Day 23: Grey Day in SW Kansas

Much cooler — high maybe 80? But pretty nasty grey and rainy for the most part. Until the last couple hours. So not the prettiest of pictures — but still better than nothing until I can get out here the next time. I’m writing this the morning after as the sun is just coming up. On one side, those nasty black clouds and the other side more promising with clear mixed with orangey. The orangey sky is where I’m heading.

The dogs and Sparkle are all great. Just want to bang out this post before I get too backed up. Definitely socializing tonight and won’t have time to post.

I stumbled upon another former Ku-Ku restaurant. This one in Garden City. They botched it up with that box in front and the reroofing didn’t help. Here’s another one and the info in the caption:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/4883816617/

A couple old motels hanging on in Dodge City:

This one also at the Bel-Air — nice day, huh?

I had a mild bout of food poisoning or something and wound up spending more time in Kinsley than expected. I think it might have been that egg sandwich? But I’m all better now. I prowled around town a bit as I recuperated and found this small town mid-century bank. Note a very live-able 73 degrees – but I’ll take the sun and 100 degrees over this.

From Larned:

Another from Larned. I’ve seen a lot of these plastic Carrier signs in Kansas:

From downtown Pratt. Probably their nicest Art Deco building and they’ve mucked it up with this crappy sign/clock:

Let’s call this one “Moderne Building with Trailer”. No way to avoid it. Maybe on a sunnier day in the future, they’ll have moved this thing.

A Valentine diner in Ellinwood:
http://www.kshs.org/diners/kansas/northcentral/ellinwood.htm

Two chainsaw wood carvings in McPherson. This woman doesn’t seem to be standing near a school. There is a church across the street but I don’t think that’s the connection.

And in front of Central Christian College — mascot I presume:

I briefly visited with Erika Nelson of World’s Largest Things…
http://www.worldslargestthings.com/aboutus.htm

who was in Newton working with some folks on a big mural downtown. They’ll be painting it until mid-September. A lot of prep goes into it. This color mock-up is roughly what it will look like (taken from above, ladder visible at bottom of photo):

One of the guys she’s working with did this wall mural in Hutchinson. The one in Newton will be about the same size:

Erika’s art car, “Scout”, was there at the gallery where the planning is taking place. I could not get a good shot of it since it was in a tricky spot and the sun was not in my favor. Suffice it so say there are lots of dinosaurs and other critters embedded in tar, children’s ponies in the back pierced by arrows, astroturf, etc. and “Combat Generica” emblazoned on the side. Here’s another photo of Scout but it still doesn’t show much:
http://www.worldslargestthings.com/images/scout/door_shot.jpg

It wound up being a very quick meeting since she was hard at work. I was to return at night to witness the outline being projected and painted onto the wall. But there was a problem with the measurement of the projected image and so the work was called off for the night. So my revisit to Newton did not happen. I was greatly disappointed — maybe enough to return there after my dinner/drinks in Winfield tonight? We shall see.

Let’s close with some photos from Hutchinson. Just moments after I snapped this photo, the business owner came out of the office screaming and waving and clapping his hands — and I just drove off slowly like he didn’t exist. Sheesh!