More thoughts on KC

KC is definitely a different place. Different climate, different scenery, different people. Not in a bad way mind you, just different. I like the fact that it has rained twice in the last seven days as opposed to twice in the last three months. There is actually a change of seasons that results in the color of leaves changing to yellows, oranges, and reds as opposed from green straight to brown. There is terrain here, a gentle rolling of hills that makes for a pleasant drive around the outskirts of the metropolitan area. The people I have interacted with from KS/MO are friendly but not overly so; they won't stop and visit like folks back in the panhandle do. I'll definitely come back for classes and I might even try to visit a couple more times on my own. However, I don't think I could live out here.

I've grown accustom to the plains of the panhandle; where the land meets the sky. There was a beautiful "West Texas" sunset this evening but I couldn't truly enjoy it; there were buildings in the way and going outside of town still didn't allow that full-sky view of the colors. When I headed to the Kansas-side of town on Saturday to see where I briefly lived, the neighborhood was claustrophobic as the trees had formed a total canopy of the street, house, and yard. I couldn't handle not being able to look out the window and see the horizon or not being able to see what kind of weather would be moving towards me. Plus, that would be a LOT of leaves to clean up!

Then there is the traffic. Driving is once again an adventure as the sheer increase in the number of people on the road results in more idiots (you know, those who are driving 100 MPH talking on their cell phone while swerving in and out of traffic...) and random slowdowns as too many people try to merge into traffic. It is "too" busy here for me, people seem to be in a rush even outside of traffic. Stops at Cabela's, Chipotle, and Mimi's Restaurant had random people all in a hurry. People walking out because the wait was 10 minutes, people complaining their order of 16 soft or crispy tacos was taking too long (4 minutes !), people bumping into me as they pulled their kids behind them trying to cover the immense grounds of the Cabela's store. It just seems too fast-paced for me. I guess that's from having been in the top o' Texas for as long as I have.

When it is all said and done, I'll definitely look forward to coming back here. I've still got to get back to I.H.O.P. (poor scheduling on my part this trip), find the secret, hole-in-the-wall BBQ joint every good BBQ city has, and take in some of the more "nerdy" sites around town (a couple of science museums and historical sites). The rest of my evenings this week until I leave are booked so most of this will have to wait. As MacArthur said: "I shall Return."