Day 4: Memories and Ticks

I woke up and went out for a walk. I went across the Kansas River to grab a geocache in a pocket park on the other side. The cacche was gone, but it was a good walk. I met up with Marie as I got close to the hotel. I had breakfast with Marie, and we were joined by Tom and then Alister. Roger came down with Caryn. We all left at 11 and drove east to Missouri. We stopped off for gas and junk food. We stopped off across from Leavenworth prison and took funny pictures. We then drove until we got to Weston State Park, which used to be owned by Roger's grandparents. The little bridge going over the creek was named for his grandfather. We walked to the abandoned white house which belonged to his grandmother. The root cellar was still there and in good shape. We walked over to the old derelict barn which used to be a tobacco manufactury. We walked up the steep hill to look for mushrooms. Gasping for breath, I made it to the ridge. There Lloyd, Marie, Jacquie and I waited as Roger, Alister, Tom and Steve negotiated the steep slope of the other side to look for mushrooms. We didn't get any mushrooms, but we did get lots and lots of ticks. We walked back down and I discovered there was a geocache mere feet from the van, and I found it quickly. We shook off ticks and left to come back. Partway, we stopped off at a Chinese restaurant. We were the only non-Hispanic folks in the place, interesting. We went back to the hotel. Jacquie and I went on a walk to the Walgreens in town, then walked back. I met up with Jacquie, Lloyd, Marie and Alister at the restaurant in the hotel. I had a Caesar salad. Alister's meal was stone cold. We went up to our rooms. I found one last tick as I took a long, hot shower. I got caught up with this and went to bed. Roger came down to tell us that if a storm forms tomorrow, it will be tornadic. We will meet at 10 AM and dash off to Wichita.