Opolis

 

Opolis is a small town with modest homes. It's the type of the place where cats cross the road without looking either way. There's a park, a post office, a Bible church, and a flea market that looks like it has seen better days. (Though, really, what flea market ever looks like it's in its heyday?)

Effingham

Effingham is a town of about 500. It has a downtown, a library, a post office, a park, and a pool. The homes and yards are generally well-maintained -- it seems like people take pride in their hometown.

The town is surrounded by beautiful, peaceful fields and farms. Thanks to all the rain, there was greenery everywhere! The wildflowers practically exploded across the hillsides.

Some of the farms in the area are well-cared for, and others have seen better days. One dead giveaway of a farm that's no longer doing much is a small cluster of rusted silos, crowded all around by uncontrolled thickets of elm, mulberry, or oak trees.

Trust us to find books for sale wherever we go! There was a flea market / craft sale in the Effingham park, and our kids gravitated toward the Usborne book dealer. We left with about $25 less in cash and about $25 worth of books in hand. So it turned out pretty well.

White Cloud

White Cloud was a little disappointing, perhaps because their much-vaunted flea market had shut down for the night by the time we rolled in. One thing that was a little bit funny: At the Info Kiosk on the way into town, it looked like someone had begun painting a freehand informational sign and then had run out of time, paint, or both. We are still wondering "Home of..." what?

There were a LOT of vendor stalls along both sides of the main street in downtown White Cloud, which made me wish we'd gotten an earlier start so we could have seen their wares.

We did take a gorgeous drive north on Highway 7 along the river to the Casino White Cloud. It turned out being farther than we wanted to go, but was lovely nonetheless.

One thing I really wish we would have done was to research the town before we left. We definitely would have hit the Four State Lookout and some of these historical sites around the town.

After coming back through White Cloud, we wanted to head toward Highland. By this time, we all pretty tired. It was probably not the best time for me to try my hand at navigating county roads with no GPS or detailed map, but I attempted anyway.

Needless to say, we got lost, but even that was charming, since it gave us a chance to see many pretty farmhouses and acres upon acres of carefully terraced farmland.

Mercifully, a friendly rancher set us on the right road (south, to Highland) after we had wandered around a while. He also suggested that we return in late October to see the pretty fall foliage on Highway 7 between Rulo, NE and Atchison, KS. We just might, at that.

Sparks

At Sparks, we hit the jackpot.

Enormous flea market? Check.

Kettle corn vendors? Check.

Plenty of room to walk and sights to see? Check.

Bathrooms? Check. (Well, port-a-potties, anyway.)

I had never seen such a large flea market. In fact, Sparks was one big flea market. We literally did not see any part of the town that wasn't covered in booths. At first I thought it was some kind of rodeo or festival, since I heard a PA booming somewhere in the distance.

While the 4-year-old braved the port-a-potty, I asked some kind-looking strangers about the event. "Excuse me," I said. "I've got a really ignorant question... but what exactly is going on here?"

"This is the flea market," they told me, clearly trying to restrain eyerolls.

Turns out the person on the loudspeaker was just a raffle announcer. (After all, what good is a flea market without a raffle?) Sparks apparently is a VERY small town, boasting about 9 people on a normal day. Twice a year, though, it turns into an antiquer's (and people-watcher's) paradise.

We left with lighter bowels, an enormous bag of kettle corn, and a bottle of Sioux City Sarsaparilla (the Grand-Daddy of All Root Beers). It was a great flea market and a very fine place to stop (though the port-a-potties were a tad fuller than I typically prefer).

Fanning

We took the Glacial Hills Scenic Byway toward Fanning. The drive was gorgeous; the blue sky contrasted perfectly with the budding greenery all around us.

As we traveled, we were intrigued by the number and vehemence of signs advertising flea markets. We began to suspect that Doniphan County was, in fact, one continuous flea market from one end to the other. We were still looking for a clean restroom. I asked Magen, "Flea markets have clean bathrooms, right?" She wasn't so sure.

We followed the signs to Fanning's Community Flea Market, which was in the church hall at the Community of Christ. As we pulled in, our 4-year-old asked, "Is this where you were married?" No, son, we weren't married at the Fanning Flea Market.

We had high hopes of finding a bathroom, snacks, and some fun, but it was not to be. The flea market was winding down, so the bathrooms were being cleaned.

However we did have a fun surprise: As we browsed the few remaining tables, a kind lady gave cowboy hats to the boys. "I remember one time up at White Cloud, a man gave my son a cowboy hat," she told us. "He remembered that all his life."

On our way out, several kind folks stopped us to visit and told us how sweet our boys were. Fanning probably stands out as the friendliest place we saw in the whole county.

As we left the church hall, our bladders were still full... but our hearts were also full from the kindness of strangers. And we certainly hoped that the heart-fullness would last much longer than the bladder-fullness.

Blair

Blair is a very small town. The only place we saw anything going on was an old roadside produce stand, where we encountered our first of MANY flea markets in Doniphan County. (Apparently, this was the weekend when most of northeast Kansas was holding garage sales and flea markets.) This same stand will double as a fireworks shop later in the summer.

Magen went in and looked around while I stayed in the car with the boys. Then, since there were no restrooms in sight, we headed off to our next stop.