Saying Our Goodbyes To A Prairie Town

Wednesday
October 28, 2009

We woke up and got the coffee brewing. We didn’t have anything planned since it was raining and cold. After we finished our late morning coffee we both jumped into the shower and got cleaned up. I then sat down and wrote an entry for our blog while Gina was on Facebook. We then went over to Excel’s shop to see how they were coming out on our home. They made a little more progress but Curtis said he is trying to get everything completed tomorrow. By this time it was five o’clock and we had arranged with Ralph and his wife Theresa to meet up at Duffy’s Steakhouse for some prime rib. They only serve it on Wednesday and Friday. We met them there at six o’clock and enjoyed a wonderful meal.

Ralph & Theresa

That was by far the best prime rib we have ever had. We sat and talked until the restaurant was closing. We really enjoyed their company and wish them the very best in their transition to living in a small town. We then headed back to our truck. When we got back Curtis had dropped off some milo that Gina had asked for. We then got settled in the truck and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Thursday
October 29, 2009

We woke up this morning late again. We have done just about everything there is to do around here and our truck is getting really small. It wouldn’t be so bad if the weather was nicer. However, the cold temperatures and rain has not allowed us to get outside. I sure am glad that we both love being with each other. We are hoping that our home will be completed today. However, we’re not holding our breath. We keep seeing all these flocks of birds flying south that it’s making us jealous. We are more than ready to head south with them. In order for us to leave tomorrow I did a quick inspection on the truck, replaced the windshield wipers and took the truck to fill it up with diesel. Ouch, that hurt. What’s up with these diesel prices?? I’m glad that we shouldn’t have to fill up again until mid December when we start heading back toward our house in Louisiana. After all of that was done we decided to drive west to the town of Kensington and buy some more pies and smoked pork chops before we leave. Then we drove over to the town of Lebanon to buy some fresh KC Strip steaks. We then headed back to Smith Center to pick up Gina’s engraved rock then back to our truck.

The Finished Product

Having five pies in our freezer doesn’t leave much space for other items. We still have 20 pounds of shrimp in there too. In order to free up some space in our freezer we decided to boil a few pounds of shrimp this evening for dinner. Around five o’clock I called Curtis to see if they were finished. He said that they still had a few more items to finish and we discussed the issue about our bedroom air conditioner. They do not have another one to install and he asked us if we were going to be driving through Wichita. I said, “Yes” so he asked us if we could stop by the manufacturer on Monday so they could install a new one. Since we will not be getting our home back today and now we need to stop in Wichita Monday morning we just decided to stay here until Sunday. It has rained all day today and I do not have an awning on the truck so I got our propane burner and boiled shrimp under Excel’s service department building awning so we could stay dry. After the shrimp was done we ate them inside the customer service lounge while we chatted with Ashley & Parker down in Grenada. Around nine o’clock we got back into our truck and settled in for the night.


Friday
October 30, 2009

This is another one of our normal mornings of waking up late. Ok, it might have been a little later than normal like 10:15. We enjoyed our coffee together and since it was still raining outside we were not in a hurry to do anything. We really just want our home back. We walked over to see Curtis to make sure everything was setup for Monday morning in Wichita to get our air conditioner replaced. Curtis assured us that our home will be finished today. We then just hung out in the truck since it was cold outside and it was now trying to snow. I was getting restless inside of the truck so I went inside and visited with Ralph for awhile. The afternoon was passing very slowly but finally Curtis delivered our home to us around 5:30. Once I got the slides out Gina commenced cleaning up our home. It had spent almost two weeks inside Excel’s manufacturing plant and it just had a lot of dust inside of it. I moved the truck next to our home so we could start moving some of our stuff back into our home. However, we first had to have dinner. We were both starving. I pulled the grill out and grilled two of the KC Strips we bought yesterday along with two baked potatoes. The steaks tasted great. I have to admit that the beef here in Kansas and Nebraska is some of the best we’ve ever eaten. We then put a pie in the oven and relaxed back in our recliners watching a little TV enjoying the smell of a fresh pie baking. We let the pie cool off a little and then we each enjoyed a slice topped with vanilla ice cream. We definitely need to get to some warmer weather so we can get back to riding our bicycles and walking. I believe our waistlines could use it. Neither one of us was tired but finally around 12:30 we decided to head to bed.

