- Green, green everywhere! The areas of Kansas we have traveled through have - we have been told by locals - had more than their usual amount of rain lately, resulting in massive carpets of green grass and green cornfields, occasionally separated by golden patches of wheat. Coming from an area of California that is always brown this time of year, all this green was a treat for our eyes. The green lawns really amazed me...huge expanses of emerald green grass, surrounding even the most modest of houses. And all freshly mowed.
- Front porches. Since we prefer traveling the back roads, we found ourselves driving through many rural small towns. Our main impression of these towns were all the old houses with big front porches, many complete with rocking chairs. I felt cheered by the idea of folks sitting on their front porches on warm summer evenings. In fact, just the idea that small town America is alive and well in some areas makes me feel good.
- The prairie isn't what I thought it would be. There were miles and miles of flat wheat fields and corn fields and grasses, but there were also more trees and rolling terrain than we expected. The prairies of Kansas were far more interesting than we had anticipated. And one thing that particularly struck me was the big sky...I can only imagine what the stars must look like on a moonless night in the middle of the prairie.
- The clouds. Warm moist air from the Gulf of Mexico meets up with cool dry air from Canada over the Midwest. The result? The most interesting clouds I've ever seen. Especially the big glorious thunderheads that hunker down low to the horizon.
- And then there were, are and will be the thunderstorms. We don't get much thunder and lightening back in Solvang, California. So it's been fun to be treated to some great shows. Nothing too serious, nothing very scary, just marvelous displays of Mother Nature at her feistiest.
- Cardinals. I lived in Omaha, Nebraska, for seven years when I was much, much, much younger. One of my fond memories of those years is when I would walk home from school and see a bright red flash in the green leaves of a nearby tree. And if I stood and waited patiently, I would then see a beautiful cardinal settle down on a branch, just for a moment, before he was off again. Art saw our first cardinal here in Kansas, lucky guy. But I did eventually see one. Patience paid off yet again.
- And finally, fireflies. Sigh... When I was a child in Omaha, I couldn't (I wouldn't!) believe that those magical twinkles on a warm summer evening were mere bugs. They were magic then and they're magic now!
In addition to all these memorable impressions of Kansas, we also had lovely visits with my cousin Blanche in Wichita and Art's cousin Ellen in Olathe. We'd never met Blanche and we hadn't seen Ellen in over 20 years. So a new family connection was made and an existing connection was strengthened.
And then there were the connections made with family long gone. Seeing my great grandparents graves in Olathe and discovering that my grandmother was buried there as well, and reading an Olathe newspaper from 1913 and seeing the familiar names of great aunts and uncles, great grandparents and my grandmother.
It's been a good trip through Kansas.
--- Barbara
Day 15: 260 miles
Total miles: 2,417
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