Snoopy Visits Kansas, Colorado, Utah
Travels of Snoopy
Page One
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Moab, Utah Trip…November, 1999
[Kansas, Colorado & Utah]
The following pages, Snoopy will share with you his photos and comments of his trip through much of the Maze and Canyon Lands area of Utah. Snoopy and friend Clark left Arkansas on November 12th and returned to Arkansas on November 21st. Some of the comments come direct from Snoopy and others from me, I am not always sure which comments are from Snoopy or me!
Travels of Snoopy
Is a travel log of our trip. We always travel as much as we can via the back roads; Snoopy hates “back-top”, we eat in ma/pa cafes. Visit with only with “real people”, you will not find Snoopy at Disney World!!! Snoopy is a real back country puppy. Snoopy loves junk shops, small towns [very small], army surplus stores, junk yards and most of all hardware stores. Snoopy also LOVES truck stops, he enjoys checking out all the chrome parts, CB’s, etc. I guess that when Snoopy grows up he wants to be a “truck” with a big chrome bumper. Then can use his CB, and bark “breaker, breaker”…were are the bears!!! Of course being a “real trucker” he can bitch about how little he is getting paid and how bad the roads are.
I throw in a bit of humor [or what I deem as humor], take photos of REAL PEOPLE and the REAL country side. I just take the photos, some of things we see “makes a comment” in reference to our leaders, country, etc. Remember I just take the photos…so, if there is a photo that offends you for some reason. Well, so be it…you will just have to offended!!!
We travel the country and enjoying visiting with the “people” that make America what it really is. Those that work everyday, raise their family…these are not the folks that you will see on CNN, they are much more interesting and in my view a hell of a lot more enjoyable to be around.
Many of the people that you will “see” will not be found in the “news”, so this might be their only public claim to fame. My guess is that they really don’t give a damn about being in the “news” or on my web site. I shall forever be thankful to each and everyone of them. For taking the time to visit with me and sharing their life with me. By doing such that have certainly made “memories” for me and made my life much more interesting.
I hope that in someway that I gave something in return, if I did I am sure that it was in no way equal to what they shared with me and Snoopy.
A photo of our first few hours
of our travel
the photo did not come out
will try again once the sun comes up…
The weather report is good, and promises that
we should see the sun soon…
We made it to western Kansas for the first day of hunting season…Snoopy was VERY pleased to leave…
This was a “bad one”, I doubt that anyone made it out of this alive 🙁
Saint Fidelis Church
“The Cathedral of the Plains”
Victoria, Kansas
Victoria is in the west central part of Kansas, a beautiful small “plains town”. The first settlers of this area were gentleman farmers from England who arrived in 1873 with the intention of duplicating their aristocratic lives.[Which makes me wonder why they ever wanted to leave England, if all they were going to do was “duplicate”, oh well]. The harsh plains weather and rough ground proved to be a bit to much for these English gentleman, so they moved out.
A group of very poor immigrants from southern Russia know as Volga-Germans, who were fleeing from the service in the Czar’s army and dangers to their Catholic faith. Created a village of sod huts adjacent to Victoria, their village was Herzog, named after their home village in southern Russia on the Volga River.
After the British soon learned that mother nature was not about to give in to their gentleman life style, packed up and left. The hard working Volga-Germans took over were the Englishman failed and created a very thriving village.
Saint Fidelis Church first mass was sometime around April of 1896.
Craved from native Kansas limestone…
One can almost “touch and feel the hardship” that these Volga-Germans had to face everyday. We all should take a moment and give our thanks them and all the immigrants that made America what it is today…
Just a few of the many “hand made” grave markers in the Victoria cemetery…The use of “hand made” markers very common practice, since one had little choice but make everything by hand. Once the marker was made, then the family could order a “store brought” plaque. In many of the cemeteries before and during this part of the century were local made. In this case the local blacksmith made the “headstones”…other areas that had a stone mason would have stone markers…areas that had neither a blacksmith or stone mason. Then a large rock or wooden cross would have to do…
Although a photo plaque are some what common, Victoria cemetery has more of such than any cemetery that I have ever visited. This was [still is] a VERY expensive plaque to have made. These plaques were and still are today by hand painting the image and the “fired”, I have seen many that are well over a hundred years old and show no signs of aging at all. With the great number of such plaques use on the markers at Victoria cemetery I would guess that there was a lot of “wealth” in the area at one time…
I am often ask why I take the time to visit the cemetery…one can learn more sometimes about the history and lives of the people that lived in an area by reading the grave markers than any other source of information. People move away, graves are always there to tell their story!!!
Due to the lack of trees, settlers had no choice but use the native Kansas limestone for fence post…
Neil the “Victoria Stone man” runs out of gas…Snoopy gives Neil a ride. Neil spends a lot of time with Snoopy and Clark teaching them about the history of Victoria and historical stone post…
To learn what Neil had to say and show us…click here…
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Copyright: 12.6..1999 – Jim Gaston, #1777 River Road, Lakeview, Arkansas 72642
