Showing posts with label kansas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kansas. Show all posts

hazy, lazy days of summer

Thursday, June 21, 2012


Two days in a row, you say...what gives?  Mostly I was looking at these shots I took with my iphone right at wheat harvest time, and this one made me think a lot about these kansas summer days.  This is what we see here in middle america most days in the summer: blue skies that linger forever, with a golden yellow cut wheat field below.  Time stretches on like the horizon, and every few days, the wind kicks up a giant thunderstorm; exactly what happened yesterday.

I left the house for a run at 8pm last night, determined to finish the 4 miles + 2 hills this time without walking due to the oppressive heat.  The sky was full with navy blue and grey clouds, and I knew it would rain eventually.  As I kicked it up the hills, I could feel the front line passing above me.  The temperature dropped 10+ degrees, and the wind switched to the west.  It was heavenly.  I could have run forever.  By the time I rounded the corner to my street, big, fat drops of rain were falling, and the smell of hot, wet concrete was everywhere. 

I finished my run with energy to spare, and we got 1.5 inches of rain.  Now, that is a good way to end a day.

1000 miles from nowhere

Friday, March 26, 2010


I took a little drive the other day, a detour if you will.  I was headed to a small town in a small county for some work, but I saw the sign for the Auto Tour of the Santa Fe Trail that cuts through Marion County, KS.  I stopped and took a folded piece of copy paper which showed a map of the county and the driving tour.  
I had to take dirt roads, blacktop roads and gravel roads. 
I stopped, turned around, and backed up many times. 
But wow. 



Being places where you could see the ruts in the land from the hooves and wagons was really powerful.
Imagining what it was like for those pioneers who came west in search of freedom and a better life.
Thinking about reading the Little House on the Prairie with my kids and having to explain,
really explain what life was like then. 

I enjoyed myself immensely. 
So much so that I was almost there...
I could hear the laughter in the prairie grass.
I could smell the cooking fires.
I could see the river to be crossed all too soon.


It's amazing what there is to see and do here in Kansas.
I'm learning that every day.