Belle Plaine

In Belle Plaine, we visited the amazing Bartlett Arboretum. If you ever have a chance to visit this lovely place, do it! It's an extraordinary property, covered with gorgeous trees and flowers. We loved the lilacs, daffodils, redbuds, and pear trees.

While we were there, we saw a jazz band rehearsing for a concert on a stage near the lake. We also enjoyed looking at the huge trees, lovely bridges, and beehives.

The whole place was thoughtfully designed, and there were bits of whimsical art crafted from found materials, like a wind-catching sculpture made of rusty metal farm tools and aged pieces of wood.

The rest of Belle Plaine was nice and neat. There were a number of dirt roads, a large grain elevator, and a gymnasium, but the Arboretu was definitely our favorite part of visiting this town. You can learn more about this place and its founder by watching this video.
 

Riverdale

We almost missed the turnoff to Riverdale! It's a tiny little place -- the post office was closed in 1973 -- but the main road is paved. There are older houses and deteriorating storefronts, as well as a big old metal building and a "Spiritual House of God."

Wellington

Wellington, home of the Kansas Wheat Festival, has had public power, its sign says, since 1901. The town is home to several county vehicle and tool shops, as well as the noxious weed department. There's a big grain elevator, and the houses are generally neat and well-maintained, though there's not a lot of new construction.

We stopped at Dillon's for a snack and noticed a neat walking path down by the railroad tracks. Wellington is a pretty large town with many businesses, an airport, and a lake.

We'd like to come back sometime for the wheat festival!

South Haven

South Haven was a town along the railroad, formed in 1879 (just in time for the land rush to Oklahoma).

The town has some nice neighborhoods and dirt roads. We saw a few small businesses, a school, and were generally impressed with this little hamlet.

The school had a sign for a fallout shelter -- a reminder of the grim nuclear spectre that reached even tiny towns in Kansas just a generation ago.

We liked the slogan of Yearout Tanning: "We'll Tan Your Hide!"

Hunnewell

Hunnewell is an old town just north of the Oklahoma border, where we stopped on our way back from a family reunion.

This town has a history of commerce and speculation -- it was a boom town when the Cherokee Strip was opened in the 1880s. It is also the scene of the infamous Hunnewell Gunfight. We aren't sure, but it seems like the City Hall (a tiny building, neatly painted red) may have been around way back then.

These days, though, things are much calmer. There are some grain elevators, a number of dirt roads, and houses -- some nice, some falling apart, and most very old.

One thing we noticed after leaving town was that K-177 was also named Hoover Road. This made us giggle -- "Hoover" was the presidential fetal nickname we gave our oldest son. Also on Hoover Road, we enjoyed seeing the boys' first buffalo farm.