Waaaay too early …
First, some back story. In the far away year of 2016, while minding my own business and taking to co-workers on a drive back from the airport, my 2007 Kia Sorento got totaled when the driver of the giant Dodge Ram behind me on traffic-jam central (114W in rush hour traffic) decided that brakes weren’t a thing and plowed into my car. Not only did that wipe out the Sorento, but collateral damage was inflicted on my first really nice road bike – my 2012 Specialized Roubaix. Thanks …
From there, I scrounged enough couch change and lint to buy a burnished copper colored AWD Kia Sportage, which was the de facto transport for almost every driving trip since. 157000 miles and planned for 100000 more – had in fact just replaced struts and shocks and fixed a minor trim issue, given this was the car we’d be taking to New Mexico and beyond.
Fast forward – spring of 2021. Having survived 0F temperatures and driving back from Atlanta into the ice and snow of our deep freeze, my car was parked outside the tiny apartment garage I’d been provided by my landlord. This was one of many ongoing problems – having been promised a large enough garage to store both my vehicle and bikes / kayaks, four months into my residence, I still had no room to park the car inside without putting all my other stuff outside.
We live in Texas, and the weather is as variable as the terrain. April 28th, we got the Texas version of Armageddon – supercell storms with tornados and more importantly, marble- to baseball-sized hail. Unprotected vehicles, meet chunks of ice falling from 40000 feet in the air. Never ends well.
The Sportage had front and back windows knocked out, and sky-facing surfaces now had the lovely texture of a well- used golf ball. Cue 2 weeks of waiting for insurance to sort out and confirm that my car was now considered as useful as a third ear in between the shoulder blades.
The aftermath:
A new car would need to be acquired. This was a challenge in 2021, as supply chain issues had limited options in most areas of the country. After weeks in a rental car, dealing with insurance while constantly checking Autotrader.com for a like-for-like replacement, scouring Texas for vehicles and being told by dealers they’d be happy to sell me a vehicle for $3000 above MSRP (I’m sure you would, assholes …) – we finally got a fit. It wasn’t optimal but “would suffice” and the price was closer to reasonable. One problem – the vehicle was located in Kansas City, MO.
A short discussion and we had made plans to retrieve this vehicle, figuring we could knock out a quick (very, very quick) road trip and cram in some Midwestern exploration along the way.
Saturday 2021 05 15
Given a single day to get to Missouri, complete the purchase of a vehicle, and navigate over 500 miles home (and we knew that wouldn’t be a straight-through drive), we looked for early flights out of Dallas. We were excited (cough) to see a 6AM flight from scenic Love Field – that meant an Uber from the house around 3:45AM …
Between the pleasant crew on our Southwest Airlines flight and a calm group of passengers who did not argue about masks or demand their freedom, the early morning flight to Kansas City was quick and uneventful. We arrived to grey skies and cool weather. It felt like we had flown to Seattle, not the Midwest. The forecast for the rest of the trip looked positive – hopefully no hail would intercept the newly acquired vehicle.
Walking through one of the most depressing airports in the United States, we made it out to the curb for a very short ride to the dealership. Having been in KC for business a few times prior, this was a familiar drive through the exurbs of the city.
Time spent negotiating and sorting out purchase over the phone from Texas paid off – the vehicle was ready to drive away, and we kept the conversation short, not an easy task when dealing with car salespeople. It was sad to replace the perfect fit of the copper Sportage with a charcoal grey Seltos – there were quite a few compromises made that would eventually lead to yet another long-distance car purchase (another post). That said, a brand new, quiet and well-appointed vehicle was nice to drive and we settled in as we drove it through the rolling streets of Kansas City (Missouri).
Kansas City on the Missouri side is built up the hillside from the Missouri River and in early summer, was green, leafy, and humid. Lots of older houses spread through established neighborhoods, with a distinctly Midwest feel. A nice change, and we decided leaves are prettier in Missouri than Texas.
Close by the dealership was a lot more scrubby retail area, where they hyper-green grass was set off against the water in the fountains … very, very blue. We wondered if we had entered into some alternate universe where drinking water is provided by Disney Corporation … or by exsanguination of Smurfs.
The internet told us that it’s actually has something to do with the Kansas City Royals (a baseball team for those who don’t follow sports), but “Smurf blood” sounds more fun.
The first official ride in the Kia went something like this:
Having crossed into Kansas after car purchase, we had to explore several Atlas Obscura bookmarks and random points of interest along the way.
