_ You could not ask for a more perfect day. The sun shone brightly in the cloudless, infinite blue sky, but the temperature was perfectly comfortable. We found the perfect location in a clearing next to a small water hole that was obviously used by the horses running wild on the property.

Katy and the kids chose to work on setting up the tents while I marched off to find a source of firewood for the night. Following a well-worn horse trail I found a downed tree that seemed perfectly seasoned for using in a fire. After spending around thirty minutes using the composite handled ax chopping the limbs from the felled tree, I used my shirt to serve as a sling to carry the wood back to the camp site.

The main tent, an eight-person, was already set up, but Kim said I would have to do the two-man Army tent. Connor was excited to get the chance to sleep in the two-person Army tent. It was also a chance to test the Army mummy sleeping bags Katy & I had just bought.

With the majority of firewood gathered we decided it was time for some dinner so the kids rounded up a few sticks to cook hotdogs on while I used the cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly to start the fire.

The popping and cracking of the fire was almost hypnotic as the sun began to sink below the horizon. The shadows of the trees stretched further and further until the sun disappeared, covering everything in darkness. The orange glow of the fire seemed to conquer only a minute part of the darkness as we readied the sticks for the kids to cook their hotdogs over the flames.

It did not take long for the temperature to drop and the fire only allowed a small circle of warmth against the coming chill. Connor decided he was tired and wanted to go to bed after dinner, though I think it was more that he wanted to sleep in the new tent. Kim, Katy, and I stayed up longer, Kim going to bed about an hour later. Katy and I sat by the fire, keeping it stoked and talking.

It was sometime after eleven that we decided to head to bed, her in the big tent with Kim and me in the small tent with Connor. As soon as I lay down I knew something was very wrong, my stomach started some hellacious cramping that nearly doubled me over. I won’t go into great detail but it was a very long and painful night that carried over through most of the weekend.

Even with the ending it had, the first part of the camping was great. It was nice to be away from everything and not have to worry about appointments and schedules and since it was a friend of mines property, there were no other campers and no disruptions to our solitude. It was nice to just sit back and gaze up at the stars without any interference from city lights or anything else.

It reminds me sometimes of how life should be, simple and that we do not need the internet, or million dollar houses to find the happiness in life. It is family that matters.

_  The abyss of the blue sky slowly gave way to the billowing gray clouds of the coming storm. At first it was as though someone had stretched cotton across the sky, like the cob webs we buy for Halloween. That soon gave way to a couple of small mushroom clouds approaching from just beyond the horizon.

As the wind began to blow a little harder, the sky quickly grew dark as the thunderheads began to consume all I could see. In the distance the booming echoed amongst the river bluffs, like a far off battle drawing ever nearer.

As the temperature began to drop there was a slight chill in the air. The wind became still and it looked as though the storm would narrowly miss us. For a few moments there was a serene calm, the wind had subsided, and the storm looked as though it was moving off to the west.

Without warning, dime-sized hailstones began bouncing through the grass and the tapping of the ice as it pelted the house rose to a deafening pitch.

The rain did not slowly begin; instead it was an instant torrent. The white veil was thick enough to obscure the view even across the street. The camping trip we would have been leaving for was surely cancelled now, or at least postponed until next weekend. Disappointing, but nothing we could do about it. We must work around Mother Nature as she definitely does not work around us.

*NOTE: Pictures of a storm that hit the following day, not of the actual storm that cancelled the trip.

_ This was the first Saturday in a long time that we slept in as we were not looking at a three plus hour drive to wherever we want to go. Instead this destination was less than an hour away and promised to hold a trove of historical and the occasional haunted experience. Atchison, KS was originally plotted in July 1854 by men from Missouri who named it after a well known Missouri senator, David Rice Atchison.

The most informative way to see and learn about the history of Atchison is to stop by the Santa Fe Depot building which also is home to the Chamber of Commerce, Visitors Center, and the Historical Society Museum. The museum has displays ranging from the days that Native Americans called the area home to how the Missouri River helped bring people and commerce to the town of Atchison. The Historic Trolley Tour also departs from the museum entrance and offers an up close view to some of the more interesting buildings with historical significance and the occasional haunted houses that Atchison is also known for.

One of the first locations the trolley will drive by is Jackson Park, where a young girl named Molly supposedly ended her own life after her boyfriend broke up with her. According to the guide, there is a legend that if you are in the area on a moonlit night that you can hear the girl screaming. True or not, I do not know but it helps add some interesting aspect to the park.

Most of the tour is based in history but the detours into the haunted side of the town add an amusing sidetrack while you are there. One of the buildings that you will experience is the Glick Mansion B & B. The Glick Mansion was built in 1873 for the 9th governor of Kansas, George W. Glick.

The Evah Cray Historical Home Museum sits at 805 N. 5th St. and is a glorious 25-room mansion that was built in 1882. At one corner is a three-story caste like tower that was built for the owners (at the time) wife who had fallen in love with Scottish castles during a visit there.

Another structure was the B. P. Waggener Home at 819 N. 4th St. that was built in 1884-1885. Unusual to this house is the number of balconies that number at least two on each side of the building. Perched atop the home are a couple of gothic creatures that were explained to us to be griffins, but we did not think they resembles griffins at all, more like gargoyles or even demonic figures.

_ 12.00 Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Mount St. Scholastica Monastery at 801 S. 8th St. is the current home was completed sometime around 1901. Unfortunately I could not get a shot of it due to trees obscuring the view from the trolley.

Atchison is also home to the St. Benedict’s Abbey Church located at 1020 N. 2nd St. was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright and finished in 1957. According to the guide the Abbey is home to between forty to sixty monks that teach classes at the Benedictine College and some are in South America doing mission work.

St. Benedict’s Parish Church which sits at 1001 N. 2nd St., is an example of Romanesque style that construction began on 1865 and was finally completed in 1905 when work on the west tower was finished. Jacques Bueller was hired in 1906 and painted 21 panel pictures and frescoed the church.

There is a famous structure located in Atchison that has been the subject of many articles and segments on television shows. The house itself is nothing special to look at and looks as though maintenance has been lacking over the last few years or so. The stories that have emanated from this place far exceed the unassuming appearance. The Sallie House is one of the most haunted houses in Kansas. I have never been there before but had seen the shows and read a few article about the occurrences that have been reported from residences of the property. All I can say for sure is that in the two minutes we sat in front of the building we did not see anything peering from the windows or mists moving through the house. It was, however, interesting to finally see the house I had heard so much about.

After the trolley pulled back into the parking lot we could hear thunder rolling off to the west but Connor still wanted to walk through the train museum which offers a 12” gauge train for people to ride for a small donation. Train cars are open to the public during weekends throughout the summer months.

At last it was time for lunch so we returned to Jackson Park and found an available picnic table and everyone had their sandwiches and I had my salad. A trail ran just behind where we sat, a bridge leading it around a bend. Across the gravel road where we parked a fence lined with barbed wire with the red, white, and blue signs indicating that the property beyond the fence belongs to the United States government. Padlocked access panels that lead under mounds of earth made me curious, just not enough to cross the fence.

One of the last places we only had time to drive by was the birthplace of Amelia Earhart.

With that the drops of rain were slowly beginning to fall upon the leaves and it was time to call an end to the day and head home.