Originally posted by reh321 For three years I lived in Rice County, Kansas, so I refer to place like Kansas as "Midwest", and to Indiana as part of the "Great Lakes States". Technically I believe the OP {and I} are part of the "Ohio River Valley"; my sister-in-law {who lived in New York, now in California, just avoids the whole thing by referring to us as "Flyover Country".
in the area I grew up in East Central Illinois
Kansas was the northern part of the SouthWest
where the Cowboys and Native Americans lived ( the Wild Wild West - Dodge City, Wichita )
west of the Missouri River and east of the Rockies