register |  login
› BRIGHTON
Loading Ad
Visit Other Hubs:
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Tower
RECENT STORIES

Journey to the face of the sun

Contributed by: William Boucher on 7/17/2006

One may question the wisdom of visiting Kansas in the middle of July, but that's where mom lives so we went anyway. Remember that scene in The Rock where Sean Connery rolls through the steam engine? That was really cool, by the way. That's the kind of heat we are talking about here. I actually saw a squirrel trying to chew off his own fur.

So, we start early Friday morning. We are on the road by 6:45. We get on 470 and head for 70 east.

"You can go to sleep now," Judy said.

"No, baby. I'm going to stay up and keep you company," I replied.

The first time I woke up, we were almost to Deer Trail. The second time, we were just about to Burlington. You see, Judy's car seat has an aphrodisiac affect.... no wait, make that a tranquilizing affect. The aphrodisiac effect was when we were first dating. Car shenanigans are no longer logistically viable with my increased girth. It's amazing how fast these trips go now.

We stop in Burlington to get gas, or as I like to say, to be petrolly violated. We paid 3.029 here and my shock is duly noted in the accompanying photos. Being that station is two feet from the interstate, I should have expected it, I guess. Anyway, we're on the road again.

Time for some traveling tunes. Now, my personal favorite is the best of Journey, although I cannot stand Only the Young. Skip that and the rest of the disk is cool. Now, from years of making this drive by myself, I am ashamed to admit, I have the song order on this disc memorized.

Usually, after I belt out Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin', Judy and I are Journeyed out. The Best of the Smithereens and The Waterboy soundtrack get us to Hays, Kansas, where we stop for lunch.

Hays has been around since 1867. It grew from the extension of the Union Pacific railroad west and also Fort Hays which was established in 1865 to protect railroad workers and also travelers on the Smoky Hill Trail to Denver.

The picture of the Hays monument shows artist Pete Felten's use of native limestone. A visit to this site will not only give you some history of the fort, but also show how limestone was used extensively in buildings due to the sparseness of wood. Limestone was also used for fence posts in those days as well.

After a quick lunch, we hit the road again. By 3 pm, we were at Mom and Dee's house in Assaria, a small town south of Salina.

We chewed the fat for a while, had supper, and watched a couple of movies. Jodie Foster was great in Flight Plan. After that we watched what was quite possibly the worst spaghetti western ever made. It was made in 1998, which surprised me. I didn't think they made spaghetti westerns anymore. Perhaps it's good that they don't.

It was intriguing in that it starred Harvey Keitel and David Bowie. In the realm of for love or money, I believe this one was for the money. I'm pretty sure they didn't think this one was going to reach the U.S.

Saturday, we went to the Smoky Hill Winery. Judy and I have been a fan of their wines for a while, but had never been to the actual winery. After tasting lots of wines, we chose two bottles of Norton Blackberry, one bottle of Red Raspberry, and one of Pink Catawba, a blush.

The Norton blackberry was very good. In fact on the selection sheet I believe I wrote, "Yes, yes, oh God, yes." After that we went ten or so miles north to Minneapolis, Kansas to see Rock City.

These giant spherical boulders are made by a natural process called sandstone concretion, and are quite amazing. Go here for a more detailed explanation and better pictures. Later, we went out to supper at a buffet steak place. Finally, somewhere I'm not the fattest. If you are the fattest at the buffet, you've got serious problems.

Sunday, we got up and went to church with mom, a practicing Catholic. Forget The Davinci Code. You need a theological historian just to help you follow the Catholic missal. I believe they do this instead of putting the procedure in the bulletin, so they know who the non-Catholics are.

Add that to the exercise regimen (stand, sit, kneel, sit, stand, etc.) and you have a 5.0 level of difficulty. As a six year veteran of Catholic school, it comes back to me pretty quickly. Poor Judy, however, has that deer caught in the headlights look on her face.

After mass, we met mom's husband, Dee, for lunch at IHOP. The highlight was when the man next to our table suffered a fit of involuntary flatulence as he bent over to pick up his child.

Everyone gets the "was that what I think it was?" look on their face and starts giggling. Fortunately the man's bark was worse than his bite, if you know what I mean.

After a delightful breakfast, hugs, and kisses we said our good-byes and headed back to Brighton. It's always great to see Mom and Dee. We can't wait to go back in August for our family reunion.


SUBMIT COMMENT

Rate the above story



Current Rating
Based on 5 user ratings.

Talk Back : submit comments to the story

*Note: you need to log-in to add a comment or rating.

Showing 1-4 of 4 comments
Submitted By: William Boucher
posted on 7/25/2006 @ 4:00:56 PM
Rated Story
Classic lyric, The morning sun is rising. It's kissing the day.
[Report as objectionable]
Submitted By: Travis Henry
posted on 7/25/2006 @ 1:59:07 PM
Rated Story
I'm with you on Journey. They started out as my favorite band and just got progressively worst. Wheel in the Sky is their best.
[Report as objectionable]
Submitted By: Jared Keller
posted on 7/18/2006 @ 10:58:34 AM
Rated Story
Nothing says "You've Arrived" like steak at the Conoco. Great post!
[Report as objectionable]
Submitted By: Joe McDaniel
posted on 7/17/2006 @ 1:25:25 PM
Rated Story
Great read. I hope one day my kids can write about visiting me and do it half as well.
[Report as objectionable]
Showing 1-4 of 4 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

William Boucher

Brighton , CO

William Boucher has posted 65 stories and 145 comments since joining on 11/6/2005. William Boucher 's average story rating is 5.
SAVE AND SHARE THIS STORY
STORY RSS FEEDS
WANT TO WRITE FOR YOURHUB.COM?
Want to see the stories you write and the photos you shoot featured in the YourHub.com Thursday print section available all over the Front Range and with home subscriptions of the Rocky Mountain News and The Denver Post? All you have to do is register, then post a story or column, start a blog or tell everyone what events are happening in town. We will print the best stories, columns, event listings, photos and blog entries in our print sections.

ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

Loading Ad
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading Ad

This YourHub.com community is produced by The Denver Newspaper Agency
Web Development and Channel Analytics provided by Indigio

terms of use //  privacy policy
the staff //  advertise //  help & faq
buy photos