Kansas

[Lisa Petrison]

EXCELLENT (5)

I spent about a week in Kansas in June 2010, and then another two weeks there in November/December 2010. I RV camped and stayed in the home of a friend.

For the most part, it was absolutely terrific.

In June, I drove across the whole state on I-70, then drove down to the area near Wichita. All of I-70 felt great to me.

I liked the KOA in Waukeeney, and drove through some campgrounds (including one on a lake) that felt equally great. I didn’t find any RV parks in Salina I liked, but there are a few more restaurant choices there than in much of the rest of the state.

Topeka felt pretty good for a city, driving through. (4-GOOD)

Kansas City (the Kansas and Missouri sides) was reasonable for a city, though not great. (3-FAIR)

In December, I drove from Salina to Wichita and then on I-50 to Elkhart (near the Texas panhandle).

Wichita, where I spent a week in December, was the best “big city” I’ve ever been to. I may have encountered a bit of the worst toxin for me one day, but it was minor. The RV park (USI) in town was okay, and the shower/bathroom was fine except for the plug-in air freshener. (5-EXCELLENT)

Most of the small towns near Wichita that I drove through felt really good.

The exceptions were Mulvane (some kind of chemical spill...1-AWFUL) and El Dorado (oil mining....2-POOR).

I spent a good bit of time in a town just south of Wichita, and most of the time it felt great. Occasionally though, small amounts of the worst toxin for me blew up from south of the Oklahoma border. It wasn’t catastrophic for me, but enough to be noticeable.

I-50 from Wichita to Elkhart felt great, but it’s extremely isolated. Dodge City is the biggest town.

Kansas is an agricultural state, but I found the fields (mostly wheat and alfalfa) to be refreshing rather than offensive. Rivers and lakes also felt good to me.

There’s a lot of wind there, and that may be helpful in terms of air quality in the cities.

[forebearance]

Kansas City: 2 Poor
I stayed in the KC area, in the western suburbs, a couple times in the winter of 2011. Both times I was in constant pain from the outside air quality. Then when a plume of badness blew through, it was very bad for me. Another tooth broke.

Topeka: 4 Good
I stayed there for a total of couple weeks in January 2011.

Wichita: 5 Excellent (but with reservations)
I was there in February of 2011. I agree that the air was a 5, but there was a residue of toxin on things that was killer for me. It was powerful enough to ruin the beautiful brand new Hampton Inn for me. I couldn't stay in Wichita because I couldn't find a safe building to stay in. Plus I didn't want to be in a place where that worst kind of toxin was around.

I would agree that driving around on the freeways through the open prairie was really nice, air-wise.

[Lisa Petrison]

I spent another week in Kansas in November 2011. In general, it still felt great to me. (5-EXCELLENT)

I started out driving south into Kansas on I-75, staying overnight at the KOA in Topeka. This all felt great to me (5-EXCELLENT).

Then i went south on I-135 and I-35 through Wichita. I spent a few nights at the KOA in Wellington and at the very nice campground at the fairgrounds in Winfield. (5-EXCELLENT)

In my experience, Kansas is overall terrific, with just some scattered problem spots. I definitely would suggest avoiding Mulvane, which seems to have had some kind of chemical spill. (1-AWFUL).

Some of the river beds (e.g. for the Arkansas River -- pronounced "Ark-Kansas River") were dried up from a drought, and the exposed algae blooms felt problematic to me as I drove over them bridges. (3-FAIR). But the effects were pretty localized.

Some towns, such as El Dorado, have oil wells that could bother people with MCS.

Wichita still felt great to me. (5-EXCELLENT)

I like Winfield a whole lot and would consider moving there. The only problem is that occasionally when the wind is blowing very strong from the south, I can feel "the worst toxin for me" on the wind. This was problematic for me one night on my stay; the next morning, when the sun came out, it seemed to activate the toxic residue and make me feel bad. (A Moldie friend reported a migraine headache on that same day in that town.) It may be blowing all the way from Dallas, but I'm not absolutely sure of that. It seems not to happen more than once every several weeks. Perhaps for people who are really reactive, this would be enough of a problem that Winfield wouldn't work for them.

The other problem in the Wichita (and to a lesser extent Winfield) air is that on occasion, military planes fly around and leave large trails of some kind of exhaust. Whether this is just normal airplane exhaust (such as aluminum used in the jet fuel) or something more covert, I don't know. It's really dramatic though. The skies get really scary looking, with trails that dissipate into silver "clouds" that last for many hours. I've rarely found this be such an issue anywhere else in my travels. Whatever it is is (for me) problematic, creating purely inflammatory feelings (different than the ones from "the worst toxin for me") that have on occasion put me down for the count. So this would be a downside to living here as well.

Other than that, the Wichita area (and Winfield in particular) feels great to me. There's not a whole lot of really problematic indoor building mold either.

