Have you ever dreamed of just taking off and traveling the world? That’s exactly what my guests  did. 
1 year, 24 countries, 4 continents….
Their Instagram account says it all: Kansas Meet World. I can’t wait for you to meet this Kansas family and learn about their gap year. 
This trip was about so many things - seeing the world, learning how to support locals, experiencing other religions, figuring out what you can and can’t live with, and how important it is to live your life connected to those who are most important to you..
It happens to me very often that I’m someplace outside of Kansas and I run into Kansans. For the Lewison family, it happened in places like Zanzibar. We may be a fairly small population, but we show up in a lot of exotic places!

What I ultimately take away from my conversation with the Lewisons is that it is important to explore the world AND our home in Kansas. 
Kansas Meet World Instagram
What You’ll Learn in this Episode

• How a family of 5 traveled the world for a year
  
• What is a whirling dervish?
  
• About the Kansas Burger in Portugal
  
• How the Kansas school system allowed kids to travel the world and still stay in school
  

How to Support the Podcast:
Tell a friend about us
Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite app
Follow us on Instagram or Facebook
Buy a Kansas Travel Journal 
Send us a recommendation for an episode

Today’s episode came from a trip we made to Sabetha Kansas to have lunch at the Brick Street Furniture Company and Wine Lounge. Friend of the podcast, Kate Miller from Hiawatha recommended that we eat there. And, now I’m recommending it to you too. While we were at Brick Street, Dustin recommended to us that we take a trip 5 miles north of Sabetha to Sycamore Springs. He mentioned that they were revitalizing the skating rink and we should stop in and see it. We thought - sure - let’s check this place out. You don’t hear about skating rinks much anymore. 

So, we thought we were heading to a small little town with a skating rink. What we found was something we could have never imagined. You’ll learn more about it in this episode, where I interview Kent Grimm. 
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As I say at the end of the interview - I set out to tell our listeners about this really cool place that Geoff and I found on a somewhat spare of the moment trip. But, what this episode is really about is someone who has taken on the challenge of saving a piece of history and modernizing it so that it can continue to be relevant into our future. 

Sycamore Springs White Tails Ranch website

What You’ll Learn in this Episode

• What you’ll experience if you go to Sycamore Springs in Sabetha, Kansas
• How the Grimm family is revitalizing Sycamore Springs
• About Old Albany Days and threshing bee in Albany, Kansas
• The oldest working pipe organ in Kansas is in Albany, Kansas 

How to Support the Podcast:
Tell a friend about us
Subscribe to the podcast on your favorite app
Follow us on Instagram or Facebook
Buy a Kansas Travel Journal 
Send us a recommendation for an episode

Uncovering Kansas was founded based on the idea that we frequently overlook the great things that are right in our back yard. As a matter of fact, right on the home page of our website is this quote from Dagobert Runes:

People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.

My guest today, Lisa Stewart is going to tell us about her experience meeting people and exploring Kansas at 4 mph on horseback. It is a good reminder that we all have one fundamental thing in common - we are all Kansans. Whether by birth, by choice, or by circumstance, we are all neighbors. 

Links from the Show:
Lisa Stewart: The Big Quiet website
Kansas Book Festival Episode
Atwood Kansas

Get to Know a Kansan Questions:
Prairie Village Kansas
Somerset Wine Trail
Miami County Farm Tour
Robert Day - The Last Cattle Drive

What You'll Learn in this episode:

• ​What it is like to travel across Kansas on a horse
• A reminder that humanity is fundamentally good
• About the memoir The Big Quiet: One Woman’s Horseback Ride Home
• That Kansas isn’t flat!
• The benefit of traveling slowly
• Why Prairie Village Kansas is a great place to live
• About the Somerset Wine Trail
• About Kansas writer Robert Day

How to Support the Podcast

• Tell a friend about us
• Follow us on Instagram or Facebook
• Buy a Kansas Travel Journal 
• Send us a recommendation for an episode

In April 2020’s episode of Uncovering Kansas, Rachel talks with Kansan Sage Scott, a travel blogger. They talk about travel vs vacation; of inspiring someone to travel and explore rather than attempting to influence visiting a specific spot or locale; and they give shout-outs and share BIG love for Abilene and Nicodemus Kansas.  Sage Scott arrived in Kansas via a circuitous route. But she is plugged in now. Shining bright, lending her passion for, and experiences with, travel with the entire world. Please, listen to the episode. Share it with family and friends. And send us any comments or feedback you have.

We understand everyone is self-isolating right now. And travel may not be possible. But before you know it, we’ll be traveling and exploring again because of the efforts of dedicated people—in Kansas and elsewhere—to flatten the curve and slow the spread of the virus. 
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Everyday Wanderer
Abilene Kansas
Brookville Hotel
Mr. K’s Farmhouse
Volga German History Museum
Nicodemus Kansas
Brown vs Board of Education

Everyday Wanderer links to articles mentioned in the show:
Abilene
Nicodemus article
Kansas
Women’s history month 
Brown v Board
Life Lessons for your big 0 birthday

Of course anyone can go online and research a trip. But it isn’t every day you’re able to get vacation planning ideas straight from the Director of a Visitors Bureau. That’s exactly what you’ll get in this (part II) episode. Rachel talks with Jan Stevens, the Director of the Dodge City Convention and Visitors Bureau and Joni Whitman, the event coordinator for Dodge City Days. So....Want to learn to mosey? have a hankering to try some Prickly Ash Bitters? or want to enjoy a rodeo? Then you’re sure to have yourself a great time in Dodge.
Dodge City Travel Site
Boot Hill Museum
Dodge City Round Up
Boot Hill Distillery
Dodge City Brewing
Red Beard Coffee
Carnegie Art Center
Dodge City Trolley
Dodge City Days
Longbranch Lagoon
Boot Hill Casino
Horsethief Reservoir

It’s finally stopped snowing, and the rains have come, and the kids are getting out of school. You’re starting to plan your summer vacation. Part of our mission is to encourage Kansans to get out and learn more about our state, so we’ve put together a new travel episode series (that we’ll post every once in awhile) that allows you to listen to locals share places to see and things to do in their towns in order to give you ideas for your travel plans. For summer 2019, we are going to highlight 3 great towns for a summer vacation: Hays, Dodge City, and Manhattan.

In our first episode, we talk with Melissa Dixon, Executive Director of the Hays Convention and Visitors Bureau. There are lots of things to do in Hays, and it makes a great base camp to explore the surrounding attractions. Whether you visit Fort Hays to see how the soldiers lived before there was I-70 to get us across the plains, or the world famous Sternberg museum for its amazing fossil collection, or spend the day at the aquatic park, you’ll enjoy yourself in Hays.  If you go to Hays this summer, share pictures with us on our Facebook Page!
 
Hays Tourism Website
Ft. Hays
Gella’s Diner and LB Brewery
Hays Aquatic Park
On The Bricks
Pete Felton
Larks Baseball Games
Hays Art Walk
Wild West Festival
Ellis County Fair
Sternberg Museum
Tour die Kapellen
Side Trips from Hays:
Nicodemus
Cathedral of the Plains