Wichita + Abilene + Tuttle Creek State Park

 Thank you, Linda and Floyd, for a great visit and wonderful hospitality in Wichita! Floyd is a great cook and tour guide.  We started the morning with a delicious breakfast and then took an informative drive around Wichita.


This is the Keeper of the Plains statue in Riverside Park.  The Arkansas River runs nearby.
There are bike and walking paths, museums, and gardens, and information about the Plains Indians.




We drove north to Abilene and ate at the Brookville Hotel in Abilene.  The Brookville serves one meal, family style:  fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, creamed corn, biscuits with strawberry jam, and ice cream. (We are having fruit and cheese for supper.)




Next we visited the home of Dwight D. Eisenhower.  It is a six room house on the wrong side of the tracks, according to the tour guide.  The Eisenhowers raised six boys in this modest house.  Even though there were only six rooms, the front parlor was not used except on special occasions.  Every night the family gathered in the back parlor.  Mrs. Eisenhower played the piano.  The boys sat on the floor.  There were only two chairs in the small parlor.



This is the back parlor as it was in 1947 when President Eisenhower's mother died.  Another interesting note is that the family first got indoor plumbing when Eisenhower was 18.  So from humble roots, a President of the United States grew.  Abilene is quite proud of their native son.



Back in the car, we drove another hour to Tuttle Creek State Park.  I believe we are the only Atlantans to ever visit this spot.  We are staying in the Pawnee Cabin, a 300 foot shotgun style cabin. We unloaded a ton of stuff into our tiny cabin, made drinks, and walked across a field to the lake.



We read on this dock beside the lake.  Nearby there were fishermen and kayakers and swimmers. The breeze was cool and the bugs did not bite. The weather has been amazing today - 77 degrees at noon, blue sky and breezy. There will be stars tonight.