The Wheatley-Provident Hospital operated from 1902 to 1972 and was one of the first in the nation entirely staffed by African American doctors, nurses and administrators. Sadly, the old building was in really poor shape. According to Atlas Obscura, the property was purchased in 2018 with the intent to redevelop, but it doesn’t appear any progress has been made.
Second odd stop: An old prison turned into graffiti playground.
The Kansas City Workhouse housed inmates for decades, beginning in 1897. The building was used for various other city programs, and finally shut its doors in the 1970s.
This wasn’t a high security facility and, prisoners here spent many years building public works in the community. As we continued our tour through Kansas City, it occurred to us some of the limestone buildings probably were constructed by the inmates who lived in this odd castle like structure.
Next odd stop: not actually odd, but we found coffee at a local joint named Oddly Correct. A great coffee shop, with octopi in much of the artwork and design around their coffee and food. Between professionally brewed coffee and espresso, a recyclable jelly jars with insulated Koozie sleeves for coffee, and shirts, graphic art, and a damn good sausage and pimento cheese breakfast biscuit. The “Fear Not Black Coffee” shirt was a win that we had to acquire.
Coffee and biscuits and shirts acquired, it was time to grab some pictures of what appeared to be a college / gentrified / refurbished neighborhood with a collection of quirky shops, restaurants and sports bars. Nothing spectacular, but we enjoyed the old buildings and graffiti sightings.
There is an impressive amount of public art spread around the city on various buildings and walls. To go along with the theme of bright green grass and blue fountains; this city has color everywhere. Some of it appears to be city-sponsored, some spontaneous contributions by local businesses, but all adding to a distinctly funky vibe layered over mid-century stone work and downtown architecture.
We wound up grabbing a sandwich at a moderately crappy chain as we realized we were burning daylight, and then headed south. The Overland Park area and southern Kansas City, Kansas, are an interesting blend of newer development and older, tree-lined boulevards and moderate to impressively large houses. We’ll have to return and explore some more …
Finally clearing the city suburbs, we started to see what we’d expect in Kansas – rolling farmlands, grain towers, lonely houses, and lots and lots of open skies. That said, we were looking for “Wizard of Oz” flat, and instead found hills and water and trees, which reminded us that stereotypes and expectations can be misleading.
Our first town out of KC was Louisburg, where the local barbeque joint doesn’t actually serve BBQ, but pizza. We think the saw signs for catfish as well, so the term neither “fish nor fowl” seemed to apply here.
Downtown Louisburg presented an absolutely standard midwest downtown, small shops in varying states of liveliness, some tourists, but mainly middle America hanging on desperately to a fading reality:
Next town: Paola, where everything is green. Paola has a nice little downtown, colorful buildings on the square, and is home to the Potawotami Trail of Death. Sadly, we didn’t have time to explore the death trail, but we did wander around town capturing some of the insanely lush grass under the inordinately green trees. Being from Texas, such bounty of greenness and chlorophyll is a bit shocking.
On to Osawatomie. Another idling Midwest town, this one was distinguished by some Works Progress Administration era bridges that had reached the “not safe for public consumption” state. Scaling concrete and questionable weight bearing capacity led to the bridge being closed to both car and foot traffic – hopefully local funding or federal dollars can be applied to repair and refurbish the bridge. Layout of the town across creeks and valleys means that loss of bridges like this breaks up the cohesity and layout of a small town.
This car was parked nearby, which confused us. Evidently an Osawatomian driver left their creepy friend in the car while they went to play on the broken bridge.
The schools, like the bridges, look like they could use some work.
Heading south from Osawotomie, we admired more of the Kansas countryside. The amount of sky was not exactly shocking to Texans but made for some nice scenery as we headed south and slowly acclimated to the new Seltos.
In Garnett, we found this combination church and school slowly falling into disrepair. The basketball court outside seemed functional but the windows and trim were starting to show some age. Like several other stops along the way, it was difficult to determine what’s still in use, what’s temporarily empty, and what’s headed for collapse.
The less-maintained basketball court next door to the church looked like it hadn’t seen a ball bouncing on its turf in years.
The cemetery north of Garnett was in much better shape than the school, so we took a quick walk across the perfect grass before leaving continuing on our way.
