Kansas Wildflowers

 Kansas is the Sunflower State. I was expecting to see fields of sunflowers, as in the grain. Instead, this is what I saw. 

Sunflowers, wild and like the weed, growing in ditches and unfarmed areas, but never at the location of a geocache. I really wanted photos of sunflowers. 

On our last day of geocaching, we headed down a minimum-maintenance road looking for a geocache at a bridge. Now, a bridge on a minimum-maintenance road can mean water, mud or even washed-out roads, or other unexpected obstacles. Since we were back in hill country, we could not see our destination, but Hubby forged on. We found the geocache and were able to turn the truck around and head back to the highway. The reward for driving the less-traveled road was Kansas Wildflowers!

Common Sunflower (with unidentified bugs)

Biennial Beebalm

Biennial Beebalm

Chicory

Periwinkle Blue Chicory

White Chicory

a bumble bee at work

Morning Glory

Blue Morning Glory

Firethorn (at a location in Leavenworth)

Goldenrod (also in Leavenworth)

Red Clover

Russian Sage (also in Leavenworth)

Sawtooth Sunflower

Sawtooth Sunflower

Northmoor Castle

 As I often do when we are driving in unfamiliar places with many major roads, I put the final coordinates for a nearby geocache to get us headed in the correct direction and on the right road. When I looked at the geocaching map on Sunday morning, I saw a geocache with over 700 favorite points. It was nearby, in the correct direction, and just off the correct road. Hubby agreed it was worth the stop.

When I looked at the geocaching description, I knew of this place. It was once featured as the Geocache of the Week on July 30, 2014.

Castle Northmoor was built by Harlan Shaver in 1981-1983. He built the one-man castle in the front yard of his home. (I do not know who is currently living at the residence, but they are gracious enough to allow strangers to come to the tower and 'snoop around' while looking for the geocache.)

from our parking spot, we did not see the circular 

staircase for climbing in the tower

The stone tower is 40-feet tall and features handmade oak doors and oil portraits Shaver painted of medieval knights. (After 40 years, some of the original items on and in the tower are no longer there.)

We walked down the steps and began climbing the circular staircase, which had a very secure and sturdy handrail.

the door was open to level 2

The walls, floor and window sills held an assortment of medieval-themed items from weapons and armor, to furniture and statues.

door to level 3 was closed, but not secured

a telescope for stargazing

helmets above the windows

window sill decor

We climbed the steps to the very top to find this often used gathering space.

a knight guarding the location of the geocache

complete with cannon and cannon balls

and finally, the treasure

a ammo container with the geocaching logbook

Harlan Shaver, a decorated Vietnam Veteran, passed away in February 2024 at the age of 75. This is from his obituary: He was a long-time resident of Northmoor, MO where he was the mayor for 20 years.  Harlan was well known for his beautiful Masonry work where he built many stone entryways and monuments in the Metro area.  Something he took pride in. 

This is just ONE of the many things I love and enjoy about geocaching: the unique and unexpected places and things we see.

 

Kansas Road Trip, Days 2 & 3

 The plan to continue collecting Kansas county geocaches was to drive east, north, west, north, east, etc. getting as many counties as possible before meeting OUF in Kansas City on Friday evening. 

The plan was to find geocaches along the route, not too far off the highways if possible. So many of the roadway geocaches were missing/not found by previous geocachers. Finding virtual caches (because there is no container) was at the top of our list.

Veterans Memorial caches were also on the list

colorful roses at the Veterans Memorial in Iola

When possible, we also look for Welcome to... geocaches. We have more than 200 found and signed geocaches from our travels on the Welcome to... list.

We were traveling along the Santa Fe Trail for part of our road trip. This cache was at a well.

Palmya Well was dug by hand when the town of Palmya was established in 1857. The well served travelers on the Santa Fe Trail as well as the townspeople. The well is 2.5' in diameter and 56' deep, and about 17' of water.

prison at Leavenworth

Urban geocache containers go missing often, but this one was present.

a neighborhood garden

mural near our second geocache find in Leavenworth

We looked for a challenge geocache at a park along the Missouri River in Leavenworth. Although the cache owner said it was just replaced, we did not have any success finding it.

the location was scenic

the park was between the Missouri River and the railroad

colorful mural at the rail yard

Hyde Park in Kansas City

a street light in the middle of the intersection of two streets

Installed in the 1920s at Linwood Boulevard and The Paseo, Kansas City’s first controlled intersection signaled the city's growing reliance on automobiles.

Designed by architect Edward Buehler Delk — best known for the timeless design of the Country Club Plaza — the 17-foot-tall traffic light became a local landmark due to its unique structure and placement.

Remarkably, this historic traffic signal remains operational today.

one of our BBQ dinners Friday night

one of OFD's BBQ choices

County caching in Kansas is complete! All 105 counties have at least one found and logged geocache. The difference in colors signifies the number of geocache finds. The two darkest colors are counties with 51 (lowest brown county) and 166 in the upper brown county, which is home to Mingo, the oldest active geocache in the world.

There was only one road detour that affected our planned route, adding approximately 50 miles. Oh, and there was the one geocache on 6 miles of unpaved roads that filled the truck box with fine chalk colored dust, only to not find the geocache. The description led ME to believe it was in a cemetery on a rarely traveled road, but the coordinates were not in the cemetery. So that drive was for naught and resulted in a disgruntled driver.

We logged 43 geocaches in the 21 counties. Seven states have found & logged caches in every county: South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wyoming, New Mexico and Arizona.

Kansas Road Trip, Day 1

 OFD suggested a weekend in Kansas City to enjoy southern BBQ and watch the MN Twins and KC Royals baseball game. That was the excuse Hubby needed to geocache in Kansas.

There are 21 white counties on the map. Twenty-one counties without a geocache find. So, road trip to KS to geocache before Saturday's game. The plan was to geocache from north to south in the westernmost counties.

squirrel sighting!

When we road trip geocache, we look for 2 easy-to-find, recently found caches and move on, as we have miles to cover. This was at a welcome center in Council Grove.

colorful wall mural near the welcome center

interesting cloud and cloud build-up that I began watching

This cache was not on Hubby's list, but I thought we needed to add it to the list. It was right along the planned route and was recently found.

easy find and SO worth the stop, just for the photo!

We find a good number of caches in cemeteries. For some reason, they are usually still there,  unlike many other geocaches along the highways and in the towns.

storm build-up, but a beautiful photo

This was another geocache not on Hubby's list, but we wanted to beat the rain. A quick find in Cambridge at a closed restaurant.

Can you spot the difference in the two photos and find the geocache?

We reached our goal for day one. Caches found in six counties and reaching the southernmost one. Seventeen counties to go! Bonus? No rain and no storm.