[MARRAKESH, MOROCCO] — The sun had set. The sky dimming a deep purple. Reflections on a giant dark pool shimmered back the endless repetitive patterns of grand columns across the water — embracing my pattern-OCD like a bear hug. A handful of people relaxed on pillows strewn about a manicured lawn, sipping cocktails amidst the growing light of the dozens of lanterns lit just so. Silently, five men in long robes and headscarves sat down in low chairs at the water’s edge. And then it started. A gentle bass drum, lithe strings join in, picking up the pace as a percussion resonated against all the giant stone walls surrounding the lagoon. Not loud, on the contrary, it sounded like being in a recording studio, with a growing crescendo of
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[STRONG CITY, KANSAS] — Out in the middle of Kansas lies the astounding Flint Hills, hundreds of thousands of acres of treeless, rolling hills with few fences and even fewer people. For generations these hills have remained the same, the soil so thick with rocks and limestone, they’ve never been plowed. Some of those thousands of acres have been preserved in the National Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, owned by the Nature Conservancy and co-managed with the National Park Service, you can visit the original homestead house and walk its open lands. See some buffalo and feel the wind. It is almost zen like in it’s emptiness and calm. You should go here. Ain’t nature grand? Actually, it was nature that started this thing. Lightning threw the first
[KANSAS FLINT HILLS] — In the middle of Kansas, the breadbasket of the US, lies the Flint Hills — hundreds of thousands of acres of tallgrass prairies, open rangeland with very few trees, even less fences and the best grazing land in the country. The Flying W Ranch and the Clover Cliff Ranch in Chase County, Kansas has put on this cool shindig with their cousins and neighbors since ’96. Called Flames in the Flint Hills, they attract a couple of hundred people from all over the country every year. [EDITOR’S NOTE: The post was from a visit in 2015. During the pandemic Flying W shut down their guest ranch and are now solely focused on their sustainably-raised grass-fed beef business. You can read about it here. ]