- Hello there.

Welcome to Inspire.

Vacation planning is the trend.

On today's show, we take a road trip with Dirty Girl Adventures, Kansas Sampler Foundation and Kansas Travel and Tourism, to help you plan your next adventure.

We'll be right back.

- [Narrator] Inspire is sponsored by Kansas Furniture Mart.

Using furniture to inspire conversation.

And by the Blanche Bryden Foundation.

(lively music) - Hello and welcome to Inspire.

It's so good to be back with my two wonderful co-hosts, Danielle Norwood and Amy Kelly.

Danielle and Amy, it looks like we have quite the road trip planned for today and it's all happening right here in this beautiful studio, but we're about to get out.

- And that road trip includes tips for planning your next adventure away from home, preparing for travel.

And our guests will provide some fabulous options that we can visit right here in our own backyard.

- Here to inspire your next vacation.

We feature a great lineup of guests who contain a vast knowledge of travel and adventuring.

We'll start off with our first group of guests from the Dirty Girl Adventures, Denise Selbee-Koch and Jennifer Woerner.

Denise and Jennifer, thank you for joining us today.

- Thank you.

- Thanks for having us.

- Tell us about the Dirty Girl Adventure because I'm telling you it's a cool name and having talked to you previously on the air, I absolutely am in tune with what you all are trying to do to get women to go out and enjoy some life.

So tell us how you came up with your business.

- That is exactly it.

So eight years ago, it was something we enjoy doing is getting out, getting outside hiking and kayaking.

And we both used to work in an alternative school.

We missed taking, once we left, we miss taking people outside to share our love of nature.

We thought, well who would we like to take outside?

And we kind of voted, although we do like children, it would be more fun to take people like ourselves.

And women need a little extra boost of confidence to get outside and to know where to go and what to do.

So it's evolved now into a great adventure group.

We hike and kayak and backpack and camp and have lots of other fun activities along the way.

- Okay, for the novice outdoors woman, what would they expect?

I mean, what do you provide to them?

I mean, if you don't have kayaks or canoes or hiking boots it's like I have my old, you know, Keds, or my, you know, (group laughs) can I go?

And what is all required?

- If you're on a kayaking adventure with us, we provide the kayak, a paddle, a life jacket, some basic instruction.

And we guide the kayaking adventures that we do.

Other adventures such as camping or hiking, we always provide a guide and support and we always provide some advanced instruction.

So we are gonna send an email that gives you directions on where to go, tells you what to bring and what to expect.

So Dirty Girl Adventures does all the preparatory work, - Right.

- to make a great adventure.

And we give the customers the information they need to have a fun day.

- I love the fact that you have a building as well as the great outdoors, it's down at North Topeka, in the NOTO area.

Tell us more about that.

- So we've always dreamed of having a base camp, where we could, you know, just sort of be at home.

It's like, all of the people who like to go outside with us, can come to us and talk to us or be together as a group.

So Compass Point, which is home of Dirty Girl Adventures, is in NOTO, the arts and entertainment district.

We have retail goods.

The one thing we don't have are clothes or hiking boots, not yet.

- 'Kay.

- but we do have kayaks, paddles and great gear for hiking and camping, so that you can get started with that.

But really the beginning is not a lot of gear.

It's a good pair of shoes, maybe a hiking pole and a guide to help you know, where to go or what to do, or at least instruction on how to be prepared.

- Now, do you have to be a flat belly to do this because you were not talking (Denise laughs) about this previously.

- Yes, yeah.

Because some of us the only hiking we're doing is to get to the fridge.

So if we're thinking about going outside, what do you say to us to encourage us to do it and to not be intimidated by the process.

- We take people of all ages and all activity levels, all fitness levels outside.

So we've taken kids from ages six to kids of age 82.

- Wow.

- We've taken people of all ages and all fitness levels.

So one thing we're really good at is just trying to adapt the adventure to meet the person's needs.

