If you’ve got a week, we’ve got Kansas .

No kidding, I almost felt like Dorothy, living a dream in this wonderful land of known and unknown……for seven glorious days.

Atchinson’s Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum is wide open to visitors. Built by her grandfather in the early 1860s, the first and most famous female aviator was born in the Gothic Revival wood frame cottage on July 24, 1897. Numerous photographs record Amelia’s life in the display found in the butler’s pantry, while the north parlor features a bronze bust of Amelia, an oil portrait of her and her husband, George Palmer Putnam, and their marriage certificate dated February 7, 1931. A Lockheed Electra 10E model airplane on display in the sunroom is a replica of the one she was flying when she disappeared in 1937. Upstairs, overlooking the Missouri River , is Amelia’s second-floor bedroom filled with her hope chest, linens and a line of luggage bearing her name. In 1935 Amelia created unprecedented records by flying from Hawaii to mainland USA . She was the first and only person to ever fly solo in the Pacific and repeated her performance by going solo across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

In 2003 the Bob Dole Institute of Politics opened at the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence . The town was developed during the Civil War era, became the short-lived free state capital of Kansas from 1857 to 1860, only to be razed to the ground by William Quantrill’s pro-slavery army in 1863. Dole’s life story, from his humble childhood, his narrow brush with death during World War II to his ultimate rise as county attorney, state legislator, congressman, U.S. Senator and presidential candidate in 1996, will stir emotions, even if you’re not a Republican. But so too would the September 11 th memorial (two 10-foot steel columns from the World Trade Center offset by the world’s largest stained-glass American flag) and the World War II veterans Memory Wall.

Within two hours we arrived at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Kansas Flint Hills ( Cottonwood Falls ) to join park ranger, Ron on a prairie tour of the 60-mile-wide, 10,894-acre preserve that runs through Kansas , stretching from the Nebraska border to northern Oklahoma . About 60 species of grasses dot 80 per cent of the landscape, and 460 types of plants grow in brutal conditions - heat and drought in the summer and freezing temperatures in the winter. Forty species (each) of birds, grasshoppers and animals inhabit the prairie. Watch out for lizards, snakes, deer, fox, bobcats, squirrels, opossum, badgers and coyotes. Bird life includes hawks, wild turkeys, falcons, prairie chickens and a variety of grassland nesting birds. Visiting in spring? Don’t miss the spectacular burning which promotes faster re-growth of the prairie grasses.

The tour includes the ranch homestead built in 1881 by wealthy cattleman, Stephen F. Jones. This was no “Little House on the Prairie.” Its hillside perch allows panoramic views from every angle and it might be tempting to call it a Victorian mansion in its heyday. There is a monster barn (110 feet by 60 feet) where livestock were stabled on the ground level, while hay was stored on the second and third floors. The ranch house, root cellar, smoke house, ice house and (three-hole) outhouse are all visited on the tour.

The Chase County Courthouse (built with native Chase County limestone and walnut ) was closed during our visit, however, the delicious steak dinner at Suzan Barnes’ Grand Central Hotel more than made up for it, followed by dessert at Emma Chase Café where the local entertainment was lots of fun.

Not only does the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchison have an exclusive collection of manned Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft that were in orbit, but it is the only place with more Russian space artifacts than anywhere else in the Western world (and also the only Smithsonian affiliated air and space museum.) In September 2006 the Mercury Spacecraft Liberty Bell 7 joined the permanent exhibits….. more reason to watch, ponder and relive the space race by two world powers, America and Russia , as they shaped our future.

The Museum of World Treasures in Wichita is guaranteed to hold your attention if you can get through all three floors of extraordinary exhibits. Displays feature dinosaurs, Egyptian mummies, Greek pottery, Mayan culture, meteorites and crystals, military memorabilia, regal possessions from Europe , sport and music related collections. It’s a complete history lesson from around the globe.

Just 15 miles northeast of Wichita is a working cattle ranch that is home to the Hopalong Cassidy Cowboy Museum and Prairie Rose chuckwagon supper. For those who grew up with or are fans of the famous television cowboy, there are souvenirs galore - movie posters, photographs, original films and television episodes. The chuckwagon (all you can eat barbeque) featured lip-smacking smoked brisket and sausage, red cowboy beans, potato salad, homemade biscuits, peach cobbler, along with great western style entertainment by the world famous Prairie Rose Wranglers.

By the time Abilene said goodbye to its wild cattle days to become the “Little Town of Mansions” two-year-old Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower and his parents had made it their hometown (in 1892.) His childhood home, a small white pine clapboard frame house is surrounded by a library, museum and visitor’s center of the 22-acre, Kansas limestone Eisenhower Presidential Center There are four galleries and an education classroom in the museum chronicling the president’s boyhood in Abilene, his military career and his years (1952-1961) as president. The fifth gallery pays tribute to the First Lady, Mamie Doud Eisenhower, including original outfits she wore on special occasions. As a testament to his beloved Abilene , the president, his wife and eldest son, three-year-old Doud Dwight (who died of scarlet fever) are buried at the Place of Meditation, a small chapel.

Of the 62 mansions in Abilene, the Victorian Lebold Mansion built in 1880 and the 25-room, Georgian style Seelye Mansion, completed in 1905, should be at the top of your list.

And, surprise, surprise, the Brookville Hotel is actually a restaurant that has been in business since 1915 and they serve the best fried chicken and biscuits in town. Owner Mark Martin and server Maribeth just kept those juicy golden beauties coming (and they have the best vanilla ice cream too!) Although we missed out on visiting the folks at Russell Stover, we didn’t just get samples, we got boxed candies. See you next time!

In 1863 the Kansas Pacific Railroad moved west and by 1866 Wamego was built. Three years later when the company established a base there, an influx of workers and settlers turned it into a bustling little town. Now it is Highway 99 known as “The road to Oz” that leads the way into town and to Wamego’s most popular attraction, the OZ Museum filled with an amazing collection of memorabilia dedicated to the famous children’s fairytale and movie classic, The Wizard of Oz. (Click here for There’s No Place Like Home In The Land of OZ in our special series, “Little Places, Great Places”)

A 15-minute drive away is Manhattan , “The Little Apple” that has grown into quite a university town with a cool dude/gal attitude. It may be the state’s oldest shopping district in Kansas (since 1889), but Aggieville is as hip as ever with over 100 distinctly unique shops and boutiques, bookstores, bars, restaurants and cafes. Check out Varney’s, a university bookstore or Kansas State University (K-State) merchandise. Displays and shelves filled with Willie the Wildcat (K-State’s mascot decked out in trademark bright purple and white) adorn everything from mugs, pennants, duffel bags, hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts and anything else you can possibly imagine.

I took a detour to Little Sweden USA just to see the “wild” Dala horses on the loose in Lindsborgl (Click here for Going Wild for Dalas in Lindsborg in our special series. Little Places, Great Places)