Our First Stay in Kansas

We stopped for eleven days at another wonderful state park near the city of El Dorado KS.

And we should get pronunciation correct from the start! It is pronounced, by the locals, as El Doraydo!

The city is a surprise to us, larger than we expected with population of about 13,500 and a lot of history.  Nice clean well maintained downtown streets but as is typical of many small towns we visit there are many vacant or shuttered businesses throughout.

El Dorado was at the forefront of oil and gas production in the early 1900s and became Kansas' principle oil hub thereafter.  Railroads had serviced the region since the 1880s and provided convenient transportation for products.

The Butler County Courthouse was built in 1909 and is still in service.

The entrance courtyard features this bronze eagle and is the centerpiece of a Memorial Walk honoring local Veterans of America's wars. Memorial bricks are in the walkways and marble benches donated by families are placed along the walk.

On June 10, 1958 a tornado hit El Dorado and killed 13 residents. A memorial was efected in Graham Park in memory of the event. The central sculpture shown above features a stylized harp at the top. When the wind blows, which is frequently in Kansas, you can hear the strings vibrate a chord from above.

On a drive seeking the county's historic stone bridges, we came across this scene at the Elk River Wind Farm. It consists of 100 turbines, some of which can be seen here, capable of producing 150 megawatts of electricity. We could not see any turbines not turning so they are selling all they produce.

So, on to historic bridges in the county. The Chamber of Commerce pitches a driving tour to each of 10 interesting bridges throught Butler County.  To see all 10 in a day would require a roughly 200 mile roundtrip so we decided to cut it in half and tried to locate six of the ten in a 95 mile trip.  So follow the captions and I will tell you what I know about these bridges.  And there is a bird surprise later in this post you will want to see. 

This and the next picture is of a railroad bridge constructed in 1935 and it features the Art Deco style in the reinforced concrete piers on either side.  On this pier appears the word Frisco which is how the St. Louis- San Francisco Railroad was known and the opposite pier has the word Lines.  Of course grafitti spoils the charm and importance of the structure.

Known as the Satchel Creek Bridge for the stream it traverses is 30 feet wide at the base.  It was built in 1901.

The Ellis Road Bridge is 40 feet wide and was built in 1905. Notice the arched roadway across it! Imagine the labor involved with building any of these structures. And they are still in daily use.

This is known as the Summit Road Bridge.

The State Bird of Oklahoma is the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher but we never saw any in that state. Maybe we were distracted with surgery issues.  We did see numbers of them at Bay Landing in Texas, but were unable to take a picture. So fast forwart to Kansas and what do we see while driving around the countryside looking for bridges?  You guessed it. A Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was perched on a wire fence as we drove by. I stopped to try for an out the window shot while traffic (well four pickups) passed in either direction so I could share with you the photos below. 

Unfortunately neither of these show the remarkable tail of these acrobats which enables them to make sudden rapid turns and dives as they take insects in flight.

Fortunately the State of Oklahoma allows me to use this image from their website to show the cool tail this bird has trailing him!

Unknown Plane parked in Beaumont KS. See Below.

At the end of our Bridge tour we ended up in Beaumont KS which was once a bustling community supported by the aforementioned St. Louis - San Francisco Railroad.  Originally the town was a stagecoach stop on the route between Fredonia and Witchita KS. The Summit Hotel was built in 1879 to provide rooms and meals for stagecoach travelers. In 1885 the Railroad came through and Beaumont really took off. 

Today there is no sign of the roundhouse built by the railroad in 1890 but the wooden water tower built in 1885 still stands and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The hotel is now known as the Beaumont Hotel and caters to tavelers, especially to pilots of small planes who land on a grassy strip across the street from the hotel and either take a meal or stay the night before moving on. Apparently it is not unusual to see planes taxiing down Main Street. 

I have not been able to learn anything about the twin engine plane above which sits in the yard beside the hotel.

Meanwhile back in El Dorado there is sidewalk art on display around the downtown streets. Pictures below are of a few of them.

"Flight" by Jim Brothers

 "Endangered Species: The American Farmer" also by Jim Brothers

The Coutts Museum of Art is located in downtown El Dorado and its collection of over 1500 items includes works of Frederic Remington, Thomas hart Benton and the second largest collection of Prairie Printmakers in the country.

"Tell Me About It" by Frank Jensen

This was taken through the car window while waiting for the traffic light to change. I'll call it "Whopper".

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Tomorrow we will hit the road again stopping at Prairie Band Casino in Mayetta KS for an overnight and dinner at the Casino.

Lake Thunderbird State Park - Normal OK

An eventful stay at this beautiful state park, but not the kind of event we cherish!

We had planned to stay at this State Park for two weeks on our way to South Dakota to get our drivers licenses renewed.  We ended up staying 19 days because your faithful blogger suffered a torn retina on Thursday morning, April 24th. I was sitting inside reading when all of a sudden I saw what appeared to be a mass of black spaghetti in my right eye. I have been bothered by floaters all my adult life but this was unlike any floater I had ever encountered.  Soon the spaghetti disappeared and it seemed as if I were looking through a snow globe filled with fine sand, but I could not see anything else.

I found a local opthalmolgist in Norman OK the nearest city to the State Park and called to describe what  happened. They were able to see me around noon but the doctor who examined me, Kimberly M. Wise, said she couldn't see through my eye either! As luck would be on our side, there was a retinal specialist in the office for his normal weekly visit from Oklahoma City. So I got an exam by Dr. Darin Haivala who concluded that I had a torn retina and needed surgery sooner rather than later.

Friday morning at 6:00 am I was in an outpatient surgery facility in Oklahoma City OK where Dr. Haivala repaired the tear, added some laser sutures to the perimeter of the retina and did a vitrectomy to remove all the gunk in my vitreous. Fresh fluid was added to replace the vitreous as well as a bubble of air to keep pressure in the eye and to help hold the retina in place while it healed. I had to sleep sitting in the chair for a few days so the air bubble would press upward on the retina.

On Saturday I saw Dr. Haivala in his office where he pronounced the surgery successful, but I could still not see as the bubble obstructed any vision. He explained it would take some time for the bubble to be absorbed and "normal" vision restored.

As I write this my sight is returning to normal slowly, but steadily. It is a bit blurry in the affected eye, but much better than two weeks ago! I am comfortable that I will be able to pass the vision test for license renewal - but that was not the case two weeks ago.

It happens Dr. Haivala is a graduate of the University of South Dakota and he has friends who practice in Sioux Falls. He was able to make a followup appointment for me with one of them while we are in town. It would be about the normal time he would see me post surgery so that is good.

So we did not do any touring or other sight seeing (excuse the choice of words) while in Norman other than what is below.

This is a general view of Lake Thunderbird

And again we enjoyed  lakeside parking.

Oh and I must offer a word of thanks to the the Camp Host, Boots, who kindly looked after Dixie for us while we were in Oklahoma City for the surgery. She is a "dog person" and a very kind lady as well and we thank her. 

Sunrise over Lake Thunderbird through the trees at our door.

And another sunrise at a slightly different angle, but still out our door.

We did see a Pileated Woodpecker flying from tree to tree on several morning walks with Dixie.

Lake Bridgeport Texas

Thousand Trails Bay Landing Preserve in Bridgeport Texas

We spent a week at this Thousand Trails Preserve and found it, too, suffers from the drought conditions throughout Texas.  The first picture is from the website of Thousand Trails and shows a dock at the surface of the water.

Below is the same dock as we found it. There is a sign at the top of the path leading to the dock warning there is no jumpingor diving from the dock! Duh!!

We have seen other Cardinals do the same thing 

perching on our rear view mirror to admire themselves!

We did see a few "new" birds for our list, but other than saying this is some  kind of Flycatcher we are not sure which one!

This is the common House Sparrow included as a reference.

And this is the White Crowned Sparrow where you can see his namesake crown.

A side view shows the cheek stripe of white.

Here you can see the low water level in a wide shot of the lake.

We had a great parking space with no neighboring site outside our door with the lake just behind us. 

This is Texas after all, so I had to include a field of Prickly Pear Cactus.

Still the same problem with vertical format pictures so you will just  have to turn your computer sideways to see the Red-Bellied Woodpecker!

And one of those Texas-sized squirrels with the brown belly and tail.

The Lakes Tour of Texas concludes with this entry. But not to fear more lakes are upcoming. Read the next entry about our adventures at Lake Thunderbird State Park in Oklahoma!

Lake Texoma

Camping at Lake Texoma, One of the Thousand Trails Resorts near the Texas-Oklahoma Border

This Preserve is not directly on the lake, but there is an access road that leads to the shore. The lake is formed by impounding the waters of The Red River of the South and is one of the largest of the Corps of Engineers' lakes in the country. Its surface area is 139 square miles. It is a mecca for boaters and fishing enthusiasts.

The Thousand Trails property is, like so many we have visited, in need of some TLC in the form of road repairs and general maintenance. A local artist has been busy creating chain saw sculptures on dead or fallen trees throughout the camping areas. We have recorded them here.

Some acrobatic bears greet visitors near the gate house.

And this goofy looking bear just stands guard at a campsite.

We didn't see many shore birds but this cattle egret seemed to have found sustenance in the campground.

This is self explanatory!

We never saw the person doing these but these rising fish were roughed out as above. 

And here are the fish after the finishing touches were applied.

This is a cute sign just beyond the entrance. Potholes are also an effective speed deterrent!

Road Runner - Rear View.

As Dave Letterman might say, "A squirrel playing with his nuts!"

That's all from Lake Texoma.