- Right.

- We're not a competitive group, we're a supportive group.

So we wanna help people have the best adventure, have the best experience that they can.

- Yeah.

So part of that would be knowing, like you would know, I don't think I'm gonna sign up for that 30-mile hike, they do every fall, - Ah, no.

No, I would not.

- but they might sign up for a base camp hike where we're basically going to maybe have a campfire and then do a short walk near the lake.

So we're gonna see some scenery, we're gonna see some birds, maybe an eagle, hang out, get a little touch of nature.

And then we're gonna have some campfire time.

- [Danielle] Hey.

- and that's the connection.

So we always talk about connection to yourself, connection to nature, and then connection with each other.

So it's a little about socializing and connecting with, with ourselves and sort of unplugging maybe.

- That connection to cocktails, I hope.

- Sometimes it does include cocktails, yes.

- [Danielle] It doesn't hurt.

- Yes, it does.

(group laughing) - So, I have to ask, the age-old question, canoe versus kayak.

- Kayak all the way.

- [Amy] Why?

- Definitely.

- I feel like kayaks give you more stability because you're lower on the water.

So you have a lot of flexibility.

You don't have to work with a partner to make things go or stop or turn so... (group laughing) - That's really the main reason.

- Yeah, I want to attest to that, 'cause I've had more of my share of running into the bank and I'm just, just let me paddle I'll, you know, I'll just do it.

So what are some great waterways that you guys take people on?

- We, here in the Topeka/ Shawnee County area, we actually love to paddle at Lake Shawnee.

It's a perfect place for a beginner kayaking experience, but we also paddle at Lake Clinton, Lake Perry, we like Lone Star Lake, Banner Reservoir up in Jackson County is beautiful.

There are lakes all over, small little lakes or really big lakes.

We also, our favorite, is the river, the Kansas River is so awesome.

It's my favorite place to share with people.

But it does take a little experience probably before your first kayaking activity on that.

- Let's talk a little bit more about the connection to women and how this is a great way we can support each other, while becoming more healthy.

- As women, we often grow up, and where we might play outside and do a lot of outdoor activities, but then we go to school, we often become moms and we're pulled away from our own leisure activities, right?

Our hobbies and the things that we like to do.

So I feel like most of the women that we serve, not all of them, they feel rejuvenated by that connection to nature.

And then to go in a group with other women is really empowering - Yes.

- and it's really, it builds friendships and connection and we support each other, we do no dirty girl left behind so, you know, we-- - I'm gonna be left behind.

- You know, you would never be left behind.

- No, we actually-- - Do you cater to men?

- We do take the dirty dudes with us.

(group laughing) - [Danielle and Betty] Dirty dudes.

- Dirt dudes, that'd be over eh, yeah, yeah.

- Absolutely, we're not just for women.

- [Betty] Okay.

- You know, we love, women tend to plan and make plans in advance to participate with us.

- Right.

- And we are happy for them to bring along their family.

Some of our best adventures have been with families, - Mm-hmm.

- kids?

- with kids and with older adults.

- Yeah, so it can be a blend.

We do have some adventures that are just for women.

Just 'cause sometimes it feels good to just have a girl's night out or a girl's day out.

- How do we get in touch with you?

- Dirtygirladventures.com.

We have a calendar of events, it leads you to Compass Point, we also have live music and canoe bar, out on our courtyard.

So you'll get a little dirty with us pretty much wherever you go with us, but yeah.

- Look for us on Facebook and Instagram.

- Yep we're there too.

- That is so awesome.

Dirty Girl Adventures, we thank Denise and Jennifer.

Coming up next, we continue our road trip with Kansas Tourism.

Stay right there.

(lively rock music) - Joining us now to discuss vacationing in Kansas, are Andrea Etzel and Jordan Roemerman from Kansas Tourism.

Ladies, welcome to Inspire.

- Thank you for having me.

