83,000 Square Miles, Kansas Day Trips: No Lines No Waiting (ISBN 1880652943)

Book Description:
No bare-bones travel guide, this fun book details 27 day trips across Kansas. Each trip is to a place of historic or natural interest in the state and is complemented by full-color photography. For those interested in hitting the backroads and doing some exploring, this is the perfect travel companion. Information on state recreation areas and hiking, biking and walking trails is also included, as is Kansas trivia that will boggle the mind.

Written by my dad, Steve.:
I have only now become aware that my dad's book is available on amazon, as I haven't seen it in any bookstores for some years now. For those who don't know, my father passed away in 2000. I miss him dearly, and personally, this book helps me keep him alive in spirit. To steal an excerpt from one of my own poems, "Great American Desert," "I walk in his trail to keep him alive; in this great land, I will survive." You see, my dad instilled in me a love and appreciation for Kansas that too few Kansans or non-natives lack. Most see Kansas as a desolate, dull, flat state lacking in the "typical beauty" that one would find in a lush, or mountainous region. Although Kansas is not entirely flat as anyone who has lived in Manhattan in the Flint Hills would know, I do not believe that "flat" should be used pejoratively. I find the openess to be a tranquil, sweetly vulnerable place providing much needed solitude. The prairie is a wonderfully mysterious but simple place, where I go to be with my father. This book is a door to all of those wonderful places that many people don't even know exist! Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, and perhaps people are becoming numb to the overstimulation of places of "typical beauty", but no matter who you are, I believe that everyone has the potential to see and recognize the bountiful beauty that is Kansas.