Warren and Becky Sparrow just returned from a 2,000 mile journey to Olathe, Kansas. I've never heard of Olathe before, but my guess was that the man who named it had a lisp.
Nope, I was wrong. It seems that the town was named by an indian who was asked by the founder, what the Indian word for beautiful was and his reply was "olathe." The founder took his word for it, and the rest is history. (Word Deny-ers point out that onlookers at the scene spotted several empty bottles of firewater in the bushes.)
There's an old legend about that town that "anyone who visits that magical place will be speaking the Indian language by the time he returns to his own teepee."
Isn't that silly. Anyway, that's all I could discover about that fascinating part of the great state of Kansas, but as this reporter mentioned, the Sparrows were there and enjoyed every minute of it!
Here's the email I received from Warren:
Ed:
"It has been many moons since our last smoke signals. I note there has been an explosion of stuff on chs54. Thank you for doing it. Becky and I are alive and well, sitting up and taking nourishment. We have completed a journey to Olathe, KS, for a visit with our oldest daughter Cathy S. Peele, her husband Alex and their three daughters, Lydia, Melanie and Charlotte. A good time was had by all. It was a remarkable trip. From Winston-Salem to Olathe and back was 2,200 miles, including some side trips to "points of interest." Like the Three Wise Men, we did it in One Accord.
Attached are some representative samples of what we did. The first photo is a view of the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers near Alton, IL.
The second is a shot of the courthouse where the Dred Scott decision was rendered. I took this picture from the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
look carefully you will see a tanker truck in the background. It is full of bourbon headed for Arkansas for bottling. The name of the carrier? Oakley. What a hoot.
Hope all is well."
Warren
