![\"Rich](\"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Taking-a-walk-on-the-prairie.jpg\")
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Tuesday morning.\u00a0 It\u2019s time to drive from just north of Oklahoma City to Des Moines, IA.\u00a0 Rich wants to pronounce it, Des Moines and not Da Moin.\u00a0 Boys, what can you do with them.\u00a0 We grab breakfast and head on down the road.I totally forgot to mention that we drove through Moore, OK.\u00a0 This is one of the towns that were recently devastated by a tornado.\u00a0 You could see the path of twister and the wreckage it left behind.\u00a0 There was nothing standing but twisted and broken pieces of structures.\u00a0 The path across the interstate wasn\u2019t very wide, but you could see where it went.\u00a0 The path through the neighborhoods was so evident.<\/p>\n
I can assure you that there is nothing much north of Oklahoma City.\u00a0 Now here, the wind does whistle down the plains.\u00a0 It was pretty windy on the drive.\u00a0 I had very little company on the road.\u00a0 I was counting on a number of semis and locals, but they were few and far between.\u00a0 That made the drive easier, but also boring.\u00a0 How am I supposed to play leap frog without any frogs to leap?\u00a0 Did I mention there were lots of casinos on Indian reservations though?<\/p>\n
On our way out of Wichita, Rich found the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve on the map.\u00a0 It was described as being the last patch of standing tall grass prairie in the U.S.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t too far off of the route.\u00a0 We found the detour well marked and jumped off the tollway.\u00a0 I had a little trouble at the booth trying to get it to accept my dollar bills.<\/p>\n
This exit was in the middle of nowhere and going nowhere.\u00a0 I had two vehicles behind me waiting to pay their tolls!\u00a0 How did that happen?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see anyone and here I was holding up the line.\u00a0 I finally gave up and shoved in the old credit card.\u00a0 No, not mine.\u00a0 Rich\u2019s card!\u00a0 Off we went after that.<\/p>\n
We drove through some of those little towns that don\u2019t really exist anymore, except for a few houses.\u00a0 There was no store, gas station, or post office.\u00a0 The road wound through pastures with cows and horses. It was incredibly green out there.\u00a0 The best thing I saw was the Bazaar Cemetery.\u00a0 I loved the name.\u00a0 Of course, there was Bazaar the town and a church by the cemetery.<\/p>\n
We finally got to the preserve.\u00a0 It turned out to be an original ranch and farm started by Stephen and Louisa Jones in 1878 as a feed station for the family\u2019s larger cattle operation in Colorado.\u00a0 This was part of that romantic tale where cowboys moved cows from one location to another.\u00a0 Cows are still moved from Texas, Colorado, and surrounding states to this area during grazing season.\u00a0 But today, it\u2019s all done with trucks.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the ranch is an 11,000 acre spread owned by the Nature Conservancy in conjunction with the National Parks Service.\u00a0 There is an interpretative building.\u00a0 The house on the property was completed in 1881 and is quite nice.\u00a0 It is showing its age.\u00a0 I loved the walnut woodwork with its raised panels and gilding.\u00a0 The size of the house is still pretty impressive today.<\/p>\n
We walked from the top to the bottom of the house and viewed all of the rooms we were allowed to visit.\u00a0 The walnut staircase that runs through the middle of the house is very beautiful.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to image it being carved for this purpose.\u00a0 There were storm cellars, root cellars, kitchens, pantries, as well as the normal living rooms.<\/p>\n
The outbuildings included an ice house for refrigeration and a curing house where meats were salted and dried for use throughout the year.\u00a0 The best thing out there was the three-seater outhouse.\u00a0 There were two adult-sized seats and one child-sized seat for their daughter.<\/p>\n
We toured the barn as well.\u00a0 Who knew how happy I would feel standing in an old barn.\u00a0 It reminded me of being in the barn at my grandparents\u2019 farm.\u00a0 This barn was limestone walls with three separate floors for livestock, implements, and feed.<\/p>\n
We enjoyed the views and the wind.\u00a0 It felt great considering that the car said it was 116 degrees outside.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t do any serious hiking because of the temperatures and our lack of planning.\u00a0 We just didn\u2019t have the water needed to make the trek around some of the acres.<\/p>\n
We called it quits before the heat totally overcame us.\u00a0 We got back on the road to Kansas City.\u00a0 Our plan had been to return to Stroud\u2019s for a late lunch, early dinner.\u00a0 When we had been in the Kansas City area in June, we had dropped by for Sunday dinner.\u00a0 This was the best chicken I had in a long while.\u00a0 Now in Rich\u2019s estimation, Gus\u2019 Chicken in Memphis, TN is the best in the world.\u00a0 I\u2019m not so sure I would say that.\u00a0 Stroud\u2019s might be the best.<\/p>\n
We pulled into an empty parking lot with some confusion.\u00a0 Darn, they were closed until 5:00.\u00a0 It was only 4:00 now.\u00a0 We decided not to wait and went to try and find another destination for dinner.\u00a0 Can you believe, the other selections were all closed and moved on?\u00a0 There were other restaurants in their place and nothing we wanted to try.\u00a0 By now, it was 4:30.\u00a0 We decided not to waste any more time and returned to Stroud\u2019s.<\/p>\n
One gentleman had come in and we found some shade in the lot to park under.\u00a0 A couple of more cars had parked by the time we decided to go inside.\u00a0 There was already a waiting crowd of 6 people at this point.\u00a0 At least it was cool inside.\u00a0 We finally were shown to our table, which overlooked the lake at the side of the property.\u00a0 We got to watch the ducks, geese, and swans ambling around.<\/p>\n
Yep, the chicken was still excellent.\u00a0 This time we got our leftovers and the cinnamon rolls into boxes.\u00a0 Then it was time to head out again.\u00a0 We got back on the road to Des Moines.\u00a0 Up the road a ways, we decided we had to stop, but there wasn\u2019t anywhere.\u00a0 The rest stops were just picnic areas.\u00a0 We got desperate enough to stop at a convenient mart that looked a little questionable.\u00a0 The bathroom wasn\u2019t too clean, but it had a toilet.\u00a0 Just one toilet though.\u00a0 Rich beat me to it and I was the standing out there dancing for a bit.<\/p>\n
After that excitement, the road was pretty boring.\u00a0 We had expected rain on this part of the drive.\u00a0 The Weather Channel and Weatherbug were calling for 70 to 80 percent.\u00a0 There were clouds on the horizon, but nothing was very close.\u00a0 It made for a very nice sunset on my left.<\/p>\n
Finally, we hit Des Moines while there was still some daylight.\u00a0 We got checked in and set up.\u00a0 This was the only hotel that didn\u2019t have a frig.\u00a0 We had to drag out plug in cooler up from the car to keep our goodies.\u00a0 There was a bar though.\u00a0 We popped down for a beer and relax.\u00a0 The bartender was joking around with us as she was going about her work.\u00a0 There were several people in the bar, but they all seemed to be keeping to themselves.\u00a0 She actually tried to convince Rich to have one more.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think she wanted to be alone with just the guys hanging out there.\u00a0 She did have to tell one gentleman that she couldn\u2019t serve him anymore.\u00a0 She recommended he go to the bar next door.\u00a0 I figured he had been there a while and it was policy not to serve more than a certain number of drinks to one customer.\u00a0 So why was she trying to get Rich drunk?<\/p>\n
I was tired by now.\u00a0 I went up and fell into bed.\u00a0 Sleep was a while coming on, but it eventually overtook me with a warm and peaceful feeling.\u00a0 I think Rich went to bed at some time, but I can\u2019t tell you when.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>\n
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