We had a short but great visit with Raven’s mom on the outskirts of Lawrence–we still can’t believe that we missed Raven! Then we were off to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve where some of the last remnants of tallgrass prairie can be found. It’s pretty amazing–there once was about 140 million acres of tallgrass prairie in North America and now only about 4% is left. The Flint Hills of Kansas are home to a big chunk of that 4%. We were, as usual this time of year, the only visitors there. Prescribed burns and cattle grazing have sustained the tallgrass prarie, but bison are slated to arrive next year.
Kansas is not as flat as folks make it out to be. Well, at least parts of it. The panhandle of Oklahoma–that’s flat. Parts of it. Windy–they’ve both got that covered. The wind didn’t really let up much after we left the Tallgrass Prairie. We tried to visit the world’s largest hand dug well in Greensburg, KS and it should have been an easy task with all the signs on the highway leading you there. However, when we got to Greensburg not a sign could be found. It looked like half the town was blown away in a recent tornado–it was quite a scene. It was nice to see a big “Thank you AmeriCorps” sign on the edge of town–they must have had some help recently.
Alas, we missed the big well. This was also around the time that I was wondering why I didn’t order a bunch of beef sandwiches to go from Arthur Bryant’s, neatly putting two of my regrets right next to each other.
The Oklahoma Panhandle is known as “No Man’s Land”. They nailed it. More to come on that, Oklahoma’s highest point, dinosaurs, and New Year’s Eve.
And, if you haven’t checked out the link on the right side of the page to our photos be sure to take a look!
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