was no nutritional value in the cars, so we can only assume that they either worship the cars as their god or they had a strong attraction to them. Later, we had red dirt encrusted cow kisses on the car.

Paul & Kim's Wedding

We went to Wichita for the wedding of my cousin Paul.

Even a complete moron can figure out that a 2 year old will not do well through the ceremony. Zach did not disappoint my expectations. He was quiet and well behaved right up to the point that the singer started singing right before the bride came in. I whisked him out and down a corridor right into a dead end with a bathroom. This was still open to the chapel, so Zach's noises were still audible, so we ducked into the bathroom until he calmed down and tried again. He lasted about 18 seconds. This time I took him straight out the back door and outside.

Talk about rewarding bad behavior. The line of golf carts outside the door proved to be an irresistible temptation. He even took a shot at posing as a golf bag.

After the ceremony, we moved to the outside deck adjacent to the reception room and caught the bride & groom coming in from the golf course where they had some additional pictures taken. Zach hooked up with his cousin Sam and they played partners in crime, running around the chairs and tables and out onto the golf course. Some tennis balls and golf balls were found and this proved to be a great deal of fun. I have no idea how the reception was going up to this point.

Later, we ended up watching Zach the dancing machine run around and entrance the female wedding guests. I'm sure he'll forget his natural lady-charming skills by the time he really needs them.

The next day we visited Uncle Paul and Aunt Sally's place which had a cool swimming pool as well as a fantastic place to lounge with your Uncle Steve in nice lawn chairs.

Pageant Parade

We went to the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty Pageant's Parade on Saturday morning. We parked down near the start of the parade route, so we got to see all the people and the fancy floats gathering.

They had a hometown boy that was in the Navy Seals do a helicopter drop to parachute into the Parade Route while Martina McBride sang the National Anthem. It was pretty impressive. Zach watched it from the Indian and Soldier Peace Treaty statue at the school.

Stockade

They have an old-timey authentic Stockade in Medicine Lodge that shows what life was like when the first settlers came down and were killed by Indians. The next group that came built a stockade and were ready to retreat into it, if necessary.

Now they use it as a museum. Jodi and Tyce were there to feed their goats, which they provided for the display.

Zach thought it was so cool that he was quite upset when we had to leave.

Home on the Range

In Medicine Lodge for the Peace Treaty, we stayed at Dale & Jodi's house (a true Ranch House, not just one in the suburbs that we call a ranch house because it's all on one floor).

The crew had to rush off to get started early in the morning, so we had some time to kick around in the yard before going in ourselves. Zach liked the wide open room to roam and the extensive playground in the yard.

One quick shot at the Twin Peaks and we headed into town.

Behind the Scenes at the Rodeo

The Peace Treaty Pagent is a huge affair with Old West Reenactments including covered wagons. The wagons were all parked up behind the bleachers at the Ranch Rodeo, and just before the sun went down, we got to go over and crawl around on the wagons, as well as seeing a huge flatbed trailer that was fun to run around on and enormous patches of Prickly Pear Cactus.

Ranch Rodeo

We went to the Medicine Lodge Peace Treaty this year. We left early this time so that we would get there when it was still light and before the Ranch Rodeo started.

Zach had his little farmer gear on and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the horses and cowboys, especially Uncle Dale.

Baby Box Turtle

I'd wondered about where Box Turtles come from for years. I'd seen eggs in the compost pile and at first assumed they were turtles until I broke some open accidentally with the rototiller and found that they were snake eggs. These eggs were not much smaller than chicken eggs, which was surprising. They were leathery and orange. I found a Box Turtle laying eggs one year, down by the horseshoe pits. I was quiet and careful not to disturb it, and then by sheer luck some time later came upon a baby box turtle in that same area, making it's way to the woods. It was tiny, but still, I could imagine it coming from an egg something between a marble and my thumb in size.

This year, I found a baby box turtle in my garage. I don't know how long it was there, but it was obviously trapped and in trouble as there was nothing to eat in the garage. Zach was at hand and got to oversee the relocation and release of the little traveller.

Heartland Garden

During our Powell Garden travels, we walked over to the Chapel and I was barely able to talk Zach into getting on the trolley bus. Once on, he did not want to get off, and our only choice was to go all the way around the site to the other side and get off at the Heartland Garden.

This was a very good destination this time around. He was fascinated by the water pump and only wanted to stand and pump water into the pail. He was not interested in moving on to see any new things and only the promise of getting wet in the little stream lured him away.

The next fascinating thing was the little chicken coop. Zach wanted to walk inside and climb out the little chicken door and down the little chicken ramp. Again, I think he would have been happy to do this all day.

There were lots of enormous yellow grasshoppers, as well as the enormous steel praying mantis at the back of the garden.

On the way out, the apple core sculpture was something to play in as we headed out the garden on the way home.

Unintended Consequences

Our trip to Powell Gardens was not exactly according to plan. You take your children to a botanical garden so they can see the plants and learn to appreciate what can be done through cultivation and propagation and what makes a pleasing environment through the design of planned plantings of well laid out beds of various species of flowers and fruits.

Then you find that your child is more interested in the moss on the pond or the wild dandelions growing in the grass. You never know what's going to be important.