Kansas on My Mind

Kansas is an underrated state.  If you haven't been there, you'd just assume it's flat farmland for hundreds of miles with nothing to see.  We've driven through the state twice, and the views from the front seat of the RV are always enjoyable.  We've only stayed in Kansas City, Goodland, and on this trip, Wakeeney, and I'd gladly come back to the state to see more of it.  

Kansas is full of history.  Millions of years ago, Kansas was under an ancient sea, and today, people still find fossils of fish and other sea creatures.  Back when it was the frontier, Buffalo Bill Cody hunted buffalo and spent time in the state, along with other cowboys and outlaws.  Indians lived off the land, hunting buffalo.  Pioneers made their way through the state on their way to Oregon, California and New Mexico.

Each time we have passed through the state, I've made a mental list of things I want to come back to see.  When you're trying to get from point A to point B, it's not always possible to stop at Fort Hays to see what a 1800's fort looked like, stop in a quilt shop in a small town and try to find something for a bed or wall hanging, walk around huge limestone towers - remnants of an ancient inland seabed - that shoot out of the flat earth around it, or stop at Fort Riley - the home of the Big Red One.  Kansas practically begs for tourists to come into its small towns - billboards on the road advertise a giant prairie dog town, frontier life museums, bigger than life statues of buffalo, and farm and automobile museums. Every town has to have something to draw tourists - and their money - in.

When we camped in WaKeeney, I drove into town to pick up a few things in the grocery store.  WaKeeney is the county seat and probably the biggest town in the county.  There's a courthouse on the main street, along with a grocery store, thrift store, bank, and ceramic studio where you can buy bowls, statues or Christmas trees with little holes to put lights in (my grandmother,  cousin and mom have one) and paint them so the owner can fire them and glaze them.  Sadly, many of the storefronts are empty with "For Rent" signs.  I doubt a Starbucks would do well there.  But in the middle of the main street, between two stores, was Wakeeney's "thing" - a Christmas village.  There's a big tree - not live - and I bet in December it's all lit up, along with the main street.  They probably have holiday shops, hot cider and carolers.  But in late July, it's not too exciting.  

Downtown WaKeeney, Kansas

If not for the ice cream social at the campground, Ruth wanted to go to the Dairy Queen on the Route 40 Business spur that runs through WaKeeney.  It's near a bakery and motel.  The bakery makes Amish egg noodles that the grocery store sells.  Whenever I go to a local store, I try to pick up local products to try, so I picked up some noodles and I'm thinking I'll use them in a chicken and noodle recipe or maybe with an alfredo sauce.  I also picked a jar of Amish hot and sweet pickles.  They will be great on sandwiches we make on the road during the long drive days.

Goodland, Kansas - It's "thing"
 is a huge easel with a Van Gogh
sunflower painting. 

As we passed by Goodland, Kansas, whose "things" are the High Plains Museum - which houses everything from wooly mammoth tusks found nearby, to pioneer history to the first patented helicopter made in the U.S. - and a giant easel with a replica of one of Van Gogh's sunflower paintings.  Sunflowers grow in abundance in Kansas, so when a group was planning where to put these huge easels with sunflower paintings in various cities around the world, Goodland got one of them.  You can see it from the highway.  

As we passed from Kansas into Colorado, I felt a little sad that our time there was over.  I look forward to returning someday on another trip.