- We're so happy to be here.

- I'm excited to have both of you on.

Of course, Andrea and I go back, - Yeah.

- because she's on my radio show periodically but I wanna talk about tourism in Kansas because now that the pandemic has slowly faded away, everybody's just chomping at the bit to get out.

So give us some ideas of things we can do around the Sunflower State.

- There are plenty of things to get out and do.

Kansas's tourism is definitely picking up right now.

You can go and explore the outdoor adventure.

You can certainly do a lot of the events that are happening, destinations, history.

- And Kansas is really a great opportunity for people to get away with, you know, all different interests and backgrounds.

You know, like Andrea mentioned from outdoor adventure to history buffs, to even dino-obsessed kids.

We've got it all.

(group laughs) - One of the cool things that I want everybody to see, this is just amazing, this Kansas magazine, is this not the best?

- [Danielle] It's beautiful.

- I mean, it's beautiful, but it tells us a great destination and educational piece for the entire state.

- So this year is a big year for the Santa Fe Trail which was one of Kansas's first major highways.

If you think I-70, it was the Santa Fe Trail 200 years ago.

When it was, it started in Missouri, it went through Kansas, actually 2/3 of it is here in Kansas.

And then it continued on to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

And so it touches on a lot of communities from Olathe, all the way down to Elkhart, which is pretty much the very southwest tip of Kansas.

- [Betty] Mm-hmm.

- Council Grove, Larned, there's just so many destinations you can see along this trail.

Both today, from historic and contemporary.

- So do you know any events that are happening this summer that might be especially geared to women?

- Women are the decision makers, when it comes to where you're gonna vacation, when where you're gonna spend your money.

And I think actually being in the tourism industry, a lot of our tourism operators and business owners are women.

So they know what women are looking for.

I haven't done a survey, so I don't wanna say specific but I feel like a lot of the people I talked to and I work with, are women.

So it's just a really powerful industry that really empowers women to go out and explore on their own.

As your guests earlier with Dirty Girl Adventures they are, they are wonderful about supporting and empowering women.

- Talk about family-friendly trips, 'cause the kids are itching to go places and maybe some of our viewers don't know where to go to take them to have a great time.

- Oh, for sure.

And Kansas is a great destination for, you know, exposing your kids to all things Kansas.

You know, once you get that, that prairie dust in your soul it's really, really hard to get out.

So there are tons of great Children's Discovery Centers and museums across the state, you know, from the Children's Discovery Center here in Topeka to the Kansas Museum of History also here, to the Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan, Boot Hill in Dodge City.

So there are all different spots for kids to grow and enjoy.

And also the Kansas Cosmosphere - Yes.

- in Hutchinson as well, another great kids location.

- You mentioned Dodge City, when you're getting the dust and so forth.

And of course Gunsmoke, how famous is that?

And that's still on the air.

You can see that and you can actually go there and relive it with all the enactors, there's great enactors all over the state.

- Oh, absolutely.

And you know, it's not just in Dodge, if you wanna stick a little bit closer to home here in Eastern Kansas, you know, Abilene also has some reenactors every now and then in their Old Abilene Town, as well as Wichita in their Old Cowtown.

- And if you wanna touch on a different part of Kansas history, which is the Bleeding Kansas era or civil war era, you can head over to Lecompton.

And Lecompton does reenactments of that history specifically and teaches a really good program that gets people involved of all ages so... - So where can we get more information about all this?

I understand you have an updated website right?

- We launched our new travelks.com in late April, early May.

And it's a great resource for you to go.

Plan your adventure, you know, put things in your itinerary.

We've got a section specifically for trip ideas and itineraries.

So it's a great resource for everybody to go.

- What's that again?

- Travelks.com.

- Travelks.com - Awesome.

I got to hear about the foodie part.

(group laughs) 'Cause you all know that's where my heart is, so.

What are some foodie adventures that I can take this summer?

