road trip - day three

I headed out onto Highway 4 and followed it all the way to Topeka. This two-lane beauty took me through several small towns and then wound its way into the Flint Hills. I passed Lake Wabaunsee, which was the only body of water I’d seen besides a lot of flooded wheat fields.

I spent some time in Hope, where most of that is gone. The one and only grocery store recently closed, and there is no doctor in town. Most of the stores on Main Street have closed and are now boarded up. I saw some older folks walking around, and one told me that you need to have a millionaire relative somewhere in order to get started or stay in the farming business these days. Plus you’d be crazy to do it anyway with the way the economy has affected the industry and the fact that the weather has gone mad. Nowadays, once a kid graduates from high school, he/she makes a quick exit from a place like Hope.

Not one person passed me without waving or saying hello.

The sky started to cloud over and get pretty dark at one point. I commented to an elderly woman that it looked like it might rain.

She looked me squarely in the eye and just said, “You git what you git.”

I spent a lot of my time doing what I enjoy most – making pictures of people. The girls at the lemonade stand are all sisters. The boys in the park – one of their moms is in the army, waiting to go to Iraq.

Hope, Kansas

Gypsum, Kansas

Gypsum, Kansas

White City, Kansas

White City, Kansas

White City, Kansas