East Kansas

Back in the first half of the 19th century, when California was a part of Mexico and Texas was a republic, the Santa Fe Trail was the main route into the unorganised territories beyond the ever moving western frontier. Before the creation of the railroads, this important wagon carved highway was primarily used for trade and the facilitation of the 'Manifest Destiny'; the belief that the immigrant communities who settled the north eastern colonies were destined to expand and settle the whole of this sparsely populated continent.

Now, for the remainder of our time in the state of Kansas the path of this trail would loosely determine our route north east toward Kansas City and Missouri. So, with Kinsley and the half way point across America now firmly planted in our rear view mirror, we headed towards the nearest town of Greensburg. My first impression of this town was that it seemed like it was brand new. All around us, widely separated partially constructed buildings exposed their innards to the dry local air. All of this provided a surreal spectacle that could only be explained after I did a little research...

It appears that late on May 4th 2007, Greensburg was hit by a devastating 205 mph tornado that destroyed 95 percent of the city and killed eleven people. It was declared an official disaster area by President Bush shortly after, and has been rebuilding itself as a new town and model of green living ever since.

After refueling the Beast we continued our passage via the back roads that meander north east through this flat state. We had been eager to avoid the Interstate where possible, and we were being rewarded with small town after small town, each different, and each forgotten by the bland and generic developments that have clung to the few major motor arteries that we had previously been forced to utilise.

This passage more then consumed the remainder of the day as we continued our journey up through Mennonite country, and onward towards a beautiful fading sunset that hovered over Marion Lake and our last night outside of Kansas City.

Small Blue House


Tank and Play Park


One Nation Under God

Forgotten Church

A Kansas Sunset

The next morning we headed to Hutchinson. I was a little giddy given the possibility of confronting a childhood obsession, but I composed myself as we entered the towns Cosmosphere and Space Centre. There was a suppressed 8 year old version of myself that was a little excited about what lay ahead in the foyer of that clinical concrete building and he wasn’t about to be disappointed...

... as we entered through an unassuming glass doorway, its presence was immediate and impressive; the curved contours of a complete SR-71A Blackbird, the US spy-plane that, in model form had hung from my bedroom ceiling as a child. It is still hard for me to get my head round the fact that such an incredibly beautiful machine could be such an intimidating agent of war and destruction.

Beyond the space centre, Hutchinson is actually quite an interesting place. Apart from the seemingly random existence of this space centre and its twee little planetarium, it sits above a vast salt mine, over 600 feet beneath the surface, which is now used to for the safe keeping of the negatives of some of the earliest and most important works of American cinema.

© All Images By Paul