Friday is the first day of Summer and Summer means road trips. WalletHub just released their list of the best and worst states to take a road trip to and Kansas ranked 44th.
44th? Really? That is total bunk! Wallet Hub say that some of the 33 metrics they use to come to their findings are things like traffic, gas prices , number of attractions, quality of roads and weather. Looking at what they used I can’t see how we ranked so poorly. Let’s break this down……..
Traffic: Have you ever sat in traffic here in Kansas? I mean, REALLY sat in traffic? The kind where you don’t move, ever? Neither have I. In fact, in the 3 years I have been in Kansas, the only time I have ever REALLY sat in traffic was once and that was in Kansas City when there was a bad accident on I-35. Other than that, smooth sailing. Kansas – 1 Wallet Hub – 0
Gas prices: Looked at the national average today and currently it’s sitting at $2.68, Kansas’ average is $2.47 and here in Wichita, we are hovering around $2.28! Almost 40 cents below the national average!!! How is THAT not boosting our score? Your move! Kansas – 2 Wallet Hub- 0
Number of attractions: This may be where we slide a little bit. Unlike a lot of states we don’t have many big time amusement parks, but the nature we have here should more than make up for our lack of roller coasters. That’s just my bias though, but looking at the hard data I’ll give this point to them. Kansas – 2 Wallet Hub – 1.
Quality of Roads: I have driven through a lot of our great nation and we have some of the best roadways conditions in the country. And of course we are talking major interstates, not secondary roads. Because let’s face it, if you are taking a road trip, you are driving the highways, not state/county roads. That being said, Kansas – 3 Wallet Hub – 1.
Weather: This is the big one for me. If we are talking Summer weather, find me a state with more blue sky days than Kansas. In fact, for 15 years, I lived in Florida, the SUNSHINE STATE, and never experienced as many blue sky days as I have here in Kansas. I think this one is pretty clear, no pun intended. Kansas – 4 Wallet Hub – 1
As you can see, the author clearly sat in an office, in someplace like NY and just GUESSED as to where we in Kansas fell in those categories without doing any actual ‘boots on the ground’ research. Using some of the metrics THEY used, my calculations clearly have us in the Top 10, if not Top 5. Wallet Hub, we in Kansas anxiously await your correction.
