It's fun to experience the Prairie Rose Chuckwagon Supper and Hopalong Cassidy Cowboy Museum in tiny Benton, Kansas, any time of year. But it's extra special around the holidays.

Looking for a place to eat while driving through Kansas on I-70? We highly recommend the Western Kansas Saloon and Grill in WaKeeney, known as the " Christmas City on the High Plains".

We never expected to find one of the world's most comprehensive space museums in the middle of rural Kansas.

So you can imagine our surprise when we discovered the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Museum while passing through Hutchinson in south-central Kansas.

Thousands and thousands of acres of sunflowers surround Goodland, Kansas--the "Sunflower Capital of the Sunflower State". But one whopper steals the show!

I can't think of a better place to pay tribute to America's veterans than my hometown of Emporia, Kansas.

Located in east-central Kansas, Emporia first observed Veterans Day--or as we often call it, All Veterans Day--a full year ahead of everyone else. Back in the early '50s, the country still celebrated Armistice Day, which marked the end of World War I.

To see the North American prairie as the pioneers first viewed it, head for the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills of east-central Kansas.

Praire dogs still thrive at Prairie Dog State Park in northwestern Kansas.

Located on the north shore of the Sebelius Reservoir near Norton, the park is also home to wildlife like pheasants, turkeys, badgers and deer. The 1.4-mile Prairie Dog Nature Trail is a good place to spot them.

You should definitely stop and see Rock City if you're traveling in central Kansas near Minneapolis, the boyhood town of George Washington Carver.

Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said he was most proud of the fact that Abilene, Kansas was his hometown. After paying it a visit, I see exactly where he was coming from.

I don't know what I love more at the Wamego Tulip Festival--the nearly 20,000 tulips blooming in this Kansas town or the authentic Old Dutch Mill windmill, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.Built in the 1870s by Dutch immigrant John Schonhoff, the 40-foot-tall stone mill is the only one of its kind in Kansas. In 1924, townsfolk moved the mill piece by piece from a farm 12 miles away and rebuilt it. Now fully restored, the mill grinds grain in Wamego City Park, site of the festival.

Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said he was most proud of the fact that Abilene, Kansas was his hometown. After paying it a visit, I see exactly where he was coming from.

There seems to be no end to the attractions in this small town of 6,800 or so folks. And the center of it all is five-building Eisenhower Center. The complex is a marvelous place to immerse yourself in the life of this American hero (call 1-785/263-4751 or visit www.dwightdeisenhower.com ).