As a K-State graduate, allow me to disagree. Kansas gets flatter as you go west, but I thought the Manhattan area all the way east to the border was identical to Missouri, rolling, lots of trees, sunshine, and decent weather.
Missouri?
Ever been to the Continental Divide?
Manhattan, highway 177 north off I-70. The Flint Hills and tall grass prairie. Lots of limestone, cedar trees.
It is very different from western Kansas. West, about Abilene or Salina, I-70 gets flat and straight all the way to Colorado and the foothills.
“A sound as lonely as the whistle of a freight train heading west from Abilene at 3:30 AM on a moonless night, followed by the engine’s wheels breaking ice off the track.”