Risley Ranch

The Kansas Cosmosphere

We attended the 9th annual Risley Family Reunion in Hutchinson, Kansas, this past weekend.  On Saturday we spent the morning at the Kansas Cosmosphere.  If you're a space-buff, and you've never been, go.  Because in the middle of Kansas, you can see the coolest space museum next to the Smithsonian Air and Space in DC.  I hadn't been since I was a kid, and boy was I amazed at the progress it has made.  Here's what we saw:

• A replica of the SR-71A Blackbird, the world's fastest syplane.
• A replica of the Titan Rocket.
• THE Liberty Bell 7 -- the actual Mercury capsule flown by Gus Grissom and recovered from the Atlantic in 1999 and restored by the Cosmosphere.
• THE Command Module, Odyssey, made famous by the Tom Hanks movie, Appollo 13.  It was purchased and restored by the Cosmosphere in 1996.
• And actual moon rock brought home in 1969 by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin from the first moon landing on Apollo XI.

Check out the photos:

Saturday night football

At the KU v Sam Houston State game tonight. Awesome weather.

Middlest, middle America

I had the privilege of traveling the back-roads of southwest Kansas the past two days for our client ITC Great Plains.  That area is my old stomping grounds, so not only did we have some great meetings, I visited some towns I haven't seen for years, including Kinsley, self-proclaimed "Midway USA" because it's half-way between NY and San Francisco. 

I also stopped in Haviland for gas and actually got full-service, meaning, a guy filled my tank and washed my windows -- all for $3.59/gallon.  That hasn't happened since I was a kid.

Mr. Self Goes To Washington

The national-champion Jayhawks were in DC for a couple of days, touring the Capital and ultimately meeting with President Bush.  What a thrill for them.  A great cap to a great season.

More bragging

When you win a national championship, you get to talk a lot of smack, so please indulge the following:

Downtown Lawrence (during the parade to celebrate and congratulate the Jayhawks - 80,000 fans showed up):

Downtown Manhattan (home of K-State):

Thanks to my friends the Stineman's for the photos.

Technorati Tags: Kansas, Jayhawks, National Championship, Manhattan, Basketball

This Rocks!

Rock Chalk, that is.

It smells like 1988

I was a KU freshman in 1988 when Danny and the miracles won the national championship.  It was amazing.  I was just a small-town farm-boy, in my first year at a major university, living in a fraternity, having a blast (and studying...), and watching some of the best basketball in the country, live, in the most exciting arena in college basketball -- Allen Fieldhouse. 

Watching KU defeat Oklahoma was a highlight of my college days.  We piled into a pick-up truck and sped toward campus.  Jayhawk Boulevard was a mad-house.  People everywhere, hugging, drinking, laughing...it was like we all had known each other for years.  The power of our common bond as KU fans brought us all together.

Now, 20-years later, I'm witnessing it again.  The emotion, the craziness, the powerful basketball.  I so hope our guys pull it off tomorrow night, not only for themselves, but for the KU fans who have waited 20 years for another night like that one in 1988.

More great pictures here, courtesy of the Lawrence Journal World.

Advance or go home

March.  Madness.  Today starts the official season of fun we call the NCAA tournament.  Beer, brackets, cats and dogs living together -- mass hysteria!

If you fill out a bracket this year, keep this in mind: 

"According to Kansas University math professor Ben Cobb, the probability of picking all 32 first-round winners randomly is 1 in 4.3 trillion."

If you need a little help beating the odds, check out Hack The Bracket -- a site started by a Kansas alum.  And if anyone should know something about basketball, it's someone from Big-12-Champion, Big-12-Tournament-winner, number-one-seed Kansas.

technorati tags: Kansas, NCAA, tournament, basketball