ABILENE, KAN. (July 20, 2015) – There’s a couple from Maine who is ready to make Kansas their home.
Richard and Pam Giroux, residents of Windsor, Maine, have fallen in love with Abilene, Kansas and the entire Sunflower State so much that they plan to make it their permanent residence.
It all started when their oldest child, son Ricky, was stationed at Ft. Riley. They came to visit him at Christmas time in 2005 and several times after, and at each visit, ventured a little farther from Junction City to see different places each time. But their trips to Kansas were limited to the winter months, so any outside attractions were closed.
It was when their daughter Rachel decided she wanted her high school senior pictures taken in Kansas that they came to Abilene and the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo. “I’d been doing research” on tourist sites in the area, Pam said, “and I’d always said I want to go in the summer because there are more things to do.” When Rachel insisted that her senior pictures be taken in Kansas, “I jumped on it,” Pam said.
That was in 2011, and as they had Rachel’s pictures taken, they visited with a lady who recommended that they attend the Abilene rodeo. Rachel wanted to see it, so the family attended all four performances.
And they were hooked.
Since then, they have attended all four nights of nearly every year’s rodeo, and they love it. “You don’t see a lot of rodeo up here, this way, really,” Pam said. They love the lifestyle of the Midwest as well. “We love the laid back feeling, the slower pace. Abilene is a cute little town.” And the people are wonderful, she said. “They are always so helpful, so pleasant.”
The 1,800 mile to the rodeo is their annual summer vacation. They usually drive, taking two or three days for the trip.
And now they’re looking to move to Kansas. They bought a vehicle at Marshall Motors in Salina two years ago, and on Pam’s last trip, which was in April with a girlfriend, she looked at houses to rent or buy. “We’ve been working hard this past year, to get things situated” to leave Maine, Pam said. “I told (my husband) we might bump this up a little bit. I’ve already got you a job,” she laughed.
One of their grandchildren, a daughter born to son Ricky, was Ft. Riley’s first baby of the New Year in 2005. Samantha Riley will proudly tell everyone she was born in Kansas, even though she now lives with her parents in northern Maine, after her dad left the military. And Ricky doesn’t want his parents to move to Kansas. “It’s your fault,” Pam jokingly tells her son. “You moved there and made me come and visit.”
Rachel has put in a request with her parents that the house they purchase has an extra room for her when she comes to visit. But her older sister, Jamie-Lee, is not sure about her parents’ potential move to Kansas. “She thinks we’re crazy,” Pam said, but she doesn’t know what she’s missing. “She hasn’t been able to visit Kansas yet and it would give her a reason to visit.”
Her Maine friends “think I’m crazy,” Pam said. “They say, it’s tornado alley, and they think it’s always cold in the winter. I say, ‘You guys don’t even know.’ We live in Maine, but Kansas feels like home.”
This July, the Girouxs will once again pack up the car and head southwest for their three day trip to Abilene, where, this year, they will celebrate their 36th anniversary on July 28, a day before the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo begins. And their annual summer vacation will take place again.
The Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo is July 29 through August 1, with performances beginning at 7:30 pm each night. Tickets range in price from $10 to $13 for adults and are $6 for children ages 6-12. For more information, visit the rodeo’s website at WildBillHickokRodeo.com or call the fairgrounds office at 785-263-4570.