By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Board Columnist

Denver teaches harsh lessons on driving in snow.

At 6 a.m. Wednesday, I started the trip across Kansas for the Mile High City, where hundreds of people are gathering for the 19th Annual International Conference of the National Association for Multicultural Education. It was an uneventful drive in the darkness.

When the sun came up, the Flint Hills were revealed in the morning light with wonderfully long shadows. Around Russell, Kan., there were contradictory scenes of windmill farms with all of the blades turning producing electricity versus old energy oil pumps just ahead that were operating pulling crude out of the ground.

The strong wind from the south blew away the sunshine. Weather forecasters told of the snow and ice ahead. I didn't encounter it until I neared Denver.

Drivers here pay little attention to slick road conditions. They speed faster than most traffic on Interstate 35 on a calm, sunny day in Kansas City. But road crews here also are very efficient clearing the snow and sludge.

People who live in Denver said it was unusual for so much snow - 30 inches by nightfall today - to hit before Halloween. It could foretell of the winter to come in Kansas City. Combined with frightfully bad Kansas City area drivers, that is a scary thought by itself.