Sharp's Travels

We had plans to tour the State Capitol today. We arrived there at 9:30am and the tour began at 10 am.

The Capitol was built in 1866 and took 37 years to complete at a cost of 3.2 million dollars. The renovations to the capitol are in progress now, one wing at a time. The dome is being renovated right now and so we were no able to climb the stairs to the top and overlook the city. They are stripping the inside down to its original colors. The trim colors on the moldings up close to the ceilings are really neat. There is a mauve strip, a beige strip and a cream color with beige walls. It looks really neat. The floors are marble, brought in from Mexico, Belgium and Italy.

Topeka Capitol building is the 3rd tallest dome capital at 304 ft, It is16 feet taller than the US Capitol in Washington DC, and also taller than the Statue of Liberty.

We began our tour by taking the cage elevator, which was installed in 1923, up to the 3rd floor. We stepped into the Senate Chambers and WOW! What a beautiful room. The massive copper & bronze columns were striking. They were shipped here from Italy. There was marble on the walls and floors. The woodwork was beautiful. There were massive chandlers with etched globes. The desks were all the original pieces.

The next stop on the tour was the House of Representatives. It was not quite as beautiful as the Senate but never the less it had its own charms. The ceilings were all stenciled and the gold on the ceilings and columns were 22 carat gold leaf. It also had lots of marble on the walls and floors.

We were then taken to the Supreme Court Chambers. Today this room is used mainly for committee meetings. All the stenciling on the ceiling has all been restored, along with beautiful marble and woodwork throughout.

The Governor’s Ceremonial Office was decorated with elaborately carved white oak trim. The fireplace is one of 11 located on the second floor.

There are murals pained on a number of walls depicting different events throughout Kansas history.

It was a beautiful Capitol building!

We went from the Capitol Building over to the Grace Episcopal Cathedral for a tour of the parish with its twin towers modeled after that of Magdalen College in Oxford, England. Our guide told us the history of the church and showed us all the beautiful windows.

We ate a bar for a fast lunch and then headed to the Kansas Museum of History. It tells the story of the early people of Kansas, Indians, trails, civil war, settling in the frontier, trains and towns, and items of the early 20th century. It was a lot to take in.

About half way through the exhibit we got a call from our friends Don & Doreen Foster from Oregon. They are here in Topeka also, so we made plans to go over to their RV Park and visit. It was great to see them. About 5 pm we all headed over to Boss Hawg’s Barbeque restaurant for supper and more visiting.

The weather was great today. The attractions were lots of fun to see and being able to visit with our friends made this day memorable.

Gay got pictures of the day and also pictures from Sunday uploaded. He still needs to do the captions but they are there to view. Click here http://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravelsand then click on the album that you want to see.

We began our day with church at the First Presbyterian Church at 10:30am. We arrived early hoping to get a chance to look at all the Tiffany Stained Glass windows. We were lucky enough to get a personal tour of all the windows by one of the parishioners.

The church was built in 1884. The Tiffany windows were installed in 1911at a cost of $14,000. Louis Tiffany came to the church and planned the windows for this sanctuary. The special characteristic of these windows is the depth and perspective, especially in the landscape windows. It looks like you could see forever in these windows. The colors are enriched by using layers of glass or by wrinkling or changing the surface texture. Their value cannot be assessed. They are irreplaceable. Each window in its exquisite beauty is a sermon and a prayer, as well as a treasured work of art. They are shielded on the outside with bullet proof glass because there is no way to replace them should any damage occur.

The Ascension window has been removed for repair, so we missed seeing that one. We did see a picture of it and it is beautiful.

Everyone there was very friendly and welcomed us to their church. It was a very nice service.

We had an energy bar for lunch and headed right away over to the Old Prairie town. It is a 6 acre historic pioneer village. It features a botanical garden and a working old time soda fountain. There was an 1854 log cabin, 1870’s prairie mansion, 1891 Victor Schoolhouse, drug store, livery stable, train depot, general store and an 1880 church. We checked it all out and then went back to the soda fountain for chocolate malt. Neither one of us could remember the last time we had a malt.

It was early afternoon, so we made a call over to the Combat Air Museum to check on their hours. We were lucky to have time yet to go through that facility. It houses a collection of over 30 US and foreign aircraft from World War I to the present day. It also had a wide variety of military aviation artifacts, from WWI to the present day. Gay loves to look at old planes.

Since this is Sunday night, it’s pizza night. I found an ad for Via’s Pizzeria, Topeka’s original authentic pizzeria. I thought it was worth a try. Boy was it ever good.

We got back to the 5th wheel at 5:30pm. What a FULL DAY!

Gay has uploaded pictures of the First Presbyterian Church. For pictures click here http://picasaweb.google.com/sharpstravels then click on the album you want to see.

We didn’t have a strong enough internet signal to upload the other pictures of the day. We will take our computer with us tomorrow and see if we can get them uploaded when we are downtown.

Gay was up early but I was able to sleep in this morning.

Its Memorial Day weekend and last night we tried to call the campground we wanted to stay at in Topeka but got no answer. We haven’t been able to book on earlier because we weren’t sure when our 5th wheel would be done at the service center, Gay tried again this morning and they are full. We found another one about 12 miles out of Topeka. Luckily someone was just pulling out this morning and we got their spot. We have full hookups so we booked it for five days.

We only have to drive 235 miles today so it won’t be bad.

We made a stop in Marysville at a Wal-Mart. We took time to eat our salad for lunch and went into pick up a few things and were on our way again.

We pulled into our campground at 3:30 pm. I can see why we were able to get a site here as it isn’t a very nice campground. We got set up and then I started supper.

I’ve checked out the visitor’s guild for Topeka and there is a lot to see. We will get a start at that first thing tomorrow

It was another sleepless night. Gay was up at 4am and I got up at 4:30am. We were off for breakfast by 7am. We walked into the restaurant and I said I’ll have my usual and she remembered exactly what I’d ordered the last 3 mornings.


We went back to the Service Center and were told our unit would be done today. That’s what we wanted to hear.

Early afternoon we went for a walk. We stopped at the Old Dutch Mill at Wagner Park. The mill was built in 1870. For years it ground corn, wheat and buckwheat brought in by the farmers in the area. Wind power operated the mill until about 1913 when kerosene engine was installed.

Finally at 6:30pm they pulled our unit out of the shop and got it set up for us to spend the night.

We tried the Buck Shot Lodge for supper tonight. They served barbeque ribs and pulled pork.

It was excellent. We’re glad we found it.

We headed back to the 5th wheel and took showers and watched a little TV before turning in.

Tomorrow we’re back on the road again.

My Queen

Just hanging around

Maybe a Drunken Driver