A wet surprise and many hidden gems

Stafford, Hudson, Hoisington, Great Bend, Ellinwood, Pawney Rock – what do these names have in common? We didn’t know before, but all are towns in the heart of Kansas, to be precise, in the wetlands and they all have something unique to offer.

Wetlands? Marsh/swamp/bayous? Salt and fresh water at the same time? In the center of America’s Heartlands, in Kansas? Who would expect that? Well, we got a chance this time to explore the wetlands region of Kansas more extensively, thanks to good weather and Cris' perfect planning.

Stafford Mercantile gave us a good head start. In this old-fashioned mom-and-pop store, stocking everything from fishing bait to munition to canned food to paper to clothing to an old-fashioned soda fountain, we met Cris and were treated with a chocolate malt and a cookie dough shake. This day we had driven up from Wichita with a stop at Yoder and Strataca, a huge salt mine, where you descend to the underground and see how road salt was and is mined. Thanks to constant humidity and temperatures it’s also a highly popular vault & storage area for Hollywood film rolls, requisites etc., for medical and official documents and other secret things.

On the Wetlands & Wildlife National Scenic Byway we first drove into Quivera National Wildlife Reserve, which is taking profit of the saltmine underneith and offers saltwater to migrating birds of all kinds. It's main migration time still and though Cris wasn’t able to arrange a good shot of the huge Whooping Cranes (recently observed in the area) for us, we got to see a variety of ducks and geese, ibis and sandhill cranes as well as pelicans (see pic). There is also deer in abundance and we were lucky to see a big buck crossing the road in front of us.


After a night in Great Bend’s well-kept Best Western Hotel we continued exploring the wetlands on the same byway, but first thing was a stop at another unique place: Heartland Farm in Pawney Rock. Operated by a couple of Dominican Sisters, the order is headquartered in a huge convent building in Great Bend, this conglomeration of different rustic buildings in the middle of nowhere, offers some special experience. The sisters living here, rent out rooms in a guesthouse, offer massages, keep alpacas and produce wool, operate a pottery workshop, a music tower, a garden and a greenhouse, there are trails and friendly dogs and much more to forget any troubles, to calm down and relax. A peaceful and quiet retreat.

In Cheyenne Bottom State Park Cris got help in identifying birds for us by the director of the Kansas Wetlands Education Center, which is a recommendable first stop in the park with great exhibitions and helpful staff. Also, in this park instructive markers explaining landscape, flora and fauna and such were set up. We drove the loop through the park with large pools of freshwater and packed with different birds – a magnificent drive!

Don’t know too many places, where you are able to find good food in large portions for such a decent price: lunch in the Lone Wolf Restaurant in Ellinwood - steak fingers and a big burger - confirmed that you really don’t need chain restaurants, just watch out for a lot of local pick-ups in front of a restaurant. On to the Wolf Hotel, a recently opened historic hotel, where the young, enthusiastic owner did an amazing job in renovating the building. It's still work-in-progress and he's currently adding a mystery theater and a bar. Guests are already welcome to stay in beautifully decorated rooms.

Ellinwood is known for its tunnel system underneith ground and we were lucky to be able to join a tour across the street from the hotel. We didn’t research the background yet (days are simply too short for that) but it sounded sort of amazing, that german immigrants (actually, from Bavaria), supposedly had constructed this system of tunnels in the 1870ies and 80ies, when the city was founded, for „male operations“ like barber shops, brothels, gaming rooms, bars or a harness shop (see pic). Only when tornado warnings were effective, also ladies went underground (and probably where surprised where their husbands used to spend their time).

Besides the phenomenon of the tunnels themselves, it would be interesting to know more about the german heritage in this part of Kansas. There are so many german family names - like the Wolf family in Ellinwood, who owned a flour mill, a brewery, the hotel etc. - and we will try to find out about the origin of the immigrants and their motivation to come to exactly this part of Kansas.

There was much more we experienced on our fabulous tour along the Wetlands & Wildlife National Scenic Byway and for sure this route is well worth being explored: unique nature, history and simply down-to-earth rural Kansas combined in one place.

