KANSAS:
THE HARD-UP-FOR-TOURISTS STATE
State Motto: "We'll Do Anything Ta Get Ya Ta Stop Here!"
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I hope it's obvious I'm kidding! |
Kansas is a beautiful state, its vast expanses justly sung. Nor can you really blame Kansans for wanting to get a few bucks from the tourists coming and going from Colorado.
I'm about to sing some praises of Kansas, myself and not even of the Oz Museum, billboards for which I was too tired to photograph. (Actually, the museum's website truly touches me, with its references to one of the greatest of all films. )
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Thanks For Being Good Sports there, Kansans.
Now Here's a HYMN To Your State!
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Top left: a lovely mosaic sunflower, Kansas visitor's center, I-70.
Top right: a nice sculpture in front of the GOODLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY. I got off I-70 to seek cheaper gas, wound up going in the library to check e-mails. I must say I was touched. Here I was, 250 miles from the nearest big city, Denver. Yet nothing felt "provincial". I felt like I was in my own neighborhood.
Middle, left: the plains of western Kansas were flat and dry. They're having a drought, I understand.
Middle, right: lush hills and valley near Topeka. Here everything looked fresh and green, like paradise!
Bottom, left: sunset near Topeka.
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Kansas As Art
If we're talking about Kansas as Art, meaning not its artists, who are diverse, but in the sense in which I've written of the Impressionism of the Nevada Desert and the Expressionism of Utah I noticed a kind of geometric theme, particularly in the western part of the state. Everywhere I seemed to see repeating patterns rows of things: propane tanks, silos, trucks and tractors, trees, cows, bales, fence-posts. And of course, the endless rows of wheat and corn, and the right-angled patterns of fields. Wish I'd taken some photos of these patterns. Sometimes, you're just too tired to stop. Or if you start stopping, there's no stopping the stopping!
Here's a parting shot: Kansas as I love to remember her
Well, this just about takes us to
KANSAS CITY
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