Fall 2013 Trip to Kansas City - West Virginia

After visiting with Mom for another day in Kansas City, I finally turned the venerable CRV to the east and began our return to Rochester.  We spent our first night in Terre Haute, which is becoming our regular way station on I-70.  Then we pulled into Morgantown WV to spend three days with Brendan, Eileen and the kids in their new hometown.

Brock and Brady as zombies!

As it turned out, we arrived in time to celebrate Halloween and got to go with the kids as they went trick or treating in a nearby neighborhood.  The neighborhood was actually a gated community is a leaky back entrance.  The residents were expecting a lot of kids and had decorated their houses in some very creative ways.

You can get an idea by looking at some photos.  Click here for the Halloween album.

The next day was Friday and all the West Virginians headed out to work or school while the two New Yorkers headed out for a day of spectacular views, a nice meal and compatible companionship.  Our first stop was Fallingwater, the Frank Lloyd Wright designed summer getaway home in the Pennsylvania mountains about 50 minutes from Morgantown.  I had been there about 20 years ago but Marilyn had never seen it.  We took one of the house tours and then ate lunch in the cafe at the visitors center.

It was a glorious fall day, cool but not cold.  Breezy but not uncomfortably windy.  The sky was a mix of brilliant blue and puffy clouds passing in and out of view.  We also stopped at Kentuck Knob, another Wright designed home in the area but decided not to go up to the house and take a tour.  We didn't want to miss our next stop.

You can view photos by clicking here.

View to the east showing Cheat River in distance.

Our final stop that day was Cooper's Rock State Forest.  These dramatic rock formations form the bluff high above the Cheat River.  Cooper's Rock got its name from a legend that an escaped prisoner successfully hid out from the law around the view point promontory.  He was a cooper by trade and plied his trade for several years providing barrels to local residents.  His first challenge would have been to stop looking at the awesome views and get back to work.  That may also account for the law not being able to find him.

You can view more photos by clicking here.

Brock directing traffic at midfield

Our last full day in Morgantown was taken up with sports:  watching Braden and Brock play soccer and then college football on television.  They played teams from Pennsyvania.  Brendan pointed out there is not a lot of level terrain for soccer fields in West Virginia.  When you do find some, it is almost certain that it was the site of strip coal mine.  On this field, in addition to that little bit of West Virginia lore, there was a field-side waste treatment plant and a railroad track on which several cola trains passed during the four hours we spent there

Braden hustling into position

watching both games.  Unlike the previous day, this one was cold, windy and often heavy rain.

See photos of Brock's game by clicking here.

See photos of Braden's game by clicking here.

The next day we had an easy drive back to Rochester and our home sweet home.  Note the sun shine and dry walks.  I was able to watch the second half of the Kansas City game and got to see the Chiefs go to 9-0!

Fall 2013 Trip to Kansas City - Kansas Prairie Adventure continues

An exquisite window with the fall foliage
outside the Seelye Mansion

Even though every day, we planned on leaving the Sciolaro hacienda no later than 9:00, we never seemed to make it until 11:00 or so.  Nonetheless, on our second day we headed  out to Abilene Kansas with every intention of spending the better part of the day at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.  However by the time we got there it was getting toward noon and we decided to make a quick stop at the Seelye House, grab a quick lunch and then spend the afternoon at the library.  Well, we never did make it to the library, telling ourselves that we would put that on the list for the next trip to visit Andy and Lois.  "What," you might ask, "kept you from visiting a world renown historical resource?"  The answer is twofold:  The Seelye Mansion and the Russell Stover factory store and outlet.

Killa-germ for the fastidious
homemaker.