Wichita - Planes and a Keeper of the Plains

Wichita is the largest city in the State of Kansas and it is mostly known for two things: First, the famous Chisholm Trail, a cattle trail in the 2nd half of the 19th century, which went through town; this tradition is commemorated in Old Cowtown. Second, it’s the „Air Capital of the World“, one of the largest airplane manufacturing centers worldwide.

With its Museums on the River, the popular trails along the riverfront and an attractive downtown Wichita is sort of a hidden gem and has a lot to offer. An absolute highlight on the river is Exploration Place, a hands-on Science Museum. The architecture on its own, planned by acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie of Boston, is worth being seen.

This museum is not far away from the famous „Keeper of the Plains“, a huge statue watching what’s going on in the city. Designed by an indian artist by name Blackbeard Bosin, it marks the confluence of Arkansas and Little Arkansas River, formerly a sacred place for the indians, the original inhabitants of the areal. Staying in Wichita for the second time, we were fortunate and saw the sculpture „on fire“: it’s illuminated every evening with a circle of firepits at its feet – a spectacular view and the grand finale of a city tour with James from Wichita tourism.

Old Town is becoming more and more attractive, lots of ecclectic shops, galleries, an open-air stage for free concerts in summer, Warren Theatre, great bars and pubs and restaurants. Even on a weekday in off-season it appeared lively. Delaney Avenue, another shopping-dining strip, looked equally appealing when we drove by.

We were staying in the historic Ambassador Hotel, located within the beautifully renovated Union National Bank Building in downtown Wichita. From our room on the top floor, we had a gorgeous view and noticed for the first time that Wichita is surrounded by woods (mostly thanks to Arkansas River), not flat prairie land, as typical for Kansas. First day that it's been a bit cooler this evening and that we needed a sweater.

With James, a real "foodie", we had a great meal at the Harvest Restaurant, part of the Hyatt, where we met the chef who is really into farm-to-table and seasonal food - still rare in Kansas. We shared a tasty meat and cheese platter as an appetizer (with cheeses from the nearby Amish community in Yoder, where we stopped the next morning on our way to Hutchinson) and had superb Lamb T-Bone and Ribeye Steak. What especially made a difference to other restaurants were the sides and toppings, very creative, not your standard baked or mashed potatoes or broccoli. Only detail to criticize would have been the speed of serving and clearing up …

Great hotel, great meal, great tour, what else could we have wished? A couple more hours of time perhaps…

OKC – cowtown with modern appeal

Oklahoma City bribed us. First thing we did after arrival on monday was to have lunch at Cheever’s Café, a former flower shop, on Route 66. Not your regular burger place, as you would expect, but highly creative cuisine. I had delicious couscous risotto (need to try that at home) as a side to spicy salmon tacos.

Well fed, our first stop was the Boathouse District on the Oklahoma River where we got a tour at the state-of-the-art boating facility. It’s a world-class rowing course and training facility and a new wildwater course is under construction. But it’s more than that, it’s also a public space, where people can take boating classes, can use the fitness room or can get adventurous and roudy at „Riversport Adventures“. If you want to conquer your weaker self you can balance high up on ropes or swing along a zipline over the river. Best thing about this place is, that it’s not somewhere in the woods, but in downtown, connected to Bricktown by a tunnel. Architecture is spectacular as well, very modern and linear with lots of glass.


A spectacular piece of art is the Land Run Monument, closeby, at the Bricktown Canal, which reminded us first of the Pioneer Plaza Cattle Drive in Dallas (see post before), but though it’s looks similar it’s a different artist. This sculpture group of 45 heroic oversized bronze figures commemorates the opening of the land to settlers in Oklahoma Territory in 1889 and the rush of people to claim new homesteads. Paul Moore, the artist, is also represented in the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, which we visited the next morning.

A masterpiece in the lobby is a sculpture called "End of the Trail", an indian on a horse by James Earle Fraser (1876-1953), who also designed the Lincoln Statue in his momument in D.C. "Cowboy Crossings" - an annual exhibition of traditional cowboy art of all kinds - was still taking place in the museum and we were fortunate to have a terrific tour with a very knowledgeable docent, with an admirable lot of aplomb. All docents are volunteers and put in many hours for free. Volunteerism is another typically American thing, doesn’t work in Germany.

