Road trips, trees and triathalons

When my husband first told me of his plans to do an out of state Triathlon this summer, my first thoughts were of road trips!  
Where I am from originally, upstate New York, road trips look like this:

Oh how I love trees!  All shapes and sizes and leaf patterns.  
Where I live in Denver there are lots of trees, hardwood trees, but as soon as I leave the city, the landscape starts to look a little barren to me.  Lovely for various reason, rugged and and very western, but not the landscapes of my dreams.  This time of year I am so homesick for lush green landscapes and thunderheads and yes rain!
 So where did my husband choose to do his marathon? 
El Dorado Kansas. 
Yes Kansas.

My sweet husband had the choice of doing a triathlon almost anywhere in the world, Hawaii?  Vancouver BC?  Vermont?
No, he choose Kansas.


As we left the Denver and drove East, this is what our landscape was.  For hours. And hours.  And more hours.

Now I mean no disrespect towards Kansas, and I love corn as much as the next guy, but what the...??? 

Luckily for us, Kansas gets much nicer as you head towards  El Dorado.
The town of El Dorado was actually very nice.  Built along a railroad line in the late 1800's it has some beautiful historical buildings, a few restaurants and even a quilting shop!  

and the state park where the triathlon was held was beautiful, with a large lake, pond and beach area, and many, many trees. 

It was a true adventure.  At the waters edge we found an abundance of life, tadpoles and water bugs, water beetles and dragon flies, cray fish and guppies. 





David was star of the day, winning the the Triathlon for his age group and coming in 4th overall!  
Turns out Kansas isn't so bad after all.