Tall Grass to Bluegrass

Days 13 – 17, Eastern CO, Across KS & MO, Paducah, KY and Nashville, TN

Leaving my brother’s place east of Parker, CO we traveled in pretty much a straight line across I-70 for nearly 600 miles.  The land stretches forever and ever and there’s not a whole lot in between, or as some say “there’s a lot of nothing.”  Until you see a sign somewhere in KS that says “we feed America.”  It kind of puts things in perspective.

Typical farm town in Eastern Colorado

Near the CO/KS border

Traveling across Eastern CO was interesting to me.  My sister-in-law grew up on a big wheat farm outside Arapahoe, CO and she can distinguish a variety of wheat just by seeing it in the field.  There’s probably more to it than that but then the high plains are in her blood.  We noted that the farmers’ fields on today’s drive seemed to roll from one to another; corn, wheat, canola, sunflowers and sorghum.  I didn’t even know what sorghum looked like or what it is used for; grain, fodder, sweetener, and biofuels (thank you “Google”.)

Sorghum

As we drove eastward I kept looking behind me to see when I lost sight of the Rocky Mountains; it was near Flagler that the summit of 14,115’ Pikes Peak dropped below the western horizon.  We like to track elevation and by the time we’d reached Colby, KS we had lost nearly 4000’ of elevation from greater Denver at a mile high to about 1200’.

In Central KS the terrain began to change as we entered the Smoky Hills region.  Now we were rolling gently over the hills and transitioning from the High Plains to the Flint Hills region.  Geologically this area is largely sedimentary and the farmlands became open tall grasslands.  We were approaching Salina, KS, pretty much in the middle of the state; we’d been seeing signs for Salina ever since Eastern CO and we thought it would never come!

Bluestem grass pastures of KS

Smoky Hills region, KS

Central Kansas

Topeka KS is the capital of the state; we spotted the Capitol building just south of the highway and decided to exit to see it.  The building is pretty traditional and impressive.  Topeka looked like a nice city with an active downtown area.  Our destination for the night was Lawrence, just a few miles east.  It was interesting to note that we again picked up signage for the Oregon Trail and also for the Santa Fe Trail. 

 

Trails of Kansas Territory

Stone fence posts in central KS

Lawrence is home to the University of Kansas (Jayhawks) and the campus was nice.  The town looked like a thriving college town with a lot of cafes and interesting shops downtown.  We saw a campus building named Watkins House; we’ll have to research that!

KS State Capitol Building in Topeka

University of KS

Kansas City is a bustling city spanning the Kansas and the Missouri Rivers, and therefore straddles the KS/MO state line.  The population is approaching 500,000.  On their expedition, Lewis and Clark noted that the confluence of the rivers would be a good place for a fort.  The US Federal government is the city’s largest employer with over 146 different agencies having offices there, including only one of two IRS centers that processes paper returns. 

We were most interested in the southeastern suburb of Lee’s Summit, MO home to Unity Village.  We were married (1981) in a Unity church in Grand Junction CO and had always wanted to visit the campus.  The grounds were beautiful and we were able to go into the chapel, however, we forgot about it being Labor Day and the bookstore/café were closed.

Unity Village Tower

Our destination for the next couple days is across the state at historic St. Charles, MO where we will stay with Bob’s brother, J.  His home was built in the 1840’s and has lots of charm and of course some of the challenges of an older home.  It’s located near historic Main Street, which is located just a few feet above the Missouri River. 

Bob (family calls him Rob) and brother J

J's house in historic St. Charles

 “The Street” as locals call it is a focal point of the community and hosts many festivals and celebrations throughout the year.  St. Charles claims to be the location from whence Lewis & Clark made their last “civilized” stop before exploring the West.

Old church in St. Charles

Riverwalk

While in St. Charles I enjoyed a visit with my former sister-in-law, Ann M. Hazelwood, a respected and prolific writer of fiction, specializing in quilting themed mysteries.  Ann has also written a number of non-fiction books related to quilting and her beloved home state of MO.  She’s also a quilt dealer and appraiser, and an engaging speaker.  Check her out! www.booksonthings.com

Following I-24 we crossed the mighty Mississippi River and saw St. Louis only from the highway; we did see a glimpse of the Arch.  Soon we entered Illinois for a few miles before turning south toward Kentucky. 