Though it’s been our second visit in the museum, we learned a lot, just would have wished to have some more time later on our own, and, would love to see the „vault“ next time, the archives of the museum. Especially love the sections on rodeo, indians and the cowboy-in-movies. Unfortunately, we had to leave immediately after lunch in the museum’s café for Wichita, already an hour late.

Our hotel in OKC was a Homewood Suites, large, well-equipped rooms and full dinner complimentary to guests as well as a breakfast buffet. Situated conventiently close to Bricktown, we explored this former warehouse district on monday evening. It's not large, just a couple of blocks, with lots of nightlife and dining options, though not many shops. A nice feature is Bricktown Canal, a mile-long waterway that links downtown, Bricktown and the river. With its watertaxis it’s a miniature version of the San Antonio River Walk.

We finished a hot, sunny day packed with new experiences, in the Bricktown Brewery at Happy Hour where brilliant beers were served for the incredible price of $ 2,50 a pint. Time was too short for OKC, would have loved to revisit the Stock Yards during an auction and the History Center and... and... and... But, hopefully, there will be a next time.

Characters of all kinds in rural Oklahoma

The last two days we met really interesting people and were swamped with new impressions and ideas. One was a young guy who was attending gunsmithing school, the other a country music singer with taste and money and finally an action toy figure collector and artist. And we calmed down considerably by driving through the countryside of Oklahoma, straight dusty backroads, wide open land, sparsely populated.


After we left our floating cabin on Lake Murray on sunday morning after a leasurely breakfast on the porch at sunrise, we circled the lake and admired all the solid rock buildings the CCC/WPA built in the 1930ies, when the area became a State Park. One of them was the Tucker Tower (see pic) with an instructive museum adjacent.

At noon we arrived at the Chickasaw Cultural Center in Sulphur, a large complex of buildings (museum/library/theater/restaurant/shop...) with an open-air indian village. Have been here before, but would always come back for another visit, because it's probably the best indian cultural center in the U.S.A. We were fortunate that it was a sunday, since on weekends presentations take place in the Indian village. We got a chance to watch a dance presentation: stomp dance is the dance style the Chickasaw are practicing and it has nothing to do with all the fancy dances you'll see at powwows.

After a late lunch in the museum's café with indian tacos (see pic) and grape dumplings (another indian speciality), we were treated with another soothing massage in the Artesian Hotel in town – a new Chickasaw owned casino-hotel with a really state-of-the-art spa. Didn't have much time to relax afterwards, still had to drive for another hour to reach our final destination on this day: Tishomingo.

There is not much to see in Tishomingo, a dusty hicktown with a main street, a couple of shops and galleries and a Bed & Breakfast called "Ladysmith". This B&B with eight guestrooms opened in September, in an old, restored office building. The place was like nothing else we've seen before. We had expected one of these classical, stuffed, old-fashioned B&Bs with small rooms, but this one was spectacular: a medley of "shabby chic", with retro/vintage/artsy stuff and antiques arranged in a very tasteful way in large rooms. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, one reason may be that it's owned by a famous country music singer – Miranda Lambert – and/or that she doesn't need/want any promotion. Absolutely worth being experienced! Right now construction for a new concert hall in a neighboring building is about to be accomplished and, across the street, is the fancy shop of Miranda, the "Pink Pistol", with a historic soda fountain. Since the shop and, later, the hotel opened, more shops came up and economy seems to pick up.

Unfortunately there is still no real restaurant in town and since we didn't want to drive around again, we skipped dinner and just enjoyed a beer in the guest bar in the house and munched on chips. In the bar we chatted with Chris, the barkeeper, a symbol for American down-to-earth mentality and positive thinking: Coming from Wisconsin and having been a marine in 29 Palms/CA for a couple of years, he decided that he wanted to make a profession out of his hobby and applied for admission at Murray State College Gunsmithing School. He was accepted and he and his wife (who is working full-time in the hotel to allow him to attend school) moved to Tishamonga, bought an old farmhouse, which they are restaurating now, and both are happy though they work long hours both. We learned a lot about weapons, hunting and American mentality on this evening.

