if you're going to live in KC, get used to traffic jams. It's got the worst traffic I've seen. There's nothing wrong with kansas if you like open, empty land. I remember the only time i've ever fallen asleep at the wheel was on interstate 70 going from east to western kansas.
MO is a decent enough state otherwise, plenty to do in KC. I'd say avoid the suburbs to KC since you're going to have to commute to work. Like was mentioned the KC area is massive and their baseball team stinks bad, same with their NFL team and even their new nascar track ain't that great. They've got some real lousy folks in KC, but I guess you find those everywhere. I actually miss the KC area, haven't been there in years. If you get angry or bored, you can drive west for hours without seeing any traffic, just keep following the roads and your compass. Plenty of dirt roads out there by Manhattan ks to mess around with and they've got a school there with some good times in uh... margaritaville, they call it.
The women in Kansas weren't very impressive....at least what I saw of them. But, Kansas is also about the second most desolate place I've seen short of South Dakota. that's a state.... you can seriously get LOST in SD without leaving the highways. Seriously, if you do see a street sign it may be so rusted it's not readable.
St. Louis is a great city, they've got a great fun-loving young group of folks that fill up the bars every night I was there. The roads in that city are confusing, so car pool when you visit there from KC.
Go visit KC before you move, you may love it (or abhor it). It's just one of those kinda cities. A lot like Dallas, you kinda get a grimy feeling while you're running around up there, kinda humid and muggy...but not like New Orleans where it smells like urine year round. (sorry to New Orlean's folks). Among the places I've been in the midwest, it's probably a 9 where I'd say that Pierre, SD and Stillwater,OK are 1's (Stillwater smells like a truck that you can't seem to figure out why it's eating 2 quarts of oil a week). Compare KC's gun acceptance to that of, oh... I'd say Florida. It's kinda a "great, so you've got a gun, what do I care?" attitude kinda place.
Go down to Dallas and it's more like "great, here's what I've got. The rest are at home" seriously, pulling out a Kimber in TX was like opening the hood of my Chevelle in Tucson... everyone came over just to say "neat. have you seen mine?"
Makes Manhattan seem... civilized.
(What gun for Jayhawk?) (What kind of Mizzou alum would I be without a little KU bashing...all in fun, of course. 
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