The Seelye Mansion is a marvelous time capsule of early 20th Century American life for the wealthy.  As the web site explains, "the Georgian style Seelye Mansion is like a time capsule. Most of its furnishings were purchased at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair. The furnishings cost more than the $55,000 that was spent building the 11,000 square feet home. The 25 room Seelye Mansion was built in 1905 for Dr. A. B. Seelye, who made his fortune in patent medicine with the A.B. Seelye Medical Company. The Patent Medicine Museum occupies a former Seelye laboratory which has been moved to the rear of the mansion."  Even in his day, A.B.'s "medicine" had another and more pejorative name, "snake oil."  His salesmen roamed the Midwest in horse drawn wagons filled with a variety of remedies.  One of his "medicines" does live today as Mentholatum.  He didn't limit himself to medicines but branched out into any useful household chemical formulation.

Marilyn shows the
key hole cover

In 1920, Seelye had Frank Lloyd Wright redecorate the interior and it has been unchanged since.  One of the most interesting feature is that every key hole (and every door in the house - interior and exterior - had one) was covered to prevent peeping!  The current owner of the mansion - Terry Tietjens - was our tour guide.  He purchased the mansion and its contents from the Seelye sisters who lived there into their nineties and never married.  He is reluctant to let any guest get by with a quickie tour and that was the major reason why the Eisenhower Library awaits our next trip.

Marilyn, Andy and Lois

However, someone did mention that the Russell Stover manufacturing plant had a retail store which one could buy factory seconds, not up to their retail standards for appearance but just as tasty.

Click here to view more photos of our visit to the Seelye Mansion.

Fall 2013 Trip to Kansas City - Kansas Prairie Adventure

Panoramic view from Coronado Heights

I am writing this blog in Terre Haute Indiana where we stopped for the night on our way back East.  We are headed to Morgantown WV where we will spend Halloween and a couple more days with Brendan, Eileen and the kids.  The highlight of our trip so far was the three days we spent in cousins Andy and Lois Sciolaro.  They live in Maize KS, just outside Wichita.

We spent Sunday touring around the prairie.  Our first stop was Coronado Heights, a hill where it i said that Coronado made his furthest trek East before returning to Mexico.  There are structures that were added by the WPA in the thirties.  It is a favorite picnic spot with great views and, at least on the day we were there, pretty high winds.  This is the prairie so the wind is a constant.

Marilyn, Andy and Lois in Linsborg

We then went to Linsborg where we had lunch in restaurant on Main street.  As the name suggest, the town was founded by Swedish immigrants.  We also visited several shops which contained the work of local artists, all very nice.

On our way to Coronado Heights we spotted a very interesting structure which we eventually named The Little House on the Prairie.  We promised our selves that we would return to it on the way home when the late afternoon sunlight would be perfect for picture taking.

Andy and Lois under a prairie mushroom.

But first we visited Mushroom Park.  I know it seems somewhat strange that there are mushrooms on the prairie but there they were!  These strange rock formations in the middle of nowhere are the setting for a small park which was being visited by a dozen people on that Sunday afternoon.

You can view more photos of that day on the prairie by clicking here.

Little House on the Prairie

The unexpected discovery of our day, however, was the aforementioned "Little House on the Prairie."  It was situated about 200 yards off the highway.  An old driveway, mostly overgrown, gave us access.  We parked just off he highway and walked up to the house.  It is surrounded by blue stem grass, the natural vegetation of the prairie.  In the afternoon sunlight it was golden and warm which belied its abandoned nature.  When you looked inside, multiple narratives of the lives that had unfolded there leaped into consciousness.  We had no idea how old it was.  A quick Google search didn't turn up anything.  It is a spectacular subject for photography and would be worthy of multiple visits at different times of the year, in different weather conditions, and time of day.  The house is made all the interesting by the lone tree close to it which is now dead and with no bark.  It is situated on the west side the house and must have been designed to provide relief from the blistering afternoon sun during prairie summers.

Interior of the house with prairie blue stem grass outside

We didn't enter the house since the floor was pretty much missing.  From natural disintegration or vandalism or salvage?  Who knows?  It must have been a moderately affluent family since it had a full basement and second floor with three or four bedrooms.  But again, who knows?

You can click here to see more photos.