Life's next chapter.....

I started this blog on Oct 23, 2006 just to write about life after Larry and I moved to Tucson. The blog then became a way for me to chronicle our travels so friends and family could follow along with us. Then it became my journal when Larry got sick with cancer and passed away 4 weeks later. The blog because a way for me to express my gut-wrenching feelings and get them out. Never in a million years did I think I would be that open with my feelings for others to know what I was feeling. Next the blog chronicled my life without Larry, travels with friends, travels by myself, Morris and I moving back to the Midwest to be near family and then loosing Morris 2 years ago. During the almost 10 years of writing the blog, I have written 666 posts that have been viewed 12,569 times. As most of you know, I'm starting a new chapter in my life and have been debating whether or not to continue the blog. However, after thinking about it for a couple of weeks and talking it over with Darryl, I am going to continue the blog. 8-)  Over the last 10 years it has become my journal and I enjoy it - plus it is a way to chronicle my life. To me, it is like writing a book in which I cover the good, the bad and the routine parts of my life. There is software available that will let you take a blog and turn it into a book which I'm thinking about doing it. Anyway, here goes with...

Life's Next Chapter....
You have a lot of heavy conversations with your spouse when they are sick and know they only have a few more days/weeks to live. There was two things that Larry was adamant about in those conversations where he talked and I listened because that was nothing I could say to him. First was that I would rely on my friends in Tucson who he knew would help me get through the next few weeks/months. I did and they got me through the hardest time of my life. Larry's second request was that I be open to love again with someone else down the road. Little did we know that it might come by way of the man I married at 17, divorced when I was 32 years old and them reconnected again with him when I was 71 years old. The chain of events that led to us reconnecting is far too complicated to try to explain but only could have happened with the guy upstairs having a hand in it. Darryl and I don't know for sure where it is going but time will tell. We have spent many, many hours on the phone since early last May and last weekend we met in Hays, Kansas for a face-to-face meeting. Darryl is coming here for a week in September and then I am going out to Denver in last September for 10 days to visit him. Time will tell....

Hays, Kansas
Hays was chosen as a place for us to meet because it is a 4 hour drive for me and a 5 hour drive for him so kinda in the middle. It is a small Kansas town, population 21,044, home of Fort Hayes State University and the largest town in northwestern Kansas. Here is some of what we found there.

There is a heard of about 40 buffalo next to the Old Historic Fort Hays Army Post. Here is two of the adults and the calf that was born this year. They were nice enough to come over to the watering hole that was near the fence and then went back to a far corner of the pasture.

Fort Hays Historic Site: The original fort was established in 1865 in the land of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, the fort protected railroad workers and travelers on the Smoky Hill Trail. The US Army operated Fort Hayes on this site from 1867 to 1889. The fort also served as a military supply depot for forts south and west of here. The fort consisted of 45 building on 65 acres of land. Only a few of the original buildings still exist. This building was built in 1872 as a guardhouse replacing the original wooden guardhouse.

On Sunday morning we drove the Smoky Valley Kansas Scenic Byway - one of 11 in the state. I had never heard of this particular one before. I had hoped to get some sunflower pictures so was delighted to see fields full of them along the drive.

This is an old church is set back in a grove of trees along the road. The carved stone sign above the door says: Swedish Luthern [not a misspelling] Emmanuel Church Trego Co. Kansas 1902.

These bluffs are along the banks of the Cedar Bluff Reservoir that was built in 1949 for flood control.
The bluffs were a landmark for wagon trains and contains name carvings dating back to the mid-1800s, and some are still visible today. Many of the inscriptions were carved by the "Pike's Peakers" in 1859 and U.S. cavalrymen (3rd Wisconsin and 13th Missouri) traveling along the BOD in 1865.

And then there is my favorite - The Basilica of St. Fidelis located in Victoria, Kansas - about 10 miles east of Hays. It is know as the Cathedral of the Plains and is one of the 8 wonders of Kansas. The town was settled in 1876 by immigrants, known as Volga-Germans,  from southern Russia. They built 3 smaller churches after outgrowing each of the previous ones. Construction on this building was started in 1908 and completed in 1911.

The exterior is constructed of native limestone. The stone for this massive e structure came from a quarry seven miles south. The extracting of the stone, loading it, hauling it, and then dressing it was a gigantic task and an amazing feat considering that it was accomplished without automatic lifts and power tools. The church structure is a cruciform, or built in the shape of a cross 220 feet long and 110 feet wide at the transepts and 75 feet at the nave. The massive twin bell towers are 141 feet tall and dominate the prairie landscape.The stones are about 8 inches in height and weighs 50-100 lbs each. The church was built entirely by the town members. Some families are recorded as hauling as many as 70-80 wagon loads of stone from the quarry to the church.

During my recent years of travels I have seen a lot of large, beautiful Catholic churches.  This one if right up there near the top. It is just magnificent! Besides being so beautiful, it is large and seats 1,100 people. Certainly not what you would expect out in the middle of nowhere in Kansas.

So, yes it was a good trip and we will see what the future holds for us. Stay tuned.... 8-)