My last full day in Kansas ended in the same manner for first full day did--with thunderstorms. It became overcast late in the afternoon as I left Abilene, and as I traveled east on Interstate 70, taking one final look at the Flint Hills, pictured below, the storm hit. I had a few laughs at the expense of the radio announcers broadcasting the Kansas City Royals-Texas Rangers game--the pair in the booth were saying that it didn't look like the storm would pass over Kaufman Stadium.
From my vantage point, I knew better By the time I hit Lawrence and checked into my motel, the umpires had called a rain delay.
As I Treo blogged that night, I had dinner in Lawrence's Old Chicago Restaurant. Kansans like outsiders, and perhaps they were playing it up to be nice, but they seem fascinated with people from Chicago.
Lawrence has many claims to fame. Quantrill's Raiders burned the town to the ground in 1863 during the Civil War, of course an open-minded historian can argue that the Civil War began in the mid-1850s in "Bleeding Kansas." Shortly after that atrocity, the University of Kansas, or KU (but not the U of K for some reason) was founded. It's downtown has a nice cozy small town Kansas feel--not an easy thing to pull off, since Lawrence is not a small town.
Politically Kansas is a red state, but Lawrence is considered the progressive center of the Sunflower State.
Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, and it gives me another opportunity to post a fabulous picture of yet another Kansas courthouse.
The memory of the Santa Fe Trail dominates the pioneer era history of Kansas, but the Oregon and California Trails crossed the northeatern part of the state.
Related post:
Bob Dole, John Edwards, two 28,000 sq. ft. buildings
Next: Goodbye to Kansas
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