[Lisa Petrison]

Here are some comments from Janis about Kansas:

Writing from Lawrence, Kansas at 4 am. We’re at a campsite on Lake Clinton, a peaceful, spacious meadow surrounded by trees and fields. A wonderful soft breeze caresses my skin and seems to keep the mosquitoes far away, allowing me to sit at the picnic table and write while David sleeps in our tent.


Update: I had a weird experience the next day in Kansas: mucous in my eye that occluded my vision despite several cleanings of my contact lens. I tried driving when I thought the problem had been solved, only to have my vision become so clouded that I clutched onto the wheel and tried to steer between the lines until we could get to a freeway exit. As the day progressed, I came to understand that I was continuing to have a reaction to something. I put on the respirator for awhile, but it got worse. By nightfall, I felt as if I were coming down with a respiratory infection.

[forebearance]

I made a brief foray into Kansas in mid-December 2012.

I started by driving south on highway 83 from North Platte, NE to Colby, KS.
Shortly after crossing the Kansas state line, I began to feel uncomfortable.
Gradually I became aware of the presence of the worst toxin for me.
The farther south I drove, the worse it got.
It was an overcast day and threatening to rain.

I stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn in Colby. It was a cute new Hampton Inn that would have been great if the outside air wasn't ruining it.

The next morning, it was still cloudy and it was also foggy.
But the outside air felt okay.
The worst kind of toxin seemed to have passed through.

I drove east on I-70 from Colby to Hays, KS.
Along the way, I passed through one area where I felt the worst toxin.
I stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn in Hays. (not recommended -- it was older and moldy)

The next day was bright and sunny.
The outside air in Hays felt okay, but there were traces of toxic residue in my car that morning. I decided I didn't want to stay in a state where random clouds of ick toxin are roaming around. So I headed north on highway 183.

When I got to the town of Phillipsburg, I breathed a sigh of relief. The outside air became fabulous again. I continued north to Kearney, NE. The air stayed fabulous.

I'm not sure where the clouds of toxin in western Kansas were coming from. It is a very rural area. I can only guess that maybe they were blowing in from the west, as in maybe from Denver or from the burned areas near Colorado Springs.

[Bolder]

I drove through Kansas in late March, 2013. I'll cop to keeping the car windows up and the recirc button on most of the way, but I did, of course, get out of the car to pee, shop, get food, etc.

I found western Kansas outdoor air to be good. Lawrence has problematic buildings and made me feel sad--not a good sign for me. Kansas City itself is tough--there are okay buildings, but the city is polluted and it's right on the river, which I find to be a rough combination.

Just over the Missouri state line, Lee's Summit was very challenging. I got smacked in several stores, a truck stop, and the Missouri Welcome Center.

[JP]

We drove all the way through Kansas on the I-70 in Sept 2013.

We didn't stop often, but in general, I didn't care for western parts of Kansas. We had driven out of CO during the flooding, so maybe I was still feeling the effects of that, but Eastern CO/Western KS felt bad to me.

As we got to central KS, and headed east on the 70, it felt significantly better.

[Lisa Petrison]

I drove through Kansas in July 2014. I started in the southwestern part of the state and stayed overnight in Dodge City, then drove from Wichita to Topeka and then through Kansas City. Unlike on my previous trips, I wasn't crazy about any of it. It just didn't feel as great to me as it used to. (Plus as a bonus negative, southwest Kansas is full of factory cattle farms.) Not terrible, certainly, but not what I remember. I'd give it all a 3.5. Kansas City included.

[AJ]

Although remote parts of KS might still be okay due to the high winds keeping the air clear, I don't generally recommend it if you are seeking extreme avoidance for healing. The high winds also carry the sprayed pesticides and herbicides long distances, making otherwise healthy places toxic. These are sprayed by tractors as well as by planes.

In Jan 2014, we moved to eastern KS (the area of McPherson, Lindsborg, and Salina, just off of I-135). I went from feeling generally poor with many good days to feeling terrible and quickly losing ground. We moved to a new house in the same town, and I started working at the local college, which led to insomnia, fatigue, dark depression, and cognitive dysfunction. We moved again, ditched our contaminated belongings, and I quit my job at the college. We are currently in the process of getting out  of here altogether.

Although outside generally feels pretty good to me (especially when the wind isn't kicking up the top soil), most buildings in McPherson, Lindsborg, and Salina do not (I'd rate the towns a 1 or 2). I've encountered the worst toxin for me in buildings in these areas as well as in a much smaller town in central KS off Highway 50 called Stafford (another 2). In these smaller towns, most of the buildings are very old and poorly maintained. Wichita (3) and Kansas City (3) aren't terrible as far as cities go, but Hutchinson (1) generally feels pretty poor to me.