- Well, do you have a preference?

Or you just like... - Food.

- Okay, that'll do it, food.

'Cause like, when somebody asks you, What's your favorite thing to do in Kansas, I was like, well what was your favorite child?

Like I... (group laughing) Who's your favorite child?

But, obviously Kansas is known for our barbecue.

So I could name off a menu of the places like in the Kansas City, you have Joe's KC or you have Slap's, which is just so, so good.

- Or Q39.

- Oh Q39, thank you, I-- - Or Gates Bar-B-Q.

And another, you know kind of infamous part of the country is the fried chicken down in Southeast Kansas.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yes, Chicken Mary's.

(Danielle and Betty laughs) - Yeah, Exactly.

- But where do you go to?

- Yeah, and so they have a ton of restaurants down there, like you said Chicken Mary's and Chicken Annie's.

Then there's like, Pichler's Chicken Annie's, and a whole bunch of others that you can go and taste and see, and then you have to roll yourself out 'cause you've eaten so much.

- Yeah, let's talk famous people, presidential, we've got Amelia Earhart, there's just so much there as well.

- Oh, absolutely.

Kansas has had some really interesting, great famous people.

So actually now that you mentioned it, the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene has just reopened on a limited basis.

So definitely go to their website for more updated information.

And then Amelia Earhart up in Atchison.

She, you know, there is the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum, that's open and folks really, really love it.

- 'Kay, for the romance lovers.

- Ooh.

- Okay then.

- Jordan, where will you and your husband like to go?

- So we have on our bucket list, Lindsborg which is Little Sweden USA.

- [Betty] Yeah.

- There's a lot of really great little stops along the way.

And you know, kind of a quirky little romantic trip would be the Grassroots Arts capital of Kansas, Lucas, Kansas.

- Ooh, it's different?

- Yeah, it is.

It is different so, (group laughing) - But romantic.

- But romantic, you can make it-- (upbeat music) - Thank you, Andrea and Jordan for providing insight into our options for traveling Kansas.

We continue down our road trip with Marci Penner from the Kansas Sampler Foundation.

- Joining us now via Zoom is the amazing, wonderful, awesome Marci Penner of the Kansas Sampler Foundation.

I love you and have loved you and your dad forever.

This is, welcome, we're so glad you're here.

- Thank you, Betty Lou, we do go way back, don't we?

- We do and your dad is really who got you involved and excited about the state and all it has to offer.

- Yeah, we went exploring together and did our first guide book in 1990 and just sort of followed our nose from there.

- And speaking of guidebooks, okay, if anybody hasn't seen this.

This is a must have, this is equivalent of a gorgeous coffee table book, spiral bound, (Danielle and Amy laughs) open up, beautiful eight wonders of Kansas.

This thing is absolutely amazing.

Will you tell us about this?

- Well, sure.

So in the early 2000s, we did a series of contests, to kind of involve the public and help them think about Kansas.

So we used our eight elements of rural culture, each of them was a contest, to determine the eight wonders of Kansas.

So we did a contest for architecture, art, commerce cuisine, customs, geography, history, and people.

And over a hundred thousand people voted and we determined the top eight out of 24 finalists in each category.

And then when we were done, people said, well, you know, we'd really love to have a guidebook so we could go see those places and have all the information in one place.

So with Harland Schuster's help as a photographer, we put that together.

- Are you at liberty to say what some of those eighth wonders are?

- Well, they're all in that book, but yeah.

- But give me a little tease, 'cause I haven't seen it yet.

(group laughs) - I will tease you.

We also did the overall eight wonders, and those include Cheyenne Bottoms and Quivira Wildlife Refuge is one, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, (Danielle claps) the Kansas Cosmosphere, Strataca, which is the Kansas Underground Salt Museum, Monument Rocks and Castle Rock, which was before Little Jerusalem came to be.

St. Fidelis Church, also known as Cathedral of the Plains.