After a delicious 3-course-breakfast in the B&B and political discussions with guests from Kansas, we left for Pauls Valley, another undistinct hicktown, wouldn't there be be an exceptional museum on main street: the Toy Action Figure Museum. This unique collection of action figures of all kinds (Spiderman, Superman, Starwars etc.) was initiated by an interesting person: an famous action figure designer, turned artist/musician/cartoonist/writer and entrepreneur by name Kevin Stark. He gave us a tour himself and introduced us to his fantastic toy collection and his art gallery. We wished we would have had more time to admire all the figures and to chat some more with this interesting gentleman.

On to Oklahoma City, where we arrived early afternoon, but that's another story... stay tuned...

Back to "Real America"

What a contrast! We’ve spent four nights in Houston and Dallas – in skyscrapers, with a view towards skyscrapers, with windows not to be opened, with constant traffic and hustle and bustle… and now we are sitting on the porch of our „floating cabin“ at Lake Murray/Oklahoma, all is calm, all is dark, fish are jumping up and down from time to time, goose are quacking, crickets are chirping and the sky is full of stars.

The floating cabins on Lake Murray in South Central Oklahoma’s Lake Murray State Park offer a pretty unique accommodation, actually an experience we’ve never had before. The surrounding area was declared a State Park only in 1933 and outfitted with a man-made lake by the CCC under Roosevelt’s New Deal. There are different kinds of cabins, all equipped with cable TV and free internet (what we had't expected!) and we were even upgraded to a larger unit with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, large livingroom and kitchen. We arrived just in time, at 4:45 pm, briefly before they shut down the office, and for the rest of the day we just enjoyed the peace and the location. I dipped into the lake – a welcome cooling at the end of a long and hot day - unbelievable in Germany: swimming in a lake end of October and not needing a sweater even late in the evening!

We’d left our Dallas hotel early for the 2-hour-drive to the Choctow Casino in Durant, our first scheduled stop in OK. On the way we stopped at the OK Welcome Center at the border between TX and OK, but nevertheless arrived early at the casino and explored it before we met with two reps, one of the hotel and one the tribe's tourism department, who introduced us to the place and their plans for the future during a private lunch. Expansion is on the way and they have big plans in regard to offering packages and tours to visitors on Choctaw Nation’s grounds (a huge piece of land owned by the Choctaw indians, including 13 casinos, several sights, bison and mustang herds, forts and indian mounds)and we talked about german tourists' mentality and expectations.

In contrast to many others indian casinos this Choctaw Casino/Resort already has much more to offer than just gambling: they do have a nice inn with a pool area (see pic), they offer spectacular concerts and, what we appreciated most: they have a really state-of-the-art Spa in which we were regaled with 80-minute treatments. Never before had such a good massage for 80 full minutes! My therapist worked hard on all the knots in my neck and shoulders and at the end I felt like newly-born. Peter got a 80-minute facial (!) and afterwards his face was soft as a baby’s bottom.

Though we left the casino rather late (and stupidly refused to gamble with a $ 50 gift card each, while waiting for a left package), we made it in good time to Ardmore and our floating cabin. We didn't have time to shop for a real dinner and since the location is pretty remote, we instead munched away on pork skin chips (never had them before) and peperoni sticks and peanuts from a nearby gas station (a very old-fashioned one, by the way, where you could fill up your tank and pay later at the cashier) and had a pleasantly calm evening on the porch. Seems like clocks run much slowlier in this part of the country, which feels much more like „Real America“ than all the big cities and famous destinations.

Visiting George W. Bush

Yesterday we left our Houston hotel early in the morning because of a planned detour to Cypress and the Outlet Mall there (which we knew from a former trip) to get some really good deals at Eddie Bauer's, Jockey and Crocs. Via College Station (home of famous Texas A&M University) we continued driving north to Dallas, and when we arrived to our downtown Dallas hotel around 5 pm we had approximately 300 mi. driven.

The Magnolia Hotel is in the former office building of an oil company by name "Magnolia" (later: Mobil), built in the 1920ies in elaborate art-deco style. The building has been nicely renovated and furnished inside with fancy, bouticey, artsy elements. We got a nice, large corner suite in the 21st floor with fully equipped kitchen, living and bed room and a terrific view. Equipped with Happy Hour coupons for the hotel bar, we didn't leave the hotel anymore, but worked and planned the next day.


