WICHITA (TAKE 2!)

Over the Fourth of July weekend (for the second year in a row, actually), we visited Wichita, Kansas. We arrived on Friday afternoon, had lunch at Firebirds, and relaxed for the rest of the day, watching some of the fireworks shows from our room. On Saturday, we had breakfast at our hotel, then went out for the county-collecting portion of our trip. We got into our 2025 Hyundai Tucson and headed west on Hwy 400. We finished the state of Kansas in 2024, but we had to drive through part of it to reach unvisited places in Oklahoma. When we reached the city of Minneola, we headed south until we hit the Oklahoma state border and Harper County. When we reached Hwy 64, we went west for a few more miles before entering Beaver County. We then turned around and headed east on Hwy 64/Hwy 11 for quite a while.

Once we reached Woods County, we headed south on Hwy 50 until we crossed into Woodward County. Usually, we would have turned around immediately, but we noticed that we were very close to a cave, specifically Alabaster Caverns State Park. So, we decided to stop. The park was surprisingly busy, but we were able to get right onto a cave tour. It was a nice diversion for the day.

After leaving the park, we got back onto Hwy 64 and headed east. We picked up Alfalfa and Grant Counties, our last two counties of the day, and the final new counties of our trip. We worked our way back to I-35, stopping at Los Potros Mexican Restaurant for an early dinner before heading back to our hotel, the Hyatt Regency in downtown Wichita.

On Sunday, we spent time at our hotel before driving back to Kansas City for our flight home. Unfortunately, due to flight delays, we ended up arriving home around 4 a.m.

When all was said and done, we picked up six new counties. So, what’s next? We have completed a trip to Tulsa and Amarillo, which will be posted soon, so stay tuned!

NEW COUNTIES - 6

                  TOTAL COUNTIES FOR 2025 - 60

                 ALL TIME COUNTY TOTAL - 2813