Greetings!

So, what’s with the schoolhouses?

It started ten years ago with a “rocky” road trip.

After moving (back) to Kansas in 2010, my experience of the state west of Topeka was the typical one – a narrow view from Interstate 70 on a trip to Denver, getting out of the car one time, in Hays, to pump gas.  I’d heard wild tales of towering white chalk formations, red gypsum hills, brilliant green wheat fields in spring, and endless rusty autumn vistas of the tall grass prairies.

So, for fall break 2015, I planned a day-long road trip with a “rocky” theme – visiting Rock City, Mushroom Rocks State Park, Coronado Heights, Clemence Stone Arch Bridge, and the limestone Lower Fox Creek School at the tallgrass national prairie. I took my camera, of course, and my wife (of course), and our cocker spaniel. We booked a little cabin on Milford Lake, and set off to explore. The photo above was the first picture I took on that trip. I was hooked. It felt like we had stepped back in time 100 years. The route below was the first of dozens of trips we would make over the next ten years.