Day 10: Kansas City and Wichita

Kansas City Skyline

Waking up in St. Louis, we decided to get a quick oil change before we started the 4-5 hour trek to Kansas City for some world famous BBQ.  We drove all the way all the way across Missouri—passing by enough cornfields to feed a small African country—before we arrived in Kansas City.  

Our first stop was a restaurant called Jack Stack’s BBQ in downtown KC, which we chose based on a strong recommendation from Papa Metzl, who we chatted with during our stay in Chicago.  Turns out Mr. Metzl has pretty good taste in BBQ, because Jack Stack’s was excellent, complete with a waiter who walked us through our first Kansas City BBQ experience.  Immediately after finishing our food at Jack Stack’s we drove straight down the road about 5 miles to Arthur Bryant’s famous BBQ shack (open since 1931), which was definitely off the beaten path in a less than stellar neighborhood.   

Poor lighting, delicious BBQ

We walked in to find a huge line waiting to be served in this cafeteria style restaurant, which had pictures of famous patrons on the wall (Steven Spielberg, Jimmy Carter, Danny Glover, John McCain and Sarah Palin to name a few).  Despite the deliciousness we’d just experienced at Jack Stack’s, we asked a local gentleman (emphasis on the local) what his favorite dish was, then we both bit the bullet and ordered ourselves a heaping plate of his favorite.  It. Was. Fantastic.  Some of the best BBQ either of have ever tried.

With a serious thunderstorm moving in we decided against camping out that night and instead kept driving across Kansas, trying to make good time to Wichita, which we did.  After finding a room at a Motel 6 and resting up after the 470 miles we covered in the last 10 hours, we gave in to curiosity and decided to go to a local bar called “Club Rodeo,” where we were told that there was, in fact, live bullriding.  

No joke.

One angry bull

 Here we met a Wichita woman of about 50 who was quite drunk and insisted on teaching us the “Two Step,” which is apparently very different from a Square Dance—she was quite offended when Joe called it a square dance.  We realized that we should separate ourselves from her after she introduced us to her nephew as “Joe with a J and Craig with a C,” told him about how we were driving across the country for a veterans charity, and then proceeded to offer us cash donations for our cause.  Where she got the idea that we were on this trip for a charity we have no clue, but after insisting multiple times that we couldn’t accept her donations we opted to sneak off to a different part of the bar and wait for the rodeo to begin.

That's a cowboy on the right.  Flying through the air.

For the next few hours we watched 3 rounds of bullriding right there in the bar, which was quite a trip.  We got a few pictures, but the bulls were bucking so fast that Joe’s camera couldn’t get a quality picture, so we took some video of a few of the last riders getting bucked.  What a night in Wichita, Kansas.

Beautiful Wichita, KS