What can you do in Kansas?

Kansas.

Actually,  it's not particularly flat in the east, more of the rolling hills variety. Still, Sean says there's nothing that interests him here -- but while he was being not interested a restored Model T, a sign directing visitors to the Brown v.  Board of Education Memorial, and (we think) one of Boeing's new jetliners passed by. Tess also noted changing grass species away from the Virginia fescue,  a red-tailed hawk carrying dinner home and a pickup truck in white-and-mud trim with storage boxes that marked it as the work vehicle for a large animal veterinarian.

It is the state where I was born, but I've never thought of it as home. "Home is where the heart is," wrote Pliny the Elder; I agree, though I could not say where home has been since September '08. For me, home is a  place where I can join with the most important person in my life. As the Mistress of the Game allows, I will always return there.

But, not in Kansas. Or Arizona. Or Delaware, any more.

We  chose to take a deliberately unstructured day today, heading West towards Hutchinson and keeping an eye on whatever Chance offered. Newton offered the Atchison,  Topeka, and the Santa Fe railroad depot, so we headed there in hopes of a public- and dog-friendly display.

On the way, however, we saw signs for the National Teachers Memorial in Emporia. Detouring there, we found a memorial to teachers killed in their classrooms, sobering enough even before we realized that it had to be a a partial list. Tess noted in particular that university educators were missing, like the five killed during the Virginia Tech massacre in '07. We paid our respects and moved on.

The ATSF depot in Newton was not apparently open for any business, much less public tourism, and the next train was not due until 2:45 am. So we rolled on, and found a lakeside campsite at the Cheney Reservoir State Park. The area no more deserves connection with a certain unindicted war criminal than I do with two Presidents of the United States.

After confirmed observations of lightning from at least a third of the horizons' arc and in consultation with other members of the party, the hammock master has retreated to the the tent this evening.