Avoiding freeways and interstates allows a lot more casual pace during travel, and lets voyagers see much more of an area than you can absorb when driving through at 85 mph. One example – further down the two-lane country roads from Garnett, we crossed an intersection in the middle of nowhere, and spotted this gas station melting into the woods. At highway speed, it would have been a blip, but at our pace, we couldn’t resist a stop to explore.
Again with the colors. It’s not just Kansas City – they’re all over the state. This bright yellow and rust-colored semi stood out against the green background, as did the fading red firetruck, sitting a few yards away. What a weird, colorful junkyard of a place.
The next town was Moran, where we found less colors and another quietly empty Main Street.
After Moran, more watched more of the wide open Kansas landscape fly by – as we moved closer to Oklahoma, we were finally seeing the stereotypical and expected flats and fields.
The town of Thayer appeared to be crumbling even faster than the last several we’d been through. We wondered what sort of events happen at the Old Rock House Supper Club where the once bright pink front door had lost most of its color and energy.
The next town we passed through was Cherryvale, where we were greeted with a cheerful, colorful (what else?) Cherryvale sign.
And – of course – trash cans decorated with cherries.
This old building in the middle of town is currently in process of a remodel into a bed and breakfast. It looks like it might be ready in about 2025.
Exiting town was interrupted by the sight of a failed motel on the roadside. Of course we had to stop and investigate, capturing a few photos of another piece of Americana.
Close to the Kansas border now, and the sun was still up. This was good, although we calculated we were probably 4 hours behind schedule at this point …
Checking our course we decided to divert over to 75 and stop in Bartlesville for dinner. However the first town across the border was Dewey, with a dusty garage waiting for Monday morning customers.
This bed and breakfast in town looked to be in actual operation, rather than possible future occupancy.
Breakfast had happened way back at Oddly Correct Coffee, so by the time we drove over this bridge into Bartlesville, OK, we were starving.
Having visited Bartlesville several years prior for work, one of us remembered a strip of restaurants and shops near the old downtown area. Scouting via Google for “gastropubs” (sometimes turns up interesting offbeat restaurants), we found a candidate for dinner. A local place called Crossing 2nd. Built in an old industrial shop of some sort, and with inside, outside, and garage seating, we were happy to see a menu with decent non-alcoholic beverages and a selection of small plates. The food and service were both excellent, and we wished we had picked another year to stop drinking. Alas.
Having put several hundred miles on it already, here’s our first official picture of the new Kia Seltos. This is after some backroad driving, of course, so not brand new and shiny. Still nice. Still not a Sportage …
Having bookmarked a couple of spots on the way into town for post-dinner investigation, we headed back north a few miles. We explored these two places buildings which were buried in the weeds about a mile north of town. The first appeared to have been some sort of concession stand.
Camera in hand, fighting through the thick green weeds, the amateur photographer heard voices on the other side of, or maybe inside of the building. Evidently, someone had made this little place his or her home. Avoiding the transient residents, we made sure not to get too close.
We were able to see a sign over the door: “Bitinis”. Turns out, this place has roots in the origins of Bartlesville. It was originally owned by the Bartles family, prior to selling to a Jon Dimitri Bitinis and his family, who ran a service station for years before his death in 1958. Research indicates they may have owned a root beer stand as well – possibly the building above? Since then, both have just been left to fall apart.
Leaving the Bitinis stands to the homeless, from Bartlesville, it was south toward Tulsa.
The sun started to go down, and we thought the timing might work out to get to the top of some trails in Tulsa to end the day on a visually impressive note. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Navigating off the freeway up to the top of Turkey Hill through a surprising and annoying amount of traffic, by the time we found the park, the sun was definitely setting. However it was doing so on the other side of the trees. Disappointed, we took a quick walk and admired the not-very-scenic view of Tulsa’s downtown, powerlines, and singletrack biking trail, and then headed home.
This was the point that we reach in all of our trips where we looked at the map and realized we still had a long long drive left to get home and in bed. Tulsa to home was either going down 75 with its multiple stops and slowdowns or testing out the cruise control on the Seltos with wide-open freeway driving. We picked the latter, which despite slightly longer mileage, promised to get us home before midnight.
The final leg:
Black coffee from the gas station, and trying to focus eyes through the end of what had turned into 20-plus hour day, we arrived home with our mission accomplished. We had picked up the new car, spent the day exploring parts of three states, captured about a thousand photographs, found good coffee and good food, and made it home intact — all in one twenty-four hour period. Little did we know that we’d be trying that again in less than a year …
graveyardsandghosttowns 