Kansas blew me away, literally and figuratively (it was really windy).
Lawrence, KS
Nothing flashy, but it was a chill place when I needed one.
Kansas State Capitol Building, Topeka, KS
Hard to capture the grandeur of this place.
Council Grove, KS
Ate lunch here. Museum and restaurant ran by a charming old man who will tell you WAY more than you ever wanted to know about the area.
Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve
This place was intoxicating. Felt like going back in time 200 years when the west was still the frontier. Rolling hills that go all the way to the horizon in all directions. And some wild buffalo to boot.
Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, KS
From wikipedia, "the largest combined collection of US and Russian spaceflight artifacts in the world".
This museum's collection would be extremely impressive if it were in DC or NY, but it's in a nothing town in the middle of nowhere Kansas. So much cool stuff to geek out over. Here are just some of the things I geeked out over.
They also had:
- The actual Liberty Bell 7 (the capsule Gus Grissom nearly drowned in)
- An actual moon rock from Apollo 11
- Big panels of the Berlin Wall with intact graffiti
- Flight-ready backup of Sputnik
And a bunch more. It was staggering. And apparently a former owner was arrested for selling some of their collection so they used to have even more.
I had to cut some Kansas stuff out of the itinerary and this post for the sake of moving things along. Kansas is known for being flat and boring, but I found it to be neither.