One of my more recent goals during traveling is to photograph the sign at all of the major U.S. colleges and universities. That is around 200 of them. To get all of them in a 300-mile radius of Kansas City, several weekend trips were taken. This is to record the results of those weekend trips with the colleges in Kansas.

Kansas is a BIG state with many remote parts. It took several trips to get all of the four-year colleges and universities. Since I live in Kansas I thought I should photograph all 15 of them.

Additionally, I needed to drive through Kansas to get to the neighboring states. One of those trips was to northeast Oklahoma. Thus, I drove to Ottawa then south to Tulsa. The first leg was to Ottawa before sunrise. Incredible lightening show for my first hour of driving. Quite a downpour on 15 minutes either side of Ottawa KS. Then, cloudy most of the day until mid-afternoon. The day's temperatures never did reach the predicted 100 degrees, thankfully!

It was curious how highway 169 widened to four lanes for several miles north and south of both towns of Chanute and Coffeyville. It was surprising because there was really nothing built along the highway for shopping, etc.

I got gasoline at a QuikTrip in Oklahoma and another in Kansas. Oklahoma was $1.78/gallon and Kansas was $2.16/gallon. That is 38 cents difference!

One other stop in Kansas I needed to make was at the national park facility at Ft. Scott. I had been to the site many years earlier (that is where I first learned of the term "dragoons") but that was before the time I decided I need to photograph the NPS sign for each park. So I stopped in Ft. Scott long enough to get that photo.

My trip to Atchison I believe was the first time to ever visit that town. It is a quaint small college town with Benedictine College there. Has the same sort of feel and look as Parkville MO with Park University. Both towns border the Missouri River.