I Made it to All 105 Counties

The day started out warm and muggy with a temperature of 72 degrees. The high for the day was 88 degrees with a strong south wind. I left Lyons headed south and east about 7:30 on hwy 96. The first stop was in Hutchinson in Reno County and this made number 100 counties I had visited. I am getting excited now.

I left Hutchinson and headed east on 50 hwy and arrived in Newton in Harvey County.

From Newton I headed north on I-135 to McPherson and hwy 56. McPherson was where we lived from 1970 to 1979 while I was a Highway Patrol Trooper stationed there. So I was familiar with the McPherson County courthouse. While I was there I went to the McPherson Sheriff’s office and visited with a long time friend, Sheriff Larry Powell. He has been sheriff there since 1992 and was on the Police Department when we lived there.

I headed east on hwy 56 to Marion in Marion County.

From Marion I headed east on hwy 56 to 150 and was surprised that this road had been rebuilt since I last traveled it. I went north on 50 one mile and at Elmdale headed east on a county road to Cottonwood Falls in Chase County. Their courthouse is the oldest in Kansas still being used and was built in 1873. It is currently being refurbished and they have a temporary courthouse now.

I left Cottonwood Falls and went north on hwy 177 to Strong City and on north coming to the historic Z-Bar Ranch. I stopped there for a spell and spoke with the Park Service attendant. I want to go back when I have more time and tour the house and even go for a hike on there trail. There are some good pictures of the ranch on this website: http://www.galenfrysinger.com/kansas_zbar_ranch.htm

I also took a picture of the school just up the road. There is an article about it at:
http://www.parktrust.org/zb-glim.html

The next stop was Council Grove in Morris County for county 105. I have now been to all the counties in Kansas. Heading home I continued north on 177 to K-4 at Alta Vista and took some pictures of old machinery at a museum of sorts. I headed northeast on the Skyline/Mill Creek scenic road to Alma to the courthouse where I first started this journey.

This trip was 2,177 miles visiting 60 counties. I averaged 41.6 miles per gallon mostly due to the high winds. I normally average from 45 to 49 mpg. I spent a total of $450 for motels, gas and food. I rode a total of 4,080 miles visiting all the counties and this included a trip to Edgar, Nebraska for a funeral. Some counties were overlapped due to several trips so with better planning a few miles could be eliminated.

I believe Kansas is even bigger than most people think!

Kansas as wonderful secondary roads with most having a speed limit of 65. I mostly ran 69 to 70 with the exception in Gove County where it hit 94.5 for a very short distance just to blow out the cobs!

Kansas is very diverse with urban in the east and very rural in the west. Western Kansas has great crops this year so it was a good year to travel out there. Some years it is so dry the crops are not good even with irrigation. Most farms have center pivot irrigation systems and one wonders how many years the water will hold out. The new wheat crop is looking good for next years crop so maybe they will have another good year next year. It should really help the economy with a good wheat crop and great fall crop. They will probably pay some big taxes this year.

Well it was a great experience to get to know Kansas better. When you ride secondary roads and drive through all the small towns and go into town to find the courthouse you end up with a much better feel for what the rural life is like. There are some really nice small towns in Kansas so maybe your next vacation you should pick out some counties and enjoy them. I could have spent much more time exploring in the towns and the counties. There is a lot to see in Kansas!