We wanted to see a bit of Wichita so we woke up at around 7 am and quickly packed the bike and got fully prepared to leave for the 3 hour or so ride in.
Some sections were purely desert but mainly it was farmland with the occasional small town. Most of it, it was pretty cold.
We lasted for 2 hours before we stopped for breakfast at a roadside diner named “Rick’s”.
We went and sat in a booth that was exposed to the sun so that we could get warm.
We enjoyed a lovely breakfast of the usual Hot Chocolate and Ham Steak and Eggs, whilst Harry stammered for words every time the cute young waitress came over.
The Usual Super Cheap Meal
The bill was $13 for 4 Hot Chocolates and 2 Ham Steak and Eggs. Great value and fairly indicative of the cheap food and drink all across the USA when compared to Australia.
Another 35 miles right into the centre of Wichita on the Interstate 400 through a section of grasslands, farms and bush. We continued on right into the CBD which had a heap of large high rises, but there were hardly any signs of life and it seemed like a ghost town with hardly any traffic.
Time Out For A Massage
We found a local shopping mall and went in to load up on a few supplies. I ended up spying a massage place in the centre and enjoy 40 minutes of a blissful massage.
We left Wichita for the small town of Winfield, which was a fairly nice town but again the town centre was fairly deserted with only a few pedestrians passing through. The ride to Arkansas city was the same as the earlier part of the day with stretches of grassland, desert and hills.
Once we reached the border we had a quick stop and did the usual photos under the border signs.
We're Not In Kansas Anymore
We then rode through farmland to Ponca city, passing a lot of small dirt roads leading to farmhouses
It was getting dark so we pushed on to Tulsa, where we planned to stay for the night.
Bustling Tulsa
We expected Tulsa to be a small town because it wasn’t very big on the map and we had never heard of it but when we arrived we found that it was bigger than Wichita. It had a lot of high rises and the centre of the city was actually very busy which we weren’t expecting.
We fueled up at a Sinclair’s (it’s the name you see) and headed to the Holiday Inn Express.
It's Sinclair so it must be good
We Had Rain Explained To Us
It was in the Reception area here where we had one of the lighter moments of the trip.
Got chatting to an older guy who, hearing we were from Australia, explained what rain was because he thought it didn’t ever rained in Australia.
“Rain is moisture that drops from the sky…..”
We pretended that he was teaching us something with enthusiastic nods, but the Receptionist had lost it by then and was cracking up laughing.
We’re Bad People Without A Moral Compass…..Apparently
Bobby from the Holiday Inn recommended Baxter’s for dinner a few miles away.
From Harry’s Journal:
“We parked at the entrance and were approached by a homeless man who was asking for money.
On the way out we were again approached by the homeless man, we again refused to give him anything because we are bad people and have no moral compass.“
I hope the lad is kidding!
Then Karma Got Us
And in a perfect example of instant karma, we went to get on the motorbike only to discover it was absolutely covered in bird shit from the birds in the tree I’d parked under.
Bastards!
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