 

St. Louis Arch

Mighty Mississippi River

We were looking forward to a visit with good friends in Paducah, KY.  All of us were work colleagues and friends while living in the UK (England) and then again in South Carolina.  Before joining them for dinner Bob dropped me off at the National Quilt Museum; I’m not a quilter but so many of my friends are that I felt obligated to visit.  Actually, I was pleasantly surprised!  These quilts weren’t just patchwork blankets; they were beautiful pieces of art.  I particularly liked the freestyle cutting quilts.  The Museum does not allow photos due to copyright concerns and potential damage to the fabrics but I wished I could capture some of them.

Ohio River

Located in Paducah KY

 Paducah lies along the Ohio River and thus there is an impressive,  fourteen foot high flood wall protecting historic downtown from flooding.  Between 1996 and 2007, muralist Robert Dafford and his team of artists painted 45 wall murals depicting the history of the area.  Bob enjoyed walking along the walls and reading the interpretative plaques, which accompany each mural.

 

Mural wall in Paducah KY

As we drive across KY and onto TN I find myself very drawn to the landscape.  The hills are gently rolling, the rivers meandering, and the trees plentiful.  It’s beautifully green everywhere and such a contrast to our familiar Western US.  I-24 runs across the top of an area called Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, which is formed by two lakes, Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers respectively.  It’s a beautiful area but we will have to explore it on another trip.

We pulled into Nashville, TN and had no idea of what we wanted to see.  As it turned out our hotel was near Opryland so that was our first stop.  We took the backstage tour at the Grand Ole Opry and enjoyed learning about it’s famous history.  Celebrating 90 years of country music history, the Opry continues as a live radio broadcast featuring a mix of country legends and current artists.  The famed “Circle” on the main stage is a six-foot diameter piece of oak flooring where the artists stand and perform.  It was cut from the Ryman Auditorium, the original home of the Opry, in order to maintain some sense of tradition.  The grounds of the adjacent Gaylord Opryland Hotel & Resort are lovely but we didn’t go exploring.

The Circle

Opry dressing room

Entrance to Opryland

Country Music Legends

 Instead, we sought out a “doc in a box.”  I’d been feeling pretty punk for a few days and after nearly passing out several times while on the Opry tour, Bob had reached the end of his very long patience, and drove me to a medical center.  Carespot was wonderful!  They worked me in immediately and after some lab cultures and a couple Rx, I was on the road to recovery.  It is not fun to get sick while traveling! www.carespot.com/nashville/donelson-tn

Despite my not feeling great, we decided to take advantage of the shuttle service to downtown Nashville offered by our hotel.  Not having any ideas about where anything was or what it was we wanted to see we just followed the lively crowd getting off our bus.  Obviously more experienced than we, they seemed like they were going to have a good time no matter what!  A couple blocks from the bus drop-off point the fun was obvious . . . The District!  Bars, live music, restaurants, shops and a lot of people having more than a good time!  We just wandered around and stood outside the live music venues listening to all the bands hoping to make it big.  Maybe they will! 

One of many in The District

After finding the Country Hall of Fame and the Ryman Auditorium we didn’t really need to see anything else but decided to go to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville for dinner.  Yes, not country but it was a good time nonetheless.  We posted a photo on Facebook and got a kick out of one of the comments hoping “we were not wasted away . . ."

Wasted away . . . not quite!

Country Music Hall of Fame

Historic Ryman Auditorium

While Nashville’s name is recognized as being “Music City”, there are plenty of other great things to do there.  However, our stay has come to an end.  The last few days have taken us from the tall grasses of the Kansas plains to Kentucky bluegrass . . . our insight today is there is always going to be something more to see or wish we’d spent more time seeing what we do see . . . life’s a journey and we thank you for coming along for the ride!