The seventh one was Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills.

And the eighth one and these aren't in order, these are just in alphabetical order, The big well in Greensburg came in the top.

(group chuckles) - Now this is not the only publication you have, you have another guide book, that's a little bit smaller but it sounds like it's a little bit more intense.

Can you tell us about that?

- Yeah, it's more statewide.

WenDee and I, WenDee, the program manager and I went to every one of the 626 incorporated cities in Kansas, plus about 90 unincorporated places to research for this guidebook and ended up putting 500 cities in the 480 page guide book with 4,500 things to see and do, 1,600 pictures, and about 800 restaurants locally owned eateries.

Some of which has closed since the book came out in 2017.

But be watching for an online version when we can update that.

- Do you have the book with you?

I think you had one, that we can see what the cover is and-- - Oh, I might just show you.

(group laughs) - That's what it is.

- [Danielle] Shameless plug.

- But that is so perfect that you and WenDee have worked so hard and you know a myriad of other folks who have helped and put their blood, sweat and tears and this takes a lot of travel.

You know, this state backwards, forwards every which way.

- Well, I've been able to go to every town twice just for guidebooks.

And so I hope to use those adventures and travels to share it with people and help share what we've found and, and our love for Kansas.

And I wanna mention that my sister, Liz King designed all the books so it's, it's really been a team effort to do these things, so it's been great.

And the more I traveled Kansas, the more I love it.

So it's not one of those things where you keep going back and go, I'm tired of this place.

- [Betty] And people can't say, there's nothing to do.

- Yeah, don't even say that around me.

(group laughs) - Now I know this is gonna be kind of like, trying to choose your favorite child.

- [Marci] No.

- But can you even give like, maybe an example of some of your favorites, I will make you pick one, but a few of your favorites around the state.

- You know, it depends on what mood you're in.

- [Betty] Oh.

- If you wanna eat outside, I'd go to the Shamrock Cafe in the Flint Hills, where surprisingly you have to bring your own food.

(Betty and Amy laughs) - What?

- Yeah, I'm not gonna tell you more, that's a tease.

If you wanna hike in a shortgrass prairie, I love going to Big Basin National Preserve in Clark County and going down to St. Jacob's Well, first you have to make sure the herd of buffalo aren't around, (group laughs) they're free range and... And then if you want to go architecture, art, put into one category, I'd go to St. Mary's Church in the little, little spot on the map, town of St. Benedict, some of you have been there.

- Yes.

- The interior is award-winning and it just makes your jaw drop in Kansas.

Yes.

- So how did you come about?

How did the Kansas Sampler Foundation come about?

- Well Dad and I did our first guide book in 1990, driving around the state, and we noticed two things.

One was that Kansans didn't know their own state very well.

And the other was that one small town might be doing something fantastic to help sustain itself.

And there wasn't really a good network or way for those volunteer led communities to share their efforts with another small town.

So we've formed our non profit, to preserve and sustain rural culture by educating Kansans about Kansas and supporting and networking small towns.

So the Kansas Explorers Club is something we do, these guidebooks.

The Kansas Sampler Festival which is turned into the Big Kansas Road Trip, those are things on the side of educating Kansans about Kansas.

- And why do you think that's so important?

- People just need maybe a handy way, they've needed this over the years, a handy way to see all in one location, what there is to see and do.

So whatever direction they go, they have a guide to take them to things that are just, you know, mind-boggling.

And, but the secret for us has been to help nurture the explorer spirit.

- [Betty] Mm-hmm.

- Maybe we don't have all the big traditional tourism things, like a mountain or ocean or giant amusement park, but when it comes to explory things, we are rich in that regard.

- If there's one thing that we must do this summer, as we're spending our staycations here in the Sunflower State, what is the one thing that we need to do?

- Well, I think it's to visit our latest, newest state park, which is Little Jerusalem in Logan County.

