Currently our country roads are sloppy, mushy and rutty making it difficult to travel on. All the rain followed by snow, then freezing temperatures and now receiving warmer temperatures have the roads thawing, snow melting and for the next few days will make driving on them difficult. Even with a four-wheel drive vehicle, getting through the roads is questionable. Hopefully with the predicted temperatures getting up into the 50s and maybe even 60s, it will dry out the roads.

That’s the way it is living in the country. Usually our native rock roads have helped when it’s wet weather but with this last rain and snow, a lot of the native limestone rock is no longer in the roadways, taking the top of the roads down to just old Kansas mud. If the traveler is brave and travel is necessary, it is hard to figure out exactly where to drive on the roads. Do you follow the worn tracks, or as we call them “ruts”? Or maybe it’s better to stay out of the ruts. It’s a guessing game. Of course, a person may look down from the road to notice there is a bank on either side that could possibly be a hazard if the vehicle can not stay in the road. There is a possibility of going over the banks and down into the draw. Then there is also the problem of trying to stay over to the side of the road when going up over a hill so you don’t run into someone trying to come up the other side of the hill.

It’s called tried and true country wet rock road driving expertize. A person has to become used to driving on these roads in this condition. It just has to be done at just the right speed. Not too fast, yet fast enough to make it up a muddy hillside. Hopefully spring like weather has arrived and the roads will become easier to travel on. You never can tell this time of year though, as in February a snow storm may arrive once again.

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Monday was January 29, a time to wish Kansas Happy 163rd Birthday! It was decided in the early 1880s that with the great growth of population in the state, it became evident there was a feeling of state pride. So Kansas’ statehood, January 29, began to be observed in the schools as “Kansas Day.” In 1882, the observance of this special day became popular in Wichita and Junction City schools and it quickly spread statewide. Through the years programs were planned, essays written and read, all on the history of Kansas. Kansas songs were written and sung, and Kansas poems were written and shared. School classrooms were decorated with the Kansas flag, pictures on the sunflower which was chosen as the state’s flower, and pictures of the state bird, the Meadowlark. Eventually Kansas Day parties were held celebrating the special day.

Kansas has been described by geologists as a part of the great plains, stretching from the Mississippi River on the east to the Rocky Mountains on the west. It is 408 miles long by 208 miles wide and was looked upon as being the shape of a block, smack in the middle of the original 48 states. The average altitude is 2,000 feet above sea level. The altitude rises approximately from 750 feet on the eastern boundary to about 4,000 feet on the extreme western boundary. The lowest point in the state is in the southeastern part at Montgomery County, where it’s 734 above sea level. The highest point is in the northwestern part at Kanorado in Sherman County, where the altitude is 3,906 feet.

It’s history contains pages of Indian tribes villages and some raids, Civil War raids, Pony Express runs, covered wagon and supply wagon trails, wild west towns, cattle drive destinations, salt and coal mining, early and modern day military forts, rich agricultural and ranching lands, flowing rivers and large lakes, oil wells, wetlands, western irrigated farmland, six state-universities and colleges, a lot of industry, the Flinthills, rodeos, museums, art galleries, the Garden of Eden, the beauty of the Monument Rocks.

The state’s name is featured in the pro sports names of the Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals. College sport’s Kansas teams that usually make it to the ranking national lists are the Kansas State football and basketball teams, the Kansas University basketball team. There are surely much more that should have been listed but this lists several. Kansas, our Home on the Range!