Making Our Way East

We had a very interesting trip east to Indiana where we are now comfortably located at Jerry's son's house, visiting friends and family and taking care of business.

The trip through Kansas and Missouri was more eventful than we had anticipated when planning to "just jump on I70 and head east." We found a beautiful Corps of Engineers park in eastern Kansas called Wilson Lake where we spent four instead of the two nights we put into our very lose schedule. On our first day we explored the small town of Lucas, Kansas, where it turns out a man named S. P. Dunsmoor built what he called the Garden of Eden in the early 1900s. He started a trend toward "Grassroots Art" in this tiny town. His sculptures adorn the grounds of his home and are unique in their design and their message. Here is a sample of the pieces to be seen there. They include pieces relating to the Bible and political statements concerning his Populist beliefs.
As we "toured" the town we learned that Grassroots Art is blooming everywhere, including the local Art Center displaying various types of work of artists from Kansas. It was fun learning about this style that is totally open to any expression and doesn't necessarily include formal training of any kind. We were smiling a lot!!

One artist, Mri Pilar, has invented a style called ReBarb. Her works cover the walls of a home in Lucas. Here is a sample of one of her pieces. Who would imagine!!!



















Pictured here is Lonesome Joe Meets Flirty Gerti, one of the works at the Lucas Grassroots Arts Center. Don't you just love it.




As we took in a few other small towns in the area, such as Victoria, where we visited the Cathedral of the Plains and Wilson, where we enjoyed a great meal at the "Made From Scratch" local diner, we agreed this stop was one of our favorite surprises on-the-road. That includes Kansas' beautiful rolling hills of waving green wheat that resembled the scenery in Ireland.

As we continued East we stopped at Hermann, Missouri, a river town in wine country that we enjoyed at the beginning of our RV life a few years ago. It was another enjoyable visit, taking in a few wineries, the just-opened German brewery and a fabulous Swiss meat market. This is another place that we would recommend for a nice break for a few days.