Sharp's Travels

We got the full tour of Ingelboro Mansion Bed and Breakfast. We stayed in the Green Room with its 4 poster bed and high boy dresser in dark cherry. We even had a private entrance to use if we wanted. The owners Bruce & Bobbi are a neat couple. They gave us the history of Ingelboro and then took us over to tour a second home they are restoring.
We were invited to join the problem solving council members coffee clutch at the Second Cup, a local restaurant. We enjoyed talking with everyone. The group broke up around 9am and we headed back to the Excel service center to check on how they were coming on our 5thwheel.

We met up with Brian & Devorah Sanders and found out they were about ready to leave. It had been a fun few days visiting with them and sharing information on 5th wheels and sites to see. We said our goodbyes and wished them safe travels and then headed out to see the geographic center of the U.S. We took a look at the miniature church there and took a few pictures. We had forgotten to bring along our papers on the geo-cache hidden there but remembered some of the clues so we began looking around for it. Gay located it down inside a pipe to the right of the church. The clue to this one was “be sure and bring our tools to retrieve it. He finally used a long screwdriver with electrical tape wrapped around it, in hopes the sticky side would grab the side of the little container. It worked! We signed the log and replaced it and headed back into town.

I had one more place I wanted to visit and that was the art gallery. We parked the truck and were headed down the street and a lady stopped us and told us a storm was coming and there was lots of hail with it. We rushed back to the truck and headed back to the service center to see if we could get inside the garage. The service manager said “if you can beat the employees, go ahead.” We got in and headed for the lounge but we were told they wanted us all over to the main office basement. The sky was green and the clouds were whirling around. It did not look good. We watched outside for a bit until the wind, rain and hail hit. The hail was about the size of quarters. We were worried about Brian & Devorah Sanders, our friends that had left earlier in the day. Before the storm was over we got a call from them saying they had skirted the edge of the storm and had a little hail damage, but were ok. That was sure a relief. Smith Center had hail damage, the high wind had flipped a small building and the lumber yard sustained some damage. This is the worse weather they have had here since 1909.

We picked up our belongings at the service center and headed downtown to Duffy’s for supper before returning to the Ingelboro Mansion for the night.

We didn’t get up until 7:30 am this morning, seem nice to just lie around. It was about 10:00 am when we got to the Excel maintenance shop. We sat around the lounge all afternoon talking to another guy that had his 5th wheel in for repair. At 4:00 pm they had our 5th wheel ready to pull out side so we could spend the night in it. We told them to leave it inside and we would go down town and stay at Ingleboro Mansion Bed and Breakfast. That way we wouldn’t have to be up before 5:00 am.

It was an early morning as we had to be out of our trailer by 6:30 am. I pulled the trailer into their work bay right at 6:30 am and they went right to work on it. We hung out around the customer lounge until noon and then went to a local restaurant for lunch. At 1:00 pm we had an appointment with the president of the company. We went over some of our concerns and he was very understanding, also gave him some ideas on things that could be added. At 1:30 pm we took a two hour tour of the plant. It was very interesting, got to see all the different steps that goes into building a 5th wheel trailer. After the tour we returned to the customers lounge and found out that we would not be able to stay in our trailer tonight. We gathered up what we needed and found a motel for the night and walked to Pizza Hut for a bit to eat before turning in.

We had a much laid back morning. I told Gay it was nice to just sit, drink my coffee, rock back and forth and gaze out the window and watch the trees blow! I fixed waffles this morning and used the maple syrup Kenny & Eileen gave us. It was sure good. We walked some of the streets of town to get in our exercise, took our showers and then headed out to do some geo caching. There is a little town about 36 miles from here called Gaylord so of course we had to go there. Gay needed his picture taken by the town sign.

The first find was hidden in a neat container attached to a tree to look like a bird feeder. The bottom was open and you needed to pull what looked like the perch out to release the container. The second find was among some cement blocks. One of the geo caches also made note of just coming from Cawker City, the home of the biggest ball of twine. Of course we thought we needed to go there too.

Frank Stoeber started his ball of twine on his farm in 1953. By 1957 it weighed 5,000 pounds, stood 8 feet high, and had 1,175,180 feet of twine on it. Stoeber gave the ball to Cawker City. Now it weighs nearly 18,000 ponds and has more than 7 million feet of twine on it. Each year the Twine-a-Thon is held in August and so the ball never stops growing.

We visited an antique store there and the gal told us we should go see the Garden of Eden, cabin home, and the Grassroots Art Center in Lucas, and so off we went!

Samuel Dinsmor, a retired schoolteacher, Civil War Veteran, farmer and politician, began building the Garden of Eden and Cabin Home in 1907 at the age of 64. For 22 years he fashioned 113 tons of cement and many tons of limestone into his unique “log” cabin. It had 11-rooms. It is built of limestone logs, the native post rock limestone traditionally used for fences, most of which run the cabin’s full length.

There were 150 sculptures in the outside garden, including the 40 foot tall limestone log mausoleum for himself and his first wife. He was laid to rest in his handmade, glass-topped concrete coffin, which we visited.

It was all really a site to see.

Next in Lucas came the Grassroots Art Center. All the pieces there were made by self-taught artist working outside the academic structure of fine art and beyond the cultural traditions of folk art. The exhibit emphasizes the architectural, historical, and cultural value of post rock limestone and incorporates at one place a series of examples of construction and design, showing the many uses of the stone from the most utilitarian to the ornate and whimsical.

They also had barbed wire designs and pop-tops from cans that were put together to create a motorcycle, car and clothing.

One more stop there in Lucas took us to the Flying Pig gallery. Things there were very ornate. Nothing I would want to have around my house!

It was all different, some weird and everything was very interesting to say the least.

We wound through a lot of countryside today. Miles of stone fence posts stand tribute to the early settlers. They solved their fencing problems on the treeless plains by quarrying rock to use as posts. The stone posts have become a trade mark around here.

It was a lovely day. We got back to our 5th wheel around 6:30 and found out we have a neighbor. He’s been told they have to be out of their 5th wheel by 6:30am tomorrow morning so we will be making it an early night.

For pictures of the day click on photos and then on Memorial Day 2007

For additional information check out the following web sites:
www.garden-of-eden-lucas-kansas.com
www.grassrootsart.net

Today was a take it easy day, we took our time getting around this morning. We went to the 10:30 church service. After church we did a Geo-Cache down town in the park. Cheri fixed a wonderful dinner of pork roast and fresh fried potatoes. This afternoon we took a walk around town and when we got back Cheri gave me a hair cut.
Down town in the park we saw this Old Dutch Mill that was moved to Wagner Park from its original site near Reamsville, northwest of Smith Center. It was built by Charles Schwarz, a native of German who homesteaded in Smith County in the 1870s. Its timbers were hewn from native logs and its burrs cut from native stones. It was completed about 1882 and for years it ground corn, wheat, and buckwheat brought to it by farmers of the area. Wind power operated the mill until about 1913 when a kerosene engine was installed. After being moved, it became the center attraction in a beautiful city park that was built around it.
To see pictures of Old Dutch Mill click on photos and then miscellaneous photos.