"...And I start to complain that there's no rain..."

Saturday was one of two rainy days that I can remember since arriving in Kansas in late December. It simply doesn't rain here. Despite the much-needed rain, we had a fairly eventful day. Aaron got up at the crack of dawn and drove to KC to see if he could get some free doors. I know, it sounds weird. Burns & Mac was doing some remodelling and told their employees that there were going to be 40 solid-core doors free for the taking at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. (We thought they would make excellent desks and/or workbenches.) Aaron drove out to KC in the rain, got to the loading dock at 7:30 a.m. ...and they had already all been taken. That was a little disappointing... no cool desks and/or workbenches for us.

Later that afternoon we drove back out to KC, this time to go to the La-Z-Boy furniture store. I was excited; Aaron was less excited. Nonetheless, we picked out a beautiful couch and a lovely green upholstery for it. We will get a gorgeous green couch with cream accent pillows sometime in May. Ugh. Two months away from now!!! We ate a late lunch at Popeyes (mmm... fried chicken) and then moseyed beck towards Lawrence, taking the long way home on Route 56.

Sunday was supposed to be rainy, but true to past experience, the day dawned clear and sunny. Aaron packed us a lunch, and we hit the road. We drove west from Lawrence, towards the Flint Hills of north-eastern Kansas. It was a gorgeous day - sunny and warm. We drove with the windows down for a good part of it, and everything still smelled reminiscent of Saturday's rain. It made me think that spring was almost here for good.

I don't know that we actually ever technically got into the Flint Hills region. We certainly had it surrounded. Wherever we actually were, it was quite pretty. It was very open, very big, and gently rolled along. We pulled off a main highway and ate lunch by a ranch fence. We ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and listened to the cars not going by. It was so quiet... There was a bird in a nearby tree making the only audible noise other than the wind in the tallgrass.

I find it hard to imagine what the first pioneers felt when they started settling in Kansas, moving here from places like Virginia, New York, and Pennysylvania. It's so wide-open and unsheltered. I supposed it would have been quite scary to see the horizon in 360 degrees, and not see another house.