I think they'll be gobsmacked by the 300 acres.

(group laughs) The 300 acres of Niobrara chalk formations that have not been open to the public until the last year or two.

I think that's something everybody should do.

(upbeat music) - Well Marci, thank you so much for joining us today on Inspire.

And we really appreciate you sharing your travel wisdom.

And ladies, I don't think I speak alone.

When I say that I'm inspired to take a road trip.

- We are, we are ready.

Thank you Marci and WenDee.

- Thank you.

- This show was a road trip to remember and I am definitely inspired to get out and explore Kansas.

Ladies, what were your takeaways from our discussions with all these fabulous women featured on our show today?

- I just love it.

You know, I just, I'm ready to go.

And I'm sure you guys are ready to go too.

But the Shamrock thing, I wanna know how many people are gonna google Shamrock.

(Danielle laughs) - And find out the, why do you have to bring your own food, you know.

- That's true, that's true.

And also thinking about, we all know about the ball of twine and the hand-dug well, but there's so many other places that I didn't know about, that now I wanna start exploring 'cause we got time.

- I know we do and why not stay here in our very own state?

- Exactly.

- And I'm wondering if we, I mean my, big dilemma I have is, okay, am I gonna go kayaking, go call Dirty Girl and go do that.

Or I'm gonna wanna to go to Little Jerusalem and you know, and check with the Kansas Sampler Foundation and see what kind of things that they offer.

I'm don't, I kind of don't know where to start.

- Well I know and so many lakes and things.

And that's why, you know, when you do Kansas Sampler or you know, Kansas Tourism you know, go to the website and find it out.

What do you gonna do?

Like Marci was saying, do you want, a slow trip.

Do you wanna hike?

Do you wanna be on the waterway?

- What are you in the mood for?

- Yeah.

- Mm-hmm.

- And there's some places you can go and do all of that.

- Well, I want a food tour.

- Yeah.

(Betty and Amy laughs) - 'Cause Andrea and Jordan where talking about Chicken Annie's and Chicken Mary's, I've never been to either.

- Ooh, shame.

- And so I wanna do the comparison.

And then I wanna go to where those ribs were.

Where did you say the rib place was?

- [Betty] Guy and Mae's Tavern, - Okay.

- [Betty] down on Williamsburg, so... - [Amy] Mm-hmm, yeah.

- They look good.

I mean, Kansas is all about some barbecue.

So I mean, I need to check that out.

Some steak, I just, I need to check out all the food options.

- There's so many things to be proud of.

You know, we have a president from here, we have Amelia Earhart.

- Mm-hmm.

- We have, I mean, there's so many things that we have to be proud of in our state.

- Absolutely and I love sharing that with people because I mean, I know that living in Kansas all these years, that I'm just a fan of it.

We are not a flyover state by any means, - Right.

- So many things to do, as you said, adventure wise and then if you want to enjoy the AC, you can also do that, you know, at all the cool museums and galleries that we have so, it's a beautiful place to live.

- Right.

- I don't know about you ladies, but I'm inspired.

I'm absolutely inspired to go on a trips.

Maybe even, like maybe this weekend.

(group laughs) - That is all the time we have for today, but we're ready to go for an adventure.

We want to thank Denise and Jennifer from Dirty Girl Adventures, Andrea and Jordan from Kansas Tourism and Marci from Kansas Sampler Foundation for their insight into planning, a most memorable Kansas road trip - To watch this program again at watch.ktwu.org.

And if you're so inspired to learn more about our guests, find out what's coming up in the future and get access to additional content.

Be sure to visit our website at www.ktwu.org/inspire.

- Have safe and happy travels this summer.

We'll see you on the next episode of Inspire.

Inspiring women, inspiring you on KTWU.

Thanks for watching.

- [Narrator] Inspire is sponsored by Kansas Furniture Mart, using furniture to inspire conversation.

and by the Blanche Bryden Foundation.