I wanted to do a post about Bubba and Mason’s wedding.  We had an awesome trip down to Arkansas City Kansas. The wedding was very nice, somewhat casual which definitely reflects the personalities of both of them.

We drove down on Friday since it was Veteran’s Day and a holiday for me from work.  We made a few stops on the way down and after that just enjoyed the scenery through Kansas.  We made it to our hotel room around 2:00 and basically just hung out.  Ken perused the available channels on the TV and came away with the same conclusion as always, “over 200 channels and there’s still nothing good to watch”.  Guess that always makes us glad that we don’t spend any money on satellite or Direct TV. We found a Mexican restaurant called El Maguey which was very good.  We were both stuffed by the time we left.

Ken had done some checking before we left to see if the motel had a fitness room and they did. So Saturday morning we got up early (not really early for us but early enough that all of the machines were available) and he did the elliptical and I did the treadmill.  Just about the time we were getting done Todd and Nancy saw us through the windows as they were headed out for a walk.  They stopped in to ask if we wanted to join them. The Best Western is located out in a new development called Patterson Park so there are open fields around it, which made for a nice walk.  As we curved around on the road we crossed over the next street to a cemetery.  Back in September when we stayed at Mayo’s ranch for the Junk Jaunt we took a walk one morning down their gravel road and ended up at the cemetery there as well. I guess we find it interesting to check out the old headstones.  Anyway we had a nice walk with the Jarchows.

Ken and I had decided that we wanted to do some sightseeing on our own so we found the Chaplain Nature Center which is located along the Arkansas River.  I have to explain something here just because I think it’s funny.  The people in Kansas are very intent on pronouncing Arkansas City or Arkansas River as the Ar-Kansas River and Ar-Kansas City so I had to do some research which I will put at the end of this post.

It was a very nice wedding and the priest did a good job with his homily. Megan was the maid of honor and Libby was the flower girl. The reception was held in a stone barn just north of Winfield, Kansas.  We saw quite a few stone buildings on our drive down. Except for the wood portions, they were still straight and sturdy after all these years.

This barn was built by the GW Yount in the 1800’s. Here’s their website if you want to see more professional pictures http://www.timbercreekbarns.com/.

TimberCreek also has a bed and breakfast with lots of unique bedrooms, check them out.  But the most unique structure by far is their Barn Owl Treehouse.  This is where Emily and Mason were going to spend their honeymoon night.

Here are some of the pictures that I took at the reception.  It was very touching to watch Dennis and Bub do the father-daughter dance.  She was in tears by the time they were done and I think Dennis was a little teary eyed too.

 

Why they call it AR-Kansas.

Here is one explanation from cimarronkansas.net: Originally there were many tribes of Indians that roamed the great plains in the area of present-day Kansas.  The prominent Indian tribe was called   the “Kanza” Indians.  When it was time for the territory to be named, it was named Kansas after the Kanza Indians.

The river going through the Kansas Territory was named by combining the territory’s name and a very peculiar feature of the river.

Starting in the present southwest Kansas area around Ford KS and going northeast from there, the river started making a great“arc”* away from its easterly path.  The present-day city of Great Bend now sits where the river made its turn back to the southeast.  The river proceeded southeast to an almost straight line position from the river’s original path, about 125 miles east of Ford where the city of Wichita sits today.

From Wichita it continues southeast, through Oklahoma, and then it crosses Arkansas and empties into the Mississippi river.  The city of Great Bend got its name from the “great bend” or “arc” in the river.  The territory name combined with the unique “Arc” in the river gave it the name Arkansas. (pronounced ar-kansas)

If the river had continued its path from Ford on to the east instead of its real path to the northeast, it would have bi-passed the present day Wichita location.  In theory however, Wichita would still have been on the river as it would have been built somewhere on the river, and Great Bend and Hutchinson would be south, but still on the river more than likely, depending on whether they were built near a water supply or along a railroad route.  At the same time, the name Great Bend would not have been used and the name of the river would not be the Arkansas due to no “Arc” in the river.  It also would not be the Kansas river as there is already a Kansas river.

Of course, the state of Arkansas was named for the Ar-kansas river.  How the state’s name became pronounced “Ar-Kan-Saw” remains a mystery.  By, Pete Thomas, webmaster.

Sorry this has turned into more of a sales pitch for TimberCreek and history lesson, but I just found all of this to be very interesting. I enjoy uniqueness and history.