KANSAS

YEAR VISITED: 2005 and 2018.

FAVORITE CITIES AND EXPERIENCES: The summer of 2005 had the makings of the greatest summer vacation of all time. After saving for what felt like forever, Jill and I booked a 12-day tour of Italy with an extended stay in Sweden. As if that wasn’t enough we also cashed in our travel voucher’s for some fun in the sun and booked a Cancun vacation as well. Jill was pregnant with our first child and this felt like the last worry free summer before we jumped into parenthood. While Italy was a dream, we were disappointed that Hurricane Emily touched down and devastated Cancun just prior to our arrival. Therefore due to the uncertainty around the state of the city and the inevitable mass cleanup that would need to take place, we decided to cancel the trip. As you can probably imagine we felt extremely disappointed yet simultaneously incredibly fortunate that we were able to experience the beautiful countries of Italy, Sweden, and Denmark. Tough to be disappointed about only getting to travel to three rather than four countries in the same summer. At roughly the same time that I was justifying to myself that “it’s okay, we don’t need to go on two vacations back to back, who does that anyway…” Jill came up with a tremendous idea that was responsible for getting our dream summer vacation back on track. Rather than cancel our flight to Mexico outright and lose out on our free travel vouchers that were only good for one year, we decided to simply reroute our flight from Cancun to … Denver, Colorado. While our ultimate destination was Lawrence Kansas, to visit our friends Becky and Sean who had only recently moved to Lawrence for graduate school at KU, Alaska Airlines didn’t fly to Kansas. At that point we weren’t going to let anything stop us from enjoying the 2nd leg of our dream summer vacation, no matter the destination. So we transferred the flight, booked a rental car, and drove the roughly eight hours from Denver to Lawrence. While we readily admit that Lawrence doesn’t have near the sex appeal that Cancun has, you would be hard pressed to find two couples that had more fun together than us during our week exploring the state of Kansas. I would definitely classify the summer of 2005 as a dream vacation and a great last hurrah before we became parents in December.

STADIUMS AND/OR SPORTING EVENTS: We haven’t attended any games in the state of Kansas. However, I thoroughly enjoyed walking the campus of the University of Kansas and their athletic facilities.

While the temperature was soaring (I believe it was over 90 degrees with the humidity hovering above 90 as well), I was not going to let that deter me from seeing the football stadium, baseball field, and of course the famous Allen Fieldhouse. Due to the extreme heat and humidity, combined with the fact Jill was five months pregnant, she elected to stay in the air conditioned car rather than follow me around the campus. As a result now when we reminisce about the many travels and adventures we have embarked on, the family lovingly jokes, “Mom hates Kansas.” Crazy how not wanting to sweat your face off walking around a college campus 1,500 miles away from your house translates into hating an entire state, but man do we have fun poking fun at Jill who is always a good sport.

I typically try to wander into facilities, and that was the plan for “James Naismith Court” (inventor of the game of basketball and the first KU basketball coach), but unfortunately it was under construction and I wasn’t able to get into the building to take a peek at the famous venue.

ADVENTURE(S): While I would ultimately classify our visit to Kansas as a ‘great week’ it certainly didn’t start out that way. We flew into Denver, rented a cheap sedan, and drove the roughly eight hours to our ultimate destination of Lawrence. We turned left out of the airport which within 15 minutes took us to I-70 W and then we drove straight for the next seven and a half hours… and when I say straight, I mean STRAIGHT. No trees, no real mountains visible on the horizon, just fields and the curvature of the earth on the horizon for nearly the entire drive. This easily classifies as one of the most boring drives I have ever done.

With that said, I am sure anyone could then understand why we decided to make a pit stop in Oakley and pay money to walk through Prairie Dog Town. The signs along the freeway advertised for a 6-legged steer, live rattlesnakes, a 8,000 lb Prairie dog, and Roscoe the miniature donkey.

How could anyone pass this by? You factor in the boring drive and I believe we actually sped up in an attempt to get to Prairie Dog Town even faster. We wandered around the indoor/outdoor facility for roughly a half an hour, had a couple good laughs, and took a handful of entertaining pictures before returning to the road.

