Top Five Destinations of Wichita

How often do you clock out from your shift at your job (or turn off your computer or put your boots up or whatever you do) and stick around for shits and grins? I?m not talking about talking to friends or hitting happy hour, but actually sticking around work, not really working and not really playing. Stuck in limbo between the worlds.

That?s kind of how I view a work road trip. I get to a new city where I?m supposed to work and even when I?m familiar with it or it?s completely new, my thoughts are with work. When do I have to be at work? What do I have to do? Is my presentation ready? Then, when my work is just about done, it becomes, how quickly can I get home? I want to sleep in my own bed. When is my flight? Do I have everything from my hotel room in my rental car?

All this has bubbled up from my past because I remember a road trip I took to Wichita, Kansas for work. I know it had to do with cataloging and figuring what files my company had. I remember boxes and boxes of files. But, then nothing. I don?t remember where I ate. I don?t remember driving I-35 and the Kansas Turnpike. I assume it was open interstate and now it?s just a trip without memories except for pieces of paper, blank in my memory.

So, I had to look at this city and see what new memories I could make the next time I happen to pass through. Given enough time, I?d probably even stick around for a few days to see these five things.

Visit the Museum of World Treasures

How can I pass up something with a lofty name like the Museum of World Treasures? Right now there?s an exhibit devoted to the trade routes of Rome in the years AD 100 to 300. Doesn?t that sound cool? Rome? Trade routes? Economics? It?s just me isn?t it? Well, then you can go off and enjoy the puppet theater.

Eat lunch at B&C Barbecue

I love the simplicity of the B&C Barbecue site. What do they have to eat? Seven kinds of meat, two kinds of baked beans, garlic slaw and potato salad. That?s barbecue at its finest.

Attend the NBC World Series

If you ever read ?Satch, Dizzy, & Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson? by Timothy Gay, most of the book focuses on the barnstorming done by these three Hall of Famers. Also mentioned is the NBC World Series in Wichita because Satchel played for Bismarck, North Dakota team that won the 1935 championship. Current major leaguers that played there include Albert Pujols, Sergio Romo, Curtis Granderson and Lance Berkman. I just want to see two weeks of baseball up close.

Tour the Old Cowtown Museum

Again, I just hear the name, Old Cowtown Museum, and I?m sold. Let that be a lesson to you museum folks out there. Don?t name your museum, ?Wichita City Museum,? because I?m going to need a lot of convincing to go there.

Hike the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve

There are not many places where farmland hasn?t taken over the Great Plains, but the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is an oasis amid all the corn and soybeans. If you hike through the Windmill pasture, you might see some of the wild bison that live there.

Any suggestions for things that I missed? Any additional recommendations for the area? Just let me know in the comments.