More soon

Had a great vacation with the fam. It always makes me introspective and this one was no exception. Lots of thoughts jostling around, and I intend to make some sense of them here :-)

Meantime, here's a picture of me and my little brother, taken while they were here last week. Love those guys.

Kansas - Day 2

We've had spotty internet service, so I'm behind posting about our vacation.

We went to the Konza Prairie on Monday. Very interesting and very hot. We hiked the 2.5 mile loop trail and saw some neat stuff. Mr W was a trooper. Here he is on a little footbridge leading to the grasslands.

Here's some Ironweed. There wasn't as much blooming as I had hoped, but still a few cool things. The big pulses of flowers are in June and September. There also wasn't as much tall grass as I thought there would be. Big Bluestem, but it was kind of sparse.

Compass Plant. This one was about 5 feet tall.

A horned lizard. Definitely a highlight of the hike. It was about the size of a deck of cards. 

Butterfly weed. This was the only one that I saw for the hike. 

Mr W toward the end. It was wicked hot and the shade felt good. I like that this place has a strong educational component to it, as the ecosystem used to be dominant in the middle part of the country, and is largely gone. You can see from this that there are woodlands as part of it as well. The trees grow where there's enough water, and fire has been suppressed in some places, which lets the trees and shrubs start to come in.

Kansas - Day 1

Well, we got going a little later than I thought, but it worked out fine. Long day, about 530 miles on the car. Here's Mr W ready to walk out the door. He wanted to be able to hold all his stuff. He is a really good traveler, although he spends too much time on the computer. He alternated with reading, and it's vacation, right? I worry about eyestrain - hey, I'm a mom. 

One of the informative maps at a rest stop on I-70. The bathrooms had A/C, which was nice because it was almost 100 degrees outside - Phew! 

We rented a Versa, and it's really easy to drive. I normally drive my trusty 1995 Civic, and there was a bit of a difference between the two. It's funny, Mr W's dad has two old cars and the kid rarely rides in anything close to a new car.  He kept saying how nice it was - and it was. I don't get the big car thing. This little car did everything I needed it to do and it was comfortable, too. 

I don't remember the last time I was through Kansas, but there was a stretch of about 20 miles with lots of wind turbines. It was neat to observe the transition between what it looks like above, with grassy croplands and few trees, to what it's like in eastern Kansas, which must get more water in general because there's more trees here. That said, we took a little walk around a nearby park after dinner and the grass is really dry. They don't look like they're set up to water the grass in parks.  People's lawns were dry, too.

Mr W in our room. He was duly impressed by the desk and the little refrigerator. We're getting up early-ish to visit the prairie before it gets wicked hot, but I suspect it'll still be plenty hot. That's OK, we'll bring our water and be able to turn on the A/C in the car when it's done. More pictures tomorrow.

A little trip

Mr W and I are off to the heartland tomorrow, for a few-days long road trip. I know it's going to be hot, but I've always wanted to see the Konza Prairie, a research area and remnant tallgrass prairie in Kansas. So we're renting a little (hopefully) car and going tomorrow morning.

Why Konza prairie? Well, when I worked in Toledo, Ohio, my park was close to a region called the Oak Openings, a transitional ecosystem between the tallgrass prairies of the Midwest and the Eastern Forests. It's kind of a savannah habitat out there, with beach sand in the soil from previous incarnations of Lake Erie. We'd see both prairie and forest plants in the parks. The height of the grasses (8-10' tall for some) and the variety of flower species present in prairies makes them something I want to see myself. Do I sound a little defensive? No one seems to share my passions...

But Mr W suggested a road trip and was willing to go "about 8 hours out" so I'm renting a car with good gas mileage and A/C and we're hitting the road. I called the rental place to confirm they had the reservation and an economy car and he said something like, "you'll be able to pick from what we have". I hope they have something small.

Can I tell you? I've gotten so used to staying home and doing clay stuff and sticking close to home, that the thought of preparing for a trip is a little daunting. I think that is close to the best reason to go and do it, therefore. Get out of the house and see stuff.

Sal will stay with B from the dog park, so she'll have close to her regular routine. It's hard to travel with dogs.

Oh, forgot to mention the other thing we'll do. Several years ago when I first got my iPod and was introduced to the world of podcasts, I stumbled upon one from the Kansas Historical Society called "Cool Things" where they would talk about an object from the museum and give it context. I found this so very appealing that I want to see the museum itself on our trip. It's only about an hour away from the prairie, so we'll stay a couple of nights in Topeka and see the museum. Or we'll take off that last day and go somewhere else - who knows. I want to be that flexible, and we'll see what happens. I was thinking about how different it was to travel without a smartphone. We're so connected - for better or worse.

Pending proper internet connections, I'll blog about our travels and post pictures. Yea!