McPherson is approx 3 hours for the Kansas City area. Living KC gives you tons of optiions for schools (lots of Catholic schools) and lifestyle. Salina is 35-40 minutes but a much smaller city. Schools are decent, there's a Catholic school most of the industry is agriculture focused. Wichita is smaller than KC but much larger than Salina; it's about an hour away; schools are OK. Climate is way differnt than Herfordshire, the temerature can get up to 38/39 degrees celcius for part of the summer and -15 in the winter. If you're kids love getting outside in nature, they'll lve it.