Wichita Lineman

Selecting a song for today's post was very easy. Anyone my age or older will know Glenn Campbell's song Wichita Lineman (lyrics here). With the long straight roads that led us from Oklahoma to Kansas you can get the sense of isolation the lineman would have felt checking his polls for an overload.

Wichita is the largest town in Kansas, but for our journey it was selected as we needed somewhere to stop between Arkansas and our next first-time state, Nebraska. The selection was helped by somewhere we want to visit tomorrow, but more of that then. Like many of these places Wichita turned out to be much nicer than expected. A pleasant place to stop-over.

As one guidebook says Kansas is somewhere people go through not to. Wichita is famous for the Chisholm Trail, as Jesse Chisholm developed a route for herding cattle through Kansas, giving Wichita its nickname of Cowtown. The Pony Express crosses the state, but doesn't stay. So with the settlers travelling west at the time of the Gold Rush on and through not to Kansas.


Two communities characterise the part of Wichita in which our hotel is located. Hispanic and Vietnamese, within ten blocks there are 7 Vietnamese restaurants and 12 Mexican ones. Given this unusual preponderance of Vietnamese cuisine Drew had selected one that comes out best in Trip Adviser - the Pho Hien - as our eating place tonight. Well what a treat.

I'd never had Pho before so this was an experiment. The Pho Hien does not focus on fussy decor or layout, but on really, really good food. The menu allows you to choose the size of the soup bowl, we went for large, and the meat that is cooked in it. 

The meal is served with beansprouts, chillies, basil and lime of the side which can be added to taste. It was the most delicious bowl of soup I had ever tasted, and really filling. It along with 2 cans of Diet Coke came to $19.80. The cheapest evening meal of our holiday so far, and among the tastiest. 

I opted for the combination - steak, beef balls, flank, brisket, tendon and tripe; while Drew had steak, flank and tendon. The restaurant closes at 8.00 p.m., hence our need to eat early.

Given an early meal we went to see some of the Wichita sights after dinner. First we travelled across to the other side of the Arkansas River where the Big and Little Arkansas merge. The river was very full due to the recent rain. Here we found the statue called the 'Keeper of the Plains'  the statue is of an Indian looking our over the surrounding area.

Fox and Chickens

Coming back into downtown we parked and walked along the streets where statues of people and animals abound. We had spotted one as we went down the street, but on coming back realised there are many. I'm not sure what the local council intended in putting these here, but they give a great impression of a lovely city. Plus the thunderstorm which has followed up for the last few days seems to have left us. We hope for good!!

Wichita, its good to have been here. Thanks for making us welcome.