12-27-2005 Kansas

Today we drove through Kansas, which is mostly flat and has hardly any trees. It has more trees than Nevada, but there is really nothing out her. Corn cannot grow here because it's too dry, so farmers just grow wheat. Or the land is just dry, brown grassland, very unspectacular but very wide, wider than everything I'm used to from Europe.
The eye has no point to hold on to, so the horizon can be ten or figty miles away, it doesn't matter, because everything is equal.
Amazingly the drive wasn't boring or tiring, because we stopped a couple of times.
After leaving Kansas City quite quickly in the morning - we'll have to come back for sightseeing and barhopping - we arrived Wichita after three hours. The town is known for their large aircraft construction industry, but we wanted to buy my christmas present from my parents: a smaller digital camera, so that I don't always have to carry Jon's large camera around when I go hiking on my own.
Unfortunately you have to pay tolls on some of Kansas' Interstates and because we had to leave and go back to the Interstate before we'd found the store, it was a little annoying and complicated to always stop and pay here a quarter and there forty cents. We wondered if that was worth the spends for them.
After all we bought a Nikon Coolpix 4600, a nice camera, which has many interesting modes and can even make movies.
I just couldn't take too many pictures today, because there was hardly anything to see.
So we could put all our attention to a long German lesson. jon can say no what you can buy in a liquor store. (Jon: "Amerikanisches Bier ist Pferdepisse").
Short before the end of the drive we stopped in Liberal, Ks. Everybody who has watched the "Wizard of Oz" on TV knows that Dorothy lives in Kansas, but a Tornado blows her and her house, her little dog and her to the land of Oz. On her way to the wizard of Oz over the yellow brick road she meets many fantastic creatures who become her friends.
Due to a crazy coincidence Dorothy's house is in Liberal and so we had to look at it more closely.
Munchkins are the small inhabitants of the country Dorothy's house lands in.
After visiting the grounds despite a cold harsh wind, a lady of the chamber of commerce led us through the little farmhouse itself, which is furnished in the style of the beginning century.
We were allowed to visit the land of Oz, a machine shed holding the story of Dorothy and Toto (of course you walk over the Yelllow Brick Road through the exhibition).
There was also a small merchandise shop, but we had to continue our journey, because Adam had told us about a great steak house and a good place for nice and cheap breakfast in Guymon, Oklahoma.
So we climbed back into the car and drove over the border to Oklahoma (still in the same time zone), where the landscape was the same as in Kansas.
Unfortunately the recommended restaurant is closed until Saturday and the pancake shop is closed entirely, but the hotel was nice with Internet, fitness equipment, swimming pool, hot tub and a clean large room. We can't complain at all.
Tomorrow we're driving further through Texas, where we're meeting a former class mate of Jon who is making weather forecasts for the local TV station.
In addition there's a large Quarter Horse Museum in Amarillo that we want to visit.

Jon is driving through Kansas.	Wheat and grain elevators. We left the Interstate short after Wichita.	wide flat land with lots of space for interesting cloud formations.
There are many historic roads in America, just like this supply military road to a fort.	These hills are called mountains here.	Dorothy's house in Liberal.
Kerstin as Munchkin.	"You can be a munchkin!"	The Yellow Brick Road
Dorothy's new friends: scarecrow without a brain...	... a tinman without a heart (The nice young man next to him has one though!)...	... and a lion without courage. The wizard helps them all in the end.
Our travel log.