Welcome to the Guild DadGum! I've got friends who live near Kansas City, it's a great city (love the BBQ)! Hang around here long enough and you'll definitely be able to create battlemaps of your own. Do you have any software yet? If not, I'd check out Ravells "Quick-start Guide to Fantasy Mappiing" located at the top of the Members Introduction page. It covers most of the basic questions that you might be having right about now. Anyway, happy mapping.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh