More about Lyons and Central Kansas

Our visit with my sister, sadly, had to end today (Wednesday, July 5). We headed south, eventually getting onto I-35 through Wichita and Oklahoma City. In our trek today, we actually crossed our west-bound path on I-40, but continued south toward Dallas, Texas. Tonight we are camping in a beautiful new campground: By The Lake RV Park, in Ardmore, OK. It's not crowded, has nice wide sites with paved roads and concrete pads. There is a small lake for fishing, a pool, and lots of sunshine (very few trees, all newly planted).

I would like to say a little more about Lyons. This is a great example of small-town America. Everyone knows everyone and greets their neighbors with a smile or friendly wave. For the weekend, there was a classic car exhibit at the town square, and fireworks on Tuesday night. The gathering place in town is the local Dairy Queen. We went there Sunday morning for breakfast, and again on Monday morning for coffee. Conversations among the locals centered on farm life topics like the price of wheat, and stories about equipment repairs and of course the recently completed harvest.

I mentioned the other day that the main product from this area is grain. But there is another important resource: energy. There is oil and natural  gas under those wheat fields. So, many of the towns have petroleum processing plants or host interstate pipelines, and their management, that ship oil, gas, propane, and other energy products across the country. We saw ethanol plants too that take advantage of the corn and milo grown locally. Also beneath those fields of grain lies salt. Salt mining is another business there and Lyons has a salt processing plant. When the salt has been removed from under ground, a cavern remains. Those caverns become storage vaults for the energy products - kept there until its needed to heat our homes and power our autos.

We spent time visiting with my sister and her husband of course. But also took a few trips into the towns for errands, supplies and some sightseeing. We had a tour of Lyons and drove to Hutchinson where we visited the Cosmosphere - a state-of-the-art museum devoted to the history of space travel from World War II to the present day. They had numerous artifacts including actual V-1 and V-2 rockets, a SR-71, the Space Shuttle Endeavor and the Apollo 13 capsule.

Tomorrow, we continue into Texas, destination Austin, to visit Em's brother. From there we head for home, planning to take our time and enjoy a few more nights camping.