early morning in oz

We left Wichita at 7:30 am today in order to have enough time for a surprise visit in Kansas City. Today is Jamie's mother's birthday, and we wanted to surprise her during breakfast on our way back to Minnesota (and boy, were we successful!).It was a little painful to get up and moving that early, but the spectacular morning sunlight over the Flint Hills made it worth the effort. This is just one of the shots I got while we were driving along the highway. There is something so beautiful about all those wide open plains and that beautiful big sky that just takes my breath away.