Book offers readers chance to explore, get to know Kansas

One of state’s most anticipated travel books is now available.

Marci Penner and WenDee Rowe’s “The Kansas Guidebook 2” took four years of research and one year to write, 60,000 miles in their ERV (Explorer Research Voyager) vehicle and 1,600 photographs.

Penner’s first “Kansas Guidebook” came out in 2005 and quickly sold out.

The second book is expected to be just as popular – containing 4,500 entries about things to see and do in 515 of the 626 incorporated cities and unincorporated towns of Kansas.

“Our goal is to make it easy to know … the state,” Penner said in a news release.

Penner is the executive director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, based near Inman. Rowe is the assistant director. The nonprofit foundation promotes, preserves and sustains rural culture, and the book was one of its many projects. Another guidebook published by the foundation was the “8 Wonders of Kansas” in 2011.

“Though this book reads like a travel book, it’s really a guide to knowing Kansas,” Penner said.

Readers and explorers of Kansas can learn about the Swiss Mennonite Memorial near Moundridge; the Nora E. Larabee Memorial Library in Stafford, and the Caboose Museum in Waterville.

They can get directions for the World’s Largest Hand-Painted Czech Egg in Wilson, World’s Largest Sisal Ball of Twine in Cawker City, World’s Largest Outdoor Concrete Municipal Swimming Pool in Garden City, the World’s Largest Hand-Dug Well in Greensburg and the World’s Largest Prairie Dog in Oakley.

The two-pound book with 480 pages contains directions, hours, phone numbers and websites of places to visit in Kansas. The book retails for $29.95.

It can be purchased on the foundation’s website, www.kansassampler.org, or at several local retail stores across the state.

This story was originally published June 4, 2017 at 11:37 AM with the headline "Book offers readers chance to explore, get to know Kansas."