You went where?!

Kansas.  Yes, that Kansas.

"Why on earth?..."

Well, I was close in Kansas City for a meeting...

"I thought that was in Kansas."

No.  Well yes, sort of.  There is a Kansas City, Kansas, about 145,000 people in a low to middle income city just across the border from the much bigger Kansas City, Missouri.  It's trying to upgrade itself...just built a huge NASCAR raceway (Kansas Raceway).  I'll leave it at that.  Kansas City, Mo., where I spent much of my growing up years, has close to 500,000 people and the whole metro area is 2.1 million.

When stationed in Oklahoma City way back when, I would drive occasionally from KC to OKC and pass through an area called the Flint hills, between Emporia and Wichita Kans. on I-35.  It's long vistas of hills and prairies intrigued me and I always wanted to come back and investigate that area of tallgrass prairie ranges.  So 41 years later I am doing so.  It was never high enough on any list to take precious vacation days, so now that I can take the time, I am!

This flint and limestone rocky area extends from nothern Oklahoma to just south of the Nebraska border.  It's rocky soil prevents trees from growing, but provides excellent land for prairie grass.  More info on that tomorrow.  I'll be visiting the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, which contains some of the last original tall grass prairie in the world.

Eastern Kansas is much like western Missouri, hilly, lots of trees and farms, benefitting from relatively rich soil and the humidity and rains that come up from the gulf.  The further west you go in Kansas, the drier it gets and basically much of the land stretches out with great vistas of ridges rather than rolling hills.

When I was 7, we took a trip from Chicago (where I lived at that time) to the Ozarks in Missouri, then to Omaha, where many of our relatives lived.  Part of the way took us up through very eastern Kansas on a 100+ degree day in our un-air conditioned 1952 Studebaker.  I was not feeling well and was laying on my mother's lap when I "lost" my lunch in the empty fishing tackle bucket we had in the front seat.  My folks always joked about my "reaction" to Kansas, and who knew then that a year or so later we would move to western Missouri, only a couple miles from the Kansas border.  My dear mother probably would be asking the same question as the headline today!  But she also taught me that with people and places, there are always good things in them.  I'm investingating that tomorrow!

                             1952 Studebaker Champion...ours was gray.

"...Kansas City, here I come."

Or so went the famous jazz piece. I have not lived here since 1974, but come back every year for a church related activity, the end of each July.  It's held on what is called the Country Club Plaza, the first major shopping area developed outside of a downtown area...started in 1923 I think.  It remains one of the premier shopping and living areas in the country...all Spanish design. It also has one of the most beautiful and prolific Christmas light displays in America for about 5 weeks every year.

Kansas City, Missouri has more fountains than any city in the world other than Rome; more boulevards than any city other than Paris.  It has a lot going for it as about the 30th largest metro in the country...small by many standards, but big enough to have all one would want!  I've been in every major metro area in the US, but still find KC fits a recent branding quote: "One of the few livable cities left!"  Yes, there are grand and beautiful places like San Francisco (beautiful, but wierd), Portland (beautiful, but wet) Atlanta (lots of trees - and havy traffic), but I like the total package.    Check it out!  And, no, I don't work for the Chamber of Commerce, but I did apply once!

If you haven't been here, well, first, shame on you!  LoL  It always is a great surprise to new visitors and especially the Plaza area.

After the meeting tomorrow, it's off to Kansas, Dorothy! 

Here we go...

After more than 40 some years of working somewhere nearly every day, I now have the "luxury" of doing some more interesting things, not that my employment wasn't interesting.  I was able to travel all over North America and see things many people never get to.

I will post comments on travel, recollections and things I observe.  The travel part should be easy.  Recall might be a bit more difficult...observations will probably combine both of the first two, plus what might pop into my mind regarding daily occurrences, news, politics, etc.  Hopefully all comments will be of interest to family and a diverse group of friends...

Soon I will be traveling through the Flint Hills of Kansas and on to the Arbor Day Foundation headquarters in Nebraska City, Neb.  You'll find out why when I post comments on the trip.  Later I will be taking the AMTRAK from Chicago to California.  From my sleeper car, I will observe and recall as the train leaves from the area of my birth, through western Illinois and western Iowa and Omaha, where my relatives had roots, on to Denver where I spent many summers.  I hope the trip through the Colorado Rockies will be at the time of peak color for the aspen trees.  The train will go through the famous Feather River Canyon across the Sierras.  I'll be spending time in California with relatives and come back the southern route.  I will write from my sleeper car and post snippets when I can get on line!

                                    Chicago

         Moffat Tunnel goes under the Continental Divide.  I went through there with my grandmother when we took a day trip to Steamboat Springs, when the old  Denver & Rio Grande Western train ran along those  tracks.  She had a summer cabin about 10 miles east of the tunnel.  The Amtrak train will go by that cabin.

In between these trips, Kathy and I will spend a 4-day fun vacation in Chicago, taking a dinner cruise on the Odyssey from Navy Pier, an architectural cruise on the Chicago River and a couple days at the Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, where we attended Kathy's family reunion a couple years ago.

So come back often and enjoy the ride from the past to the future from a retiree's eyes.