November 2021 cover

Submitted by: Travis Sheaffer, FoMoCo Times Editor

I have never been to Kansas before. I have not been able to cross the state off my list of states that I have Geocached in. That was about to change. At the National Convention it Des Moines, Iowa this past summer, Regional Director Don Robertson whispered into President Toby Gorny’s ear that it sure would be nice if someone (me!) would show up and visit his regional meet in September. Always the adventurer, I saddled up and hopped a flight to Kansas City on September 23rd. Upon arrival I gathered my horse (in this case a Toyota) and began the four-hour trek to Manhattan, Kansas.

The landscape was beautiful and the campus in Manhattan informed me that there was a lot of smart people doing smart things in Kansas. I arrived at the hotel at dinner time, and I received a warm greeting by Ronna Robertson. She gave me the lowdown on the area and told me who the troublemakers were (you know I am talking about you, Carl!). I got settled and headed down to the Fiesta Buffett. At dinner, I saw my good friend Norbert Doll, as well as Curtis and Linda Johnson. Side note ~ If you haven’t met Linda, she is one of the nicest persons that I have ever met. It was at this point that I learned that Carl Cox was not the only person I needed to watch out for. I also needed to keep my eye on Jenny Lou Gattis. Whenever I attend a regional meet, I like to look for the people that are onery (like I am) and have fun with them. I had a lot of fun with the two of them. I really look forward to seeing them at future CVA events.

Friday was an action-packed day. We caravanned a short distance to the town of Wamego, which features the Wizard of Oz Museum. This town even had a yellow brick road! We toured the Wizard of Oz Museum as well as the Columbian Theatre and the Wamego Historical Museum. In the afternoon, we visited the Dream Car Collection Museum and it certainly lived up to its name. The assortment of cars in this building would have any car enthusiast drooling. I had to keep an eye on Norbert to make sure he didn’t drive off in one of the cars. Or maybe it was the other way around?

Saturday was another busy day. We drove over to Junction City and toured Ron’s Automotive. Ron had quite a collection of automobile and airplane memorabilia. One of the really neat things at his place was his display of the life and death of Jesus. Set on the backdrop of a hillside the path led to different scenes from the birth to the resurrection. It was powerful. We then toured the Geary County Historical Museum and the Starke House. I got back to the hotel just in time to see my Bowling Green State University Falcons beat the Minnesota Golden Gophers in football. What a great day!

To cap the event off we had our banquet on Saturday evening. The food and the company were fantastic. Jenny Lou even persuaded me to wear her tiara.

Sunday morning, I saddled up and made the trek back to Kansas City to catch a flight to Detroit where I picked up my car. This was a fantastic regional meet. If you ever get the chance to attend a Lower Midwest Regional Meet, I highly encourage it. The members that attended were awesome and I look forward to hopefully seeing many of them in Memphis this next summer at the National Convention.