A Wonderful Weekend in Kansas

This past weekend we toured portions of Central Kansas with our neighbors from across the corner, Gale and George. Maryann and Gale planned and put the whole thing together. It was a blast.

It was the precursor to future travels. What better way to determine if we will be good traveling companions than by taking several short trips. Because of the outcome, this will be the first of many.

We started with a stop at the Wyldewood Cellars winery in Paxico. They specialize in fruit wines which are a bit sweet to my taste buds. The ones we tried were quite nice and I bought a couple of bottles - a dry reserve elderberry, and a chardonnay. The elderberry will serve as a delightful dessert wine.

We then stopped by the Creamery in Alma which is famous for its cheeses. We managed to purchase some of them. Our idea was to stop by these two places and pick up a few things for a later picnic. There was fruit, smoked salmon, home made bread, crackers, Dijon mustard, and some wine we brought from home. We even brought the plastic wine glasses with us. (I know, you shouldn't drink wine from plastic, but they won't break that easily. They are expendable.)

Our next stop was the Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve just North of Strong City. We discovered they were having a special weekend shindig to raise funds for the preserve. Governor Sibelius was there for the occasion.


This is a photo we took while on the bus tour that was given by the US Park Service. Our guide was knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna. He also had a good grasp on the history of the Jones family who owned the ranch snce 1878. You can learn more about this here Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve.

By the time we got on the bus tour, it was obvious we were going miss our picnic. So time for Plan B. We knew those plastic wine glasses would come in handy.
Drop in a few chunks of cheese, some crackers, strawberries and grapes and you have a traveling picnic. A couple of bottles of water and we were set. It did hold us until dinner.

Our plan was to go further south to El Dorado and cut back north on I-135 to Lindsborg. However, our tour of the Tall Grass National Preserve was lengthened to the Governor's speech. Where we parked would have taken us right through the crowd and would have been poor form to say the least. After liberating a wheat weaving from the gift shop we were able to leave. By now we were about an hour behind our tentative schedule. A quick map consultation and we found a short cut across more of the Flint Hills and Kansas farm land. It only took us an hour to get to Lindsborg.

Maryann and Gale decided that we should spend the night at the Swedish Country Inn in downtown Lindsborg. Our accommodations were very comfortable. The typical Swedish breakfast the next morning was more than enough.

Without a doubt the most enjoyable part of the whole trip, besides spending time with Gale and George, was attending a performance of The Real Group If you haven't heard of this group before, you absolutely must get to know about them and their music. They are awesome. The auditorium at Bethany College was packed with people of all ages. The group uses NO musical instruments. They are an a capella group. Their repertoire is varied andthey pleased everyone there.


The main drag along Main Street is about two blocks long. The community has taken great pains to preserve its Swedish heritage. Sunday morning we decided to do some shopping. However, the shops did not open until 12:30 PM.

With a little time to kill we decided to drive around the community to see what it was like. We found ourselves out in the country before we knew it. After driving around for a little while we found our way to the Smokey Hill Buffalo Ranch. We began our buying spree here. We decided that the buffalo summer sausage was tasty enough to bring some home.

We decided not to take the wagon ride to see the buffalo herd, or what was left of it. The buffalo calf in the photo was still born, so the owners had it stuffed and put on display. Apparently it is not unsual for a small percentage of the calves to die early.


Dala horses are seen everywhere. One this size will cost you dearly. However, they do carve smaller ones. You can get one of those for a very reasonable price, depending on the size. This one is outside of the shop in town that has a woodworking shop where they are carved. You can even have one personalized. The craftsmen were not in on Sunday. We were able to support the Lindsborg economy in the short time we were there.

On the way back we had planned to stop by the Smokey Hill Winery only to find it was closed. So we pressed on toward Abilene. On the way we did stop for our picnic. Because the weather was so perfect the stuff in the cooler stayed very cold. The ice hardly melted. We enjoyed the cheese, salmon, bread and some wine. We even had some homemade oatmeal cranberry cookies baked by our neighbor to the west of us.

Our next stop was the Eisenhower museum in Abilene. Maryann had visited it before, but I had never seen it. George and I took the time to visit the museum while Maryann and Gale walked the grounds, or so they said. Because it was late in the day we only had time for the museum and the meditation site where Ike is buried with Mamie and there first born son who died shortly after birth.

The old homestead is very well maintained. I only wish we would have had a little more time. Perhaps we will take another trip out that way.

As a result of the fun time we are planning other short trips. We think the next one will be to visit some of the wineries near Hermann, Missouri.