I have been meaning to write this blog since mid-November when we found out we would be moving to Kansas City. We don’t actually live in Kansas City proper, not even in Missouri. We live in Overland Park Kansas which is only about 20-30 minutes from downtown and basically is something like a second tier suburb - it all just kind of runs together. Our town has 155,000 people. The county we live in has 450,000 people blending together about nine other towns besides ours that kind circle around Overland Park, all of this southwest of Kansas City. Nearly 2/3 of the people in our county also work here!
The Missouri River cuts across Kansas City and forms the border between Kansas and Missouri. This area was originally a series of French trading posts that traded goods with the local Native Americans, the Kansas, Osage, Wyandotte and Shawnee tribes. The Sante Fe and Oregon Trails began just east of Kansas City in Independence, Missouri, known as the “Gateway to the West.” Civil War battles were fought around this area where the Confederate hopes for victory in Missouri were dashed. The railroad came in 1865 and grew to what is now the 2nd largest rail center in the United States. It is also 2nd in wheat flour production, 3rd in grain elevator storage capacity and 4th in consulting engineers (Eric’s company has over 10,000 employees!) It has 15 four-year colleges, 61 community colleges, 60 public libraries, 5 major entertainment districts, 162 movie theaters, 600 parks, 400 shopping centers and 40 museums. Overland Park is the second largest city in Kansas, ranks second among US cities in livability and ranked 6th in the country on the list of “Top 100 Best Places to Live in the US” in 2006. There are 78 parks, miles and miles of walking and biking trails, and we are within five minutes of a grocery store, Home Depot, barbeque, Sears and Macy’s and within 5-10 minutes to many other stores like Whole Foods, Borders, Starbucks, Fuddruckers and Panera and much, much more! We also have an Apple Store, Crate & Barrel and The Cheesecake Factory all 10-15 minutes away!
Famous people around here are Daniel Boone, Dale Carnegie, George Washington Carver, William Clark, Walter Cronkite, T.S Eliot, Meriwether Lewis, John Pershing, Dred Scot, Harry Truman and Mark Twain - all from Missouri. From Kansas were Walter Chrysler, Amelia Earhart, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Wild Bill Hickock, James Naismith, Walt Disney, Mickey Mouse and Dorothy and Toto. :)
We have really enjoyed our house so far. We’ve had a lot of big and small projects to work on but we’ve enjoyed doing them for the most part. We’ve met 3 sets of neighbors and have been invited over for desert by one of them. One of Eric’s coworkers and his wife have invited us over for dinner a couple of times and we just found out that the family that is living in the apartment we lived in in Lebanon has family here in Overland Park! We are hopefully going to meet up with them this weekend. We’ve had visits from Eric’s family a few times and from my oldest and dearest friend in Georgia and her family. We invite you to come and visit us anytime and we will show you around our new city and maybe you can venture out with us to find new things to do.
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