Saturday
October 31, 2009

Well, can I say it was so nice to sleep in our home last night? I slept so good and felt so refreshed when I woke up this morning. I got the coffee brewing and started writing our blog entry for the past three days. Gina was still sleeping when our phone rang and it was Nicole calling to say hey. While Gina was on the phone I brought her a cup of coffee so she could drink it while she talked to Nicole. I went back to writing until she got off the phone. I was writing and watching the news at the same time. I almost got the entry wrote. However, I still wanted to write more. After Gina took a shower and got dressed we headed over to Bryan’s house to tell him thank you for all the great hospitality he and Peterson Industries showed us during our stay here and for letting us use their van so we wouldn’t have to disconnect our truck.

Thank You Bryan


Bryan with his Bulldog "Lilly"


This picture is for Ashley & Parker

When we left there we stopped by JS Limestone to see Joe and to pick up our two small rock pedestals which will display Gina’s new engraved rock. We then stopped by Ralph & Theresa’s to tell them goodbye and to let them know we really enjoyed meeting them. They followed us back to our home so Ralph could get me a screw to put in our awning. While they were there Theresa clipped Angel & Zoey’s toenails.

Theresa with Angel & Zoey

We again thanked them and said goodbye. We then drove over to Curtis’s house to tell him thank you and to let him know that he had a big part of making our stay here very enjoyable.

Curtis Standing next to His Engraved Rock

He then asked us if we would like a personal tour of Smith County. We told him that we would love to. We loaded up in his truck and off we went. He first took us to his land that he farms. He has already planted winter wheat and he said it’s looking great.

Curtis's Winter Wheat Crop

From there we just started driving down all these dirt roads which actually was mud from all the rain.

Curtis Juggling Hedge Balls


Gina convinced Curtis to stop and get her a few pieces of this Sumac Bush
(She's going to try and plant this in her garden)

There are so many old abandoned houses and barns. They have just outlived their usefulness. There use to be so many little towns spread throughout Smith County. However, most of them have just died and all that remains are abandoned buildings. He did point out two separate one room schools.

Lone Star School


Cedar Hill School

He took us by his ancestor’s original homestead and the cemetery where most of them are buried.

He then took us by what is planned to be the World Capital of Peace which is part of a movement called Transcendental Meditation and was created by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The buildings were started back in 2006 but after the leader died the work slowed up and most of the work that was done thus far is deteriorating. Currently there is only one building almost complete and thirteen others at various stages of construction. I was going to provide a link so you could read about it. However, I couldn’t really find a good link other than their official website.

There are four incomplete buildings in this photo


Another building a little further along


This is the most complete building

As we were driving we came up on a herd of Mule deer. We stopped to take some pictures of them.

I could only get five of them at one time


The best I can tell that's an Eight Point Buck

We made it back to Curtis’s house and we said our goodbye’s and thanked him for giving us such a detailed tour of Smith County, Kansas. We then headed home to eat dinner and relax a little before calling it a night. Tomorrow will be a short travel day to Wichita. I thought this was going to be just a day where we said goodbye to everyone. However, it turned out to be one of our best days here.


To end this entry I would like to give you my opinion about the residents of Smith Center, Kansas.

Smith Center is a community of approximately 1800 people. For the most part everyone here has something to do with farming or they work for Peterson Industries. The values that everyone here lives by are the same values that mainstream America left by the wayside during the 70’s & 80’s. Everyone here has so much love in their heart for their neighbor that it’s hard to believe it still exists in America. This same love was demonstrated to us every day by everyone we met during our three week stay here. The people of Smith Center have something very special. We will forever cherish our time spent here. However, more importantly we’ll forever hold the memories of everyone we met and the kindness they showed toward us. Never, not even once, did we ever feel like strangers here but actually felt like we were part of their community.


Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.