YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING

                      IT IS FAR BETTER TO KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT
                             AND LOOK STUPID, THAN OPEN IT
                                       AND PROVE IT!
                                                          Cowboy Wisdom

     OK, it has happened again.  Some self appointed Bozo has pronounced that Kansas is number 50 out of 50 states for scenery.  I am sure if he ever has been in Kansas it was driving 85 MPH on I-70.  It was probably gloomy and mostly at night.  Otherwise this guy should be banned from driving and given a white cane.
     I once again was able to road trip to Manhattan Kansas for a battery charge from people who love this state, and life in general.  I started by not going the fast and direct route but going north from the Wildfire Ranch and driving through Stafford (one of my favorite towns) and on to Ellinwood.  I picked up my friend Basil who has just become Chamber of Commerce Director and head cheerleader for the town.  This is going to be another of my favorite towns because of the antique stores, restaurants, and the preservation of many historic buildings.
     Since we have been in one of the worst droughts in years it was so nice to see everything green, especially in August.  I am sure even the farmers who had their hay rained on were not that mad since there has actually been adequate to almost too much rain up there.
     The Smoky Hills were in rare form and so were the Flint Hills.  If anyone failed to enjoy the scenery on I-70 this day they are truly blind.  Kansas beauty is subtle.  You don't need a pile of rock going to 14,000 feet to have wonderful views.
     Then in Manhattan it was the first time I had been on the K-State campus since high school.  It is fantastic!  The Kansas mascot was everywhere,(the orange cones) and the traffic was awful.  Of course it was the weekend of students moving in for the fall semester.  Parties abounded.
     I discovered that Manhattan has a really great Zoo.  The Flint Hills Discovery Center needs to be experienced by everyone.  If you don't take your kids there you are derelict.  The movie on the Flint Hills is like nothing you have experienced.  And I mean experienced, you will just have to go to see what I mean.
     On the way home we had a great chicken dinner at the Brookville Hotel at Abilene.  Then we stopped at the Russell Stover store at the candy factory.  They are open on Sundays.  My blood sugar went up just looking. (I did only get the sugar free).  What candy store do you need a shopping cart for?  WOW!
     After a long weekend I was wearing down and thank goodness that the dime store in Stafford was open on Sunday afternoon so I could use the facilities and get a sugar free cherry limeade at the antique soda fountain.
     I returned home exhausted but full of the great scenery of Central Kansas.  Whoever that snob is that scoffed at the beauty of Kansas can stay in his concrete jungle and ogle the rats and trash that he so loves.  We can live quite nicely without him.