Once we arrived in Lawrence our friends, the Weavers, were first class hosts. They attempted to turn their guest bedroom into a hotel sweet that resembled something like what we would have seen in Cancun; a cooler was full of Corona upon our arrival. We then took a self guided walking tour of Lawrence, something I would highly recommend to anyone. What made this worth our time is it felt like a ‘choose your own adventure’ type of tour. There were signs for “Basketball sites of Lawrence”, “Historic sites of Quantrill’s Raid” and simply “Explore Mass Street”. Looking back I would estimate we only did 1/2 of the Quantrill’s Raid walking tour and probably a handful of the Explore Mass Street tour, but I was fascinated by the history. I learned about William Quantrill, and the feud between the Jayhawkers and Bushwhackers that ultimately led to the town of Lawrence being burned to the ground just prior to the Civil War. Beyond being fascinated by stories of Missourian’s coming across the border to ruffle the feathers of the free state Kansan’s, we ate at the Free State Brew on Mass Street where we had a blast.

Besides first class quesadillas and beverages I thought it was cool to learn this was the first brew pub to open in Kansas following prohibition. As a young history teacher at the time, I credit specifically this trip for sparking my love of the Civil War and ultimately for motivating me to earn my masters degree in Civil War history.

NOTABLE DESTINATIONS & STOPS: From Lawrence we ventured out on a number of adventures, the first being to Topeka where we toured the museum celebrating the landmark court case Brown v Board of Education. If not familiar this was the supreme court decision that declared racial segregation in public schools as unconstitutional thus effectively over turning the early case of Plessy v Ferguson.

While I am typically not a ‘museum guy’ and would be lying if I said we spent half a day examining every artifact the museum had to offer, I did enjoy my time and felt a sense of overwhelming awe in being in such a historically significant location.

In between the cities of Lawrence and Topeka is Lecompton, the territorial Capitol of the state from 1855-1861. This tiny town is the home of Constitution Hall and is known as the “Birthplace of the Civil War.”

It was here that the Lecompton Constitution was rejected, which would have admitted Kansas as a Southern state. The controversy that ensued split the Democratic party and ultimately led to the election of President Lincoln. The epicenter to those monumental events all occurred in Lecompton, which today has a population less that 1,000 people.

Once the Lecompton Constitution was rejected, conflict grew between free state supporters and slave state supporters. The chaos that followed became known as Bleeding Kansas. Two of the more famous clashes involved infamous American hero or villain John Brown (depending on which side of history you are on), and occurred at Pottawatomie and Osawatomie. Besides being fun to say, both locations played a huge role in the events that preluded the American Civil War that broke out in 1861. Today you can wander through the John Brown Park (site of the Battle of Osawatomie), visit the John Brown Museum, as well as take pictures of the Soldiers Monument.

We enjoyed exploring the grounds and learning the specifics of these relatively little known events that had huge implications on our countries history.

From there we continued, what we later dubbed, our “Kansas history pilgrimage” which took us to the Kansas Museum of History on the grounds of the Kansas State Capital building. While I am fuzzy on the specifics I remember seeing a locomotive dating back to the late 1800’s as well as one of the first airplanes.

On our return trip from Lawrence to Denver, once again along I-70, we stopped in Abilene to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library.

If you ever have the chance to visit a presidential library I would highly suggest you take advantage of the opportunity. While the displays are neat and information you learn is nice, personally what I enjoy the most about all presidential libraries is experiencing the historically significant artifacts you get to interact with. Once in a lifetime opportunities such as walking through Air Force One at Reagans Library, boarding Marine One at Nixon’s library, or flipping through education bills at Lyndon Johnson’s library are all experiences available to the public at presidential libraries. At Eisenhower’s Library we were able to tour the museum, his childhood home, and pay our respects at his final resting place as he was buried here as well.

Due to the extreme humidity and lack of proximity to the ocean we have never been extra fond of the mid-west. However, we did enjoy our trip to Kansas and most of all our visit with the Weavers.

  • OUR LIST TO VISIT OR RETURN TO:
  • Kansas Jayhawk basketball game in Allen Fieldhouse
  • Rocky Kansas High
  • Dodge City
  • Oz Museum
  • Wichita State Shockers baseball game at Eck Field

Leave a comment