Why It's Called "The Kansas Ocean"

Hello, everyone.  It's me, Cammie.  Since we have some relatively new readers to the Ao4 Digest (WELCOME!!!), we have been getting a few questions.  The most frequently asked one revolves around the Kansas Ocean, also known as the KSO.  Yes, it's true.  Many people don't realize there is an ocean right here in Kansas.  We thought we'd take today to explain how it came to be here!

It all started with our extremely cool great-brother Zim.  (Any of the wording in this post - or others, for that matter - that have the color that the words "great-brother Zim" do in the previous sentence are hyperlinks to take you to other posts on our blog.  They will help tell the story.)  Zim was an amazing, wonderful brother to us; he had such a love for adventure and a zest for life!  Along with our other great-siblings Storms, Ammy, and Davy, he started this blog back in 2006.

Upon reading other blogs, Zim learned that many of our fellow bloggers got to explore at this cool place called "an ocean".  It sounded mighty wonderful to him and he wished long and hard that we'd get an ocean here in Kansas.  It's a long story, involving this Giant who kept leaving his Tonka toys around and stuff, but lo and behold, one day Zim and Ammy were out walking Mom and BOOM!  There it was!

Here is a photo of Zim discovering the Kansas Ocean:

"Wowzers!"

The Tonka toys had been cleared out, and where only dirt, dust, and scraggly grasses had once been, there was a bunch of water!  It HAD to be the ocean he'd been longing for!  Needless to say, he was thrilled with his discovery! It was one of his most favorite places to go. He loved animals of ALL species and always delighted when different ducks, geese, and other birdies would visit the "KSO"!

Eventually all of the members of the original Army of Four visited the ocean - they loved going there, too! I'll never forget the first time I got to walk there - and then when Maggie was finally big enough to make the walk there! It's such a wonderful place!

We walked by there the other evening and I had Mom take some photos! Here we are, on the approach:

"There it is, everyone!  The Kansas Ocean!"
"Are you getting this, Mom?"

We just love taking in all the sights and sounds and smells as we cross over the trans-oceanic bridge:

"Looks like we're here at low tide, Cam!"
"The water has been dreadfully low due to our drought."

The area has been built up a lot since the early days of the Kansas Ocean, but it's still a lovely spot to stop and just enjoy life! Mom often gets us to pose along the boardwalk:

Maggie and me, on the boardwalk

So basically, our adventure-loving great-brother Zimmie wished for an ocean here in Kansas, then (eventually) BOOM, there was a body of water where one had not existed before!  It HAD to be the Kansas Ocean!

"Complete with a trans-oceanic bridge and a boardwalk!"
"And you can even see across to the other side - so it's a very special ocean!!!"

And that's the story of how the Kansas Ocean came to be! I hope you enjoyed hearing about its history!

Cammie!