to add to what LeonMarek wrote. It’s mostly about Wichita, but you could even live in the Maize area of Wichita and have a reasonable commute. But I like Hutch. Just live north of 17th Ave.

Wichita is big enough that it has everything that you would need, but not overly crowded. Traffic never is an issue. There are newer suburbs on the west side in Maize and on the east side in Andover that have nice, affordable homes, good schools and close to shopping. The church is big enough, there are two stakes, that there is a good group of youth for activities. Things like stake dances usually combine the two stakes. A couple of our adult kids have stayed in the area, and have been able to buy homes, which I don't know how someone starting out does that in Utah or Idaho today.

I don't know where your job would be located, but we live about 30 miles north of Wichita and our ward is one of the larger ones in the stake with about 200 people on Sundays. We have about 50 kids in primary each week. So, it's a fairly good ward for people with kids.

My main downside is probably what you would imagine. There just aren't many options if you want to go camping or do outdoor things. There is a lake about 2 hours north of Wichita that is pretty nice with lots of mountain bike trails, and some options in Arkansas, but the ones closer than that just aren't that nice if you are used to mountain lakes. Kansas City is a couple hours away, but you really have to drive a ways if you want to go to Colorado or Texas to do things. We previously lived in Ohio, and there were all kinds of places you could go on a weekend getaway. Here, not so much.

And the weather is not the best. It is very windy. Knock on wood, but for the past 10 years there really hasn't been much severe weather like tornados and hail in Kansas. It seems like tornado alley has moved east to Missouri and Arkansas, and north to Nebraska and Iowa. This January was exceptionally cold, we had a foot of snow early in the month and it was cold enough that it stayed on the ground the entire month. First time in like 40 years that the area has had snow on the ground for more than two weeks. There have been years in the past where if we had any snow at all it melted within a day. But because of the wind, I think it feels colder than Utah. But summers are not too hot and humid, and fall is nice.

Overall, I would encourage anyone to give Kansas a serious thought. It's a nice, down to earth place to live and is still affordable enough that you can live well enough on a normal salary and on a single income.

If you want ideas on particular areas in Wichita, let me know, but really you can go from one end of Wichita to the other in 20 minutes on most days even during rush hour. You generally want to live north of 54 unless you go all the way down to Derby.