Topeka Part 1

— First and foremost I’m wishing a quick and healthy recovery for the six injured firefighters in Kansas City. I spent one day with a member of the KCFD and a few of the firefighters were willing to take me up in the bucket, 95 feet in the air, to take photos of the skyline. —

After working two twelve-hour days with teacher-parent conferences, Marcia had Friday off. After a slow and easy moving morning we headed out to see some of the city. Anytime I’m in a Capital city I try to make a point to see the capitol building. So far I have seen the capitols of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Montana, Idaho, Hawaii, Arizona, and New Mexico. But I have also driven by and seen the capitols of Iowa, Colorado, Nebraska and Utah. That’s a pretty good list so far. I’m still sold on Idaho being my favorite one so far. Kansas would have a great shot at it, but unfortunately they are under some construction until 2011.

So there we are, walking back outside of the capitol and it’s nearly a whiteout. It was quite beautiful but I wasn’t dressed properly, so I was a bit chilly. It cut our Topeka tour short since the visibility was quite low. However, we did head into Topeka High School, the first high school in the country to cost over $1,000,000. It’s a pretty cool place. The snow didn’t last long, it quite snowing by sunset and only a few inches of accumulation.

For dinner we headed just around the corner of the neighborhood to Marcia’s mom’s house for dinner. They warned me ahead of time that she would be sure to try and get me to eat as much as possible. I really appreciate that though. As a solo traveling man for a year I thought I might get hungry at times, but I have eaten quite well because of people like this. At 87 she is the oldest person on the trip to have me over at her house. She was running around making sure dinner was just right and that everything was out and prepared. For 87 I was blown away by how healthy she is. She has a group of lady friends who are al 10-20 years younger, and I hear she’s in the best shape of all of them. She stays young by watching almost every movie that comes to the theatre and taking care of plenty of dogs when people are out of town. A true sweetheart of a grandma, and I loved her quote, “I get all the church emails. I delete them all.” Of course she meant to say that she reads them first before deleting them. A special thanks for keeping my trip alive, as she wouldn’t let me leave without putting a small donation in my hand. Thanks!