Sunset

I love Kansas and one thing I really love about Kansas is the beautiful sunsets we have. This is a picture I took a couple of weeks ago of the sunset when we were at the Trailerhood.    The sunrise is almost as nice but there are trees blocking the view so it doesn't come out quite as well.

West of the trailer is a cotton field.  I never think of cotton when I think of the crops of Kansas, but apparently it is quite popular.  We see a lot of fields in that area.

I love the Trailerhood but not always the uninvited "friends" we have there.  Different weekends seem to have different pests.  Mice are found now and then - knock on wood - we haven't found any in a couple of months.  Once we had a snake crawling up the outside of the trailer and peeking inside the window at us.  That was really not a good experience.   Another time there were tons of wasps - we used two cans of wasp spray before we bought a wasp trap that worked great.  Flies are bad occasionally and spiders were abundant outside last time.  Dennis and I were sitting by the firepit side by side when I turned to say something to him and a spider was hovering from a tree between us.  I felt like Little Miss Muffett.  I jumped so high I think Dennis thought I had seen a snake. 

Yarn Bombing

After we finished the Rumble in Delano (previous post) we all drove out to WSU to see the yarn bombing.  Knitters and crocheters had covered statues, trees, flower gardens, and you name it with yarn creations.  The work and expensive of the yarn was tremendous. Many of the creations had to be placed on the objects then the knitter had to sew the seam so these gals were there a long time setting this up.  The results were beautiful and fun.  Many people were at WSU  wandering around campus all week looking at the creations.   The sign above explains the project better than I so I think if you click on the picture you will be able to read it.  I was proud that Twist (my favorite yarn shop) was mentioned as a sponsor of the event.  I am sure that Shelly (the owner) was annoyed at the newspaper article that instead of interviewing her, interviewed the owner of another yarn shop in town that had nothing to do with it.  Yarn bombings happen all over the world and it was very exciting to see it happen here in Wichita.  The yarn creations were only up for a week - but there are rumors there will be another bombing in town some day.

Wolf in sheep clothing with three silly girls

Rumble in Delano

The annual car show on west Douglas is called the Rumble in Delano.  It has cars, pretty girls and loud music - plus food vendors. What more could a person want.  We met Jimmy and family at TJ's diner and had their delicious hamburgers - best in town then walked along Douglas and looked at the cars.  It is a perfect size car show - enough cars to interest the adults but not so many the girls got bored. 
 Some of the cars are just beautiful

Others were just very interesting - this one was a huge hit with Izzy - didn't think we would ever get her away from it.

and some were just funny.

Check out the phone between the seats

State Fair - Day 9 - last day

The last day was a lot of fun thanks to our son and his family coming.  We had a great time with the girls and their folks.  We saw the seal show, helped put tiles in the mosaic the art council had set up, saw the rabbits and poultry, had a little picnic at the camper, got faces painted, rode carnival rides and rode the sky lift that took us from one end of the fairgrounds to the other.   We ended the day with free ice cream again and three very tired little girls and their equally tired parents headed back home. 

State Fair Day 8

Day 8 at the fair was rather boring but Day 9 made up for it.  On Day 8 we saw the Boeing Jazz band, spent time at the Watusi cattle show and spent quite awhile going through the commercial buildings one more time in case we missed a handy dandy kitchen gizmo or something else that we can't imagine how we lived so long without.  Some of the presenters are pretty funny - I overheard one giving a kitchen show and he was passing out toothpicks so the audience could taste the things he had cooked during the demonstration - "ok folks, this is the next to the last day and I am running low on toothpicks, so if you could just lick them clean after you try the food and put them back in the container, maybe I won't run out" 

The Ankole-Watusi is a breed of cattle originally native to Africa. Its large, distinctive horns that can reach up to 8 feet (2.4 m) from tip to tip, are used for defense. Ankole-Watusis weigh from 900 to 1,600 pounds (410 to 730 kg).  (thank you Wikipedia)

State Fair Day 7

More fun - more amazement.  The chainsaw artist is so talented !  We watched him for a little while earlier in the week and today sat and watched the whole process.   I can't imagine how he can take part of a tree and a variety of chainsaws and end up with the cool things he makes.

We also watched the Celebrity Goat Milking contest (which Roger Cornish said "I don't know where they get the celebrity goats).   We finished the day with the pig races.  The pigs are really nothing but the two kids (in their 20's) are great comedians.  They had us all laughing with their corny silly jokes.