Today we drove 350 miles to Oakley, Kansas. We are staying overnight at the Annie Oakley Motel, of course! There is no actual historical connection between Oakley, Kansas and Annie Oakley. However, Annie Oakley was reaching the peak of her fame as a sharpshooter performing with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show in the 1880’s around the same time the town of Oakley was founded. There is a belief here that was a contributing factor to the name choice for the town.

Oakley is a small, rural town of about 2000 souls. On a hot, dusty Sunday before 4^th of July, Center St. appeared almost deserted, and the only sounds, except for the occasional truck passing, was of the wind and LOTS of songbirds. Very pleasant and relaxing.

At the east end of town, there were huge silos and other farm buildings that we easterners didn’t know the function of. Whatever they were for, they were huge and impressive.

We then strolled around the rest of the town and found that all the action was taking place at the Municipal pool. The pool was beautiful and quite large and featured a water slide that was in constant, vigorous use.

Next to the pool was a baseball diamond with spectator stands, a basketball hoop and frisbee golf course and the County Fairgrounds. This last was floored with earth that bore the impression of equine and bovine footprints. We could see the shutes where the rodeo riders got astride their mounts. A sign warned fairgoers to head to the Baptist Church (right close) in case of storms. Clearly tornados are a risk here.

The homes we saw were well-kept and ranged from small to large. We Zillowed a nice-looking, 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath, 1466 sq foot home with a detached garage on a corner lot and found that it would be expected to sell at about $199K. Wow!

On our way back from circling the main part of the town’s perimeter, we stopped at Buffalo Bill’s Bar & Grill, the only open business we saw. The place was a long, large rectangle with the bar on one side, table and booths and gambling machines on the other and 4 TVs above the bar. Buffalo Bill’s had one customer sipping her drink at the bar. The bartender told us they would be open till 10pm and that the cook would be back for dinner at 5pm, which made us happy. She was friendly and talkative, as are most good bartenders, and poured us each a club soda and lime “no charge”. She confirmed that there are tornados, and that early spring is their worst season for weather with blizzards that close the highways and wind that “cuts right through you”. Hmmm, Kansas is clearly no place for weather wimps!

Dinner at Buffalo Bills was a success as regards both food and people watching. A couple who had been playing the Flying Dragons machine since we stopped in earlier started whooping excitedly-they had won $2000! The rest of the patrons congratulated them as did we. Several farmers were clustered at the edge of the bar just across from our booth, and one mentioned casually that he was selling 12,000 acres of his land. 12,000!!

Tommy ordered the John Wayne Burger whose trimmings included Texas Toothpicks; jalapeños fried with onions in a cone shaped breading. Paula had the pork tenderloin which came country fried steak style, smothered in delicious cholesterol sauce. Everything was wonderful and our diets are blown to hell, especially since we still have some of the specialty popcorn lurking in our suitcases.

After dinner we took another walk (too little too late…) and saw teenagers having fun with an impromptu early fireworks display in the street. Lots of noise, little danger as they were being pretty careful. As we turned back towards the Annie Oakley Motel, big thunderheads began gathering in the distance. Thunderstorms and hail are possible, but likely will skirt us to the east.