Week of July 4, 2004

Smack Dab in the Middle

We are smack dab in the middle of the country. It is interesting how this country became the United States when the people and cultures are so different from one State to another. California is...well you know, Liberal and Arizona was "the old west" and ranchers and cowhands, Colorado was kind of like that but now Kansas is different. We are amongst the people who are responsible for feeding us and they definitely are not materially rewarded for such an honorable task. The only new things I see are the farm equipment.

We are having a great time looking at all the old architecture but some of these towns look like they froze in the 40s or 50s and have not changed since. The fields of wheat, corn, and soy beans speak to the very root of this country's power, our ability to feed ourselves and make a living feeding others. There are boys fishing in the town river, cafes that open and close on a whim and hardware stores painted in that special John Deere green. The Post Office is the finest building in town and there is a church on every block.

We are in the heart of Menonite country, kind of an off shoot of the Amish from Pennsylvania. They have some pretty strange rules too. The women must wear a bonnet, the men must have beards. They are not allowed to drive a car but they can drive a tractor and tow a pickup truck bed with the children in it. They cannot have electricity but they can have indoor plumbing. The women sit outside while the men socialize, they cannot marry outside of their own church, not even another Menonite - if they do that couple must leave both churches and join another Menonite community. I don't want to knock it but that is a lot of rules to keep track of, I'd definitely slip up somewhere.

Wichita is a larger city but it had a small town feel to it. Nice downtown with tall buildings and lots of bronze statues placed around the downtown buildings and sidewalks. There is a thunder storm here everyday and boy is it humid. We haven't been out and about as we usually are due to the unpredictable weather.

We did take up fishing, however, and have already caught our dinner once. Check out the Strange Signs category of photos to see the Live Bait vending machine and the Burgers and Bait restaurant. As you can see we are just blending in with the locals and the fish dinners aren't so bad either.

We're heading to Springfield, Missouri next week for a friends wedding and then up to Des Moines Iowa to visit the grave of Fene's Grandmother and a favorite cousin. Hope you enjoy the photos of the last couple of weeks.

We have found a cool way for you to see all our pictures as they were taken. Click on the link below to choose a section of pictures. Once inside the photo album click on the first photo and it will enlarge and give you navigational arrows for "back" and "next" so you can view the photos and comments at your leisure. Click on the "Click here to go Back to Album List" button to come back here and choose the next album.