As you might have guessed, my first blog post-trip is one extolling the wonderful time we had in Northwest Kansas over the weekend. And it was indeed a grand time.
Our trip out was uneventful. We stopped in Central Kansas to see my wife’s dad, then headed on “out west”. Arriving at our destination about 7:00 in the evening (or was it 6pm…I just don’t know for sure with the confusion of crossing the time zone), we were greeted by our hosts who operate a b & b “out there” in the middle of nowhere.
Built in the late 1800’s in a valley with a running creek, the b & b is also a working ranch, although not the kind of ranch one might expect. There are no cowhands, horses, etc. here. There is a lot of tilled ground, irrigation, and some livestock. It’s operated more like a farm than a ranch, for those who know the difference.
We stayed in the house, which was filled with history and oozing with stories of times past and gone. They’ve done a great job with the preservation of the place and seem to have a good handle on what it takes to make such a place productive and good.
The two things I noticed most, however, were the quiet (which I’ve written about before), and the wildlife. Ducks, pheasant, turkeys, deer, geese, frogs (we were near a creek), and even prairie dogs were enjoyed over the course of time. The quiet was stunning and was a welcome respite for folks from the big city.
One thing I had kind of forgotten was how far people have to drive out there to get anywhere. It’s just a long way from one place to another, and drives of 20 miles or more to go to the store, to eat, to church, to visit, etc., are not uncommon. The roads aren’t all paved, either. Our car received some battle scars in the form of clinging mud on the fenders and wheel wells while out there. When I opened the trunk lid, the dust came flying off of it and into the air in a brown cloud. I knew then we were in God’s country.
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