Photo Gallery One - Fall 2024 - Final Installment

This gallery concludes the big fall trip, and a nice ending it was. Although our lofty goal was to see five new state capitol buildings, we ended up getting only three (or maybe two and one-half if you discount Nebraska's capitol which we did not do any exterior work). The Kansas State Capitol was beautiful and I'll describe our visit there in the final segment of this gallery.

While we were still in Oregon, we went out for an early Sunday drive and saw lots of cool sights. They have a large number of nicely maintained/restored covered bridges and if you are ever in the Stayton, Oregon area you should put them on your "To See" list. That notwithstanding, the only image I'm including here is a quaint little church (Image 1-1) that just had that nostalgic look; and while it was well maintained and I believe in use, there were no worshipers there when we drove by. The next two images were small town roadside opportunities, the first being an interesting water tower (1-2) in Cawker City, KS, known primarily for its having the largest ball of twine in the world. The water tower symbolizes that - loosely at least. The next image (1-3) is the KT Oils and Gasoline station, also in Cawker City. We were disappointed they weren't open since gas was only $0.17 per gallon.

Later that day we made a planned stop in Abilene, KS, to see the many interesting sights, a lot of them showcasing their hometown status of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States. Plenty of street art including a series of custom painted boots that stood about 5 feet tall, three of which are shown in Images 1-4 through 1-6. We had a pretty good set of targets and found most of them, including the world's largest (of course) "I Like Ike" button. Sorry I didn't include the one where it looks like Mimi is wearing the button, that is over 4 feet in diameter.

The next several images are devoted to our main objective in Topeka: seeing and photographing the Kansas State Capitol building. We've seen it several times on our way through Topeka on I-70 but never stopped. We were scheduled to spend two nights there and it was late enough on our arrival date that by the time we checked into our hotel, our only goal was getting a nice meal then heading to the Capitol the next morning. However, we thought we'd explore the prospective route to the Capitol before settling in, and we were treated to some pretty nice conditions for an evening shoot (Images 1-8 and 1-9). The next morning we were up and moving early. We arrived at the Capitol about the time they opened the door for visitors, cleared security, and then spoke to two people from Visitor Services. They were very helpful and knowledgeable and this facilitated an outstanding experience. Often these buildings look industrial and utilitarian but each has its own set of unique characteristics from history, evolution, architectural design and construction materials. Mimi does a much better job than I do with absorbing the details, and I spend most of my time visualizing and capturing imagery; but I am interested in the other stuff, too. Image 1-10 caught our attention and in all of our visits to government facilities I don't think we've ever seen an Office of Revisor of Statutes (and no, that word did not pass my spell checker). You can only imagine the amount of work. Although not included here, there was some artwork downtown and one of the sculptures was of a stack papers titled Proposition II, sandwiched between a device similar to a vise and probably contained several thousand sheets. Think of those poor trees!

The next five images (1-11 through 1-15) are all interior shots of some of the most majestic parts of the Capitol, and they did impress. Three are of the dome and the rotunda while the other two are the senate and house chambers. The next two (1-16 and 1-17) are exterior shots we took as we were finishing our visit, with the latter of those being a near identical shot to the evening shot in 1-9. Finally, we'll close with a striking military memorial along 10th with flags representing each of the service components with the central, or at least most visible feature, of the US Marine Corps War Memorial, commonly referred to the Iwo Jima Memorial, the main one located in Arlington, VA. Not a bad ending to another amazing trip.