Friday morning we paid a visit to George W. Bush, Jun. and his wife Nancy in the new Presidential Center & Library. This very instructive exhibition makes some of Bush's actions better comprehensible. After paying our respect to Bush we continued to the Perot Science Center, a fantastic building of Thom Mayne with Morphosis Architects.

Lots of hands-on exhibits, interesting ... but somehow we are getting tired of Natural History Museums, dinosaurs, gems and astronomy. More great architecture a short drive away: Calatrava's Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, opened in 2012.

Driving is much easier in Dallas than it's been in Houston, and much faster, too. Nevertheless, we dropped the car at the hotel in the early afternoon and continued our exploration on foot, much more effective, though not many people seem to walk in Dallas. In the Dallas Arts District we visited the Museum of Art, peeked into the Nasher Sculpture Center and AT&T Performing Arts Center and enjoyed the Klyde Warren Park, a new green promenade on top of a busy highway, surrounded by food trucks, with an open-air library, an open-air stage, playgrounds etc. Nice addition to downtown Dallas!


In Founders Plaza Dallas' history started and an old cabin is left from the very beginnings as well as the impressive Old Red Courthouse. Also historic are many houses in the Historic West End with Wild Bill's western wear store. The owner is an interesting character, we interviewed him last time for a story.

Pioneer Park with a grandiose sculpture group of 49 (!) larger-than-life longhorns and three cowboys. It commemorates 19th century cattle drives on the Shawnee Trail, an early cattle drive route which went through Dallas and is the largest bronze monument of its kind in the world. Very impressive!

Admiring downtown's modern and historic architecture, a new park with a gigantic eye and, finally, Neiman Marcus' flagship store we were getting tired after walking for a couple of hours in 80+ degrees. Had lunch and dinner at once in a burger joint closeby our hotel before calling it a day (though still working in the room).

Houston - more than just rockets

A packed and interesting day in Houston started at 8:30 am - after a pretty restless night - and ended around 9 pm. Fortunately we didn't have to drive, but were comfortably driven around, well fed and pampered. On a sunny, hot day, we started our visit with the George Ranch Historical Park (see pics), a green and idyllically situated living history site. Old farm buildings from different periods show visitors how the first settlers in the region lived and worked.

Back to Downtown with it's great skyline we had lunch at The Grove, a very creative, top-restaurant close-by Discovery Green Park. In the last years downtown was enormously revitalized with parks like this one or Buffalo Bayou, close to the fantastic Theater District. Open-air concerts and events of different kind take place, food trucks row up and there is always something going on now.

Tejas Custom Boots, our next stop - a long-time famous Texas bootmaker - had really nice boots, but unfortunately it was not his day to talk to german journalists...

The Houston Museum of Natural Science is part of the Houston Museum District and adjacent to Hermann Park. It's a concentration of world-class museums. We've visited most of them during previous visits, with the exception of the Science Museum. Especially the Hall of Paleontology is an absolutely worth-seeing museum on its own, prehistoric creatures and dinosaurs in abundance! And there is lots more to see!


After having seen a lot of bones and stones and mummies we were ready for some excellent brews at Saint Arnold Brewery (Texas' oldest craft brewery founded in 1994). After the instructive tour we had a tasting and got confirmation of our opinion, that in the meantime many American beers are much better than German ones. Loved their IPAs and their special rum-barrel-aged dark desert beer.

In heavy rush hour traffic it took us almost 1,5 hours to get to our final highlight of the day: Kemah Boardwalk. It's half-way in the direction of Galveston and the port of Houston, on the oceanfront, about 15 min. away from the Space Center. Thanks to perfect planning we just made it in time for the sunset and after exploring the boardwalk rides and attractions we enjoyed our first steak in Texas at Saltgrass Steakhouse.

Houston is a crazy city: very spread out, lots of driving involved, heavy traffic almost all the time. Nevertheless, it's one of these cities you either love or hate and we got to love it in the course of time since it has such a great variety of different attractions, museums and neighborhoods, lots of greenery, great architecture and a very creative culinary (and beer) scene. Also, a big plus of this city is it's Southern hospitality, people being very friendly and talkative.