Concert in the Flint Hills -- Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

Well, Grampa with another attempt. Nancy and I attended the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve annual Concert in the Flint Hills (that's in Kansas, folks), with the Kansas City Symphony and Lyle Lovett. It was held on a historic farm on the Preserve and, as you can see, the dude that built this farm in the 19th century spared no expense--even the chicken coop is of quaried limestone. But now THAT'S a barn.

They also had a lot of local volunteers demonstrating pioneer life skills, like this lady spinning yarn from sheep's wool . . .

 . . . and the blacksmith . . . .

They also had some tents with lecturers on the status of grasslands across the globe, and gave folks a ride in a 'covered wagon'--I think they must have had some kind of suspension because some of the folks that were getting off the wagons didn't look like they'd have survived the typical jostling around of the real thing.
They had erected a huge tent thing and the symphony rocked the prairie with music from Copeland, John Williams and some others honoring the land and cowboys. During the Cowboy Overture by Williams about 14 horsemen herded some 100 cattle over the hills behind the orchestra stand--it was a very great scene, including the awesome sunset below. Last song played by Lovett was "Home on the Range" which all of us sang together. Let's hear it for conserving the wonders of nature.

 As usual my photography couldn't capture the real spectacle, but it was really something worth seeing. It was supposed to rain all day, and it did look pretty bad and was rainy during the 2-hour drive to the park, but just before we got there things dried up and stayed clear till be were on our way home--an answer to prayers. Before we left the park, Nancy took me dancing where another band had set up in one of the big tents--so we dance while we waited for the crush to leave the park--did some swing, two-step and waltz. Nancy is a great dancer.