Soon enough I was back on an interstate, I-135, and found myself driving through Wichita. At 380,000 people, this was by far the largest city I had yet approached in America, so imagine my surprise when it barely felt like I was in a city at all. The interstate through Wichita is elevated and surrounded by trees, so that all you get are some distant glimpses of the tops of a few tall buildings in some areas and a reasonable urban sprawl around some of the exits. I gleaned exactly zero insights as to the actual character of the city.
First of all, I live in Wichita and I'm mad that you didn't stop and say hello.
. Wichita also happens to be the largest city in Kansas. The two interstates that go around Wichita do just that--go around the city. It's no surprise you couldn't get a feel for it from the outskirts of town. Apparently, however, Wichita is a happening place, ranked ninth on a list of the top ten big US cities in which to live — though I suppose they stretched the definition of “big”. Wichita is also the air capital of the world, the founding city for companies such as Cessna and a project ground for Bill Lear, who would found the Lear Jet company. Boeing and Airbus are here too, and many others. The place likes to fly. By all accounts it sounds like a very nice city, it was home to Wyatt Earp for a time, and it was the setting for the Dennis the Menace comics, but I didn't see much of it at all, even in passing. That was too bad, but I didn't have time to dwell on it because as soon as you leave Wichita you hit the Kansas Turnpike.
It's a big little city. At least to someone like me, who grew up in L.A. And I love it. It has all the amenities without the crowding. A very good balance. Yes, it is called the Air Capital of the World, but it is becoming less so. Boeing recently decided to move the work it does here to Seattle and/or South Carolina and that will result in the loss of about 2000 jobs here. Also many of the other airplane manufacturers and the unions are having some fraught negotiations. If more jobs are lost, it will be hard for the city, but at least there's still a state university here which will mitigate the losses some.
Fortunately it was easier than I could even have hoped for. You drive up to a wide bank of ticket booths, come to a stop just long enough to pull a ticket from the machine, and then you drive onward. When you reach the end of the turnpike, which in this case was not distant at all, you give your ticket to a person in another wide bank of booths, they tell you how much, and they have change if you need it. It cost me just under $2 to drive for a brief time on the Kansas Turnpike. It was worth it just for the experience, even if I didn't notice any appreciable advantage over the regular interstate.
Your charge of about $2 is a little quirk of the turnpike here. I've had the same experience. Usually you'll travel a much longer distance and pay more, but not a huge amount more. It is very simple to use. But the point of the turnpike is not any advantange over the interstate. Physically there's no difference. The point is to collect money for the upkeep of the road, that's all.
*MySmiley*
I play air tambourine. Competitively.
I play air tambourine. Competitively.
Eighteen Days in America, Part 2
- 03/06/2012 09:06:46 PM
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I also found that KS Turnpike remarkably simple to use.
- 04/06/2012 02:46:28 AM
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Kansas
- 04/06/2012 03:44:46 PM
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Wikipedia claims the KS Turnpikes N/S sections are closer than interstate regs require.
- 04/06/2012 08:08:20 PM
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i love your continual references references to boring wyoming... i drove through there once.
- 04/06/2012 05:04:05 PM
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I'm glad that you didn't get abducted by crazy computer/cyborg boy.
- 05/06/2012 04:49:09 PM
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I really hate driving through Nebraska, and Kansas.
- 07/06/2012 10:05:07 PM
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Yeah, except for Kansas City, Kansas. *NM*
- 08/06/2012 04:22:36 PM
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Just joshin', bro.
- 09/06/2012 04:12:33 PM
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Oh, I don't care if you insult it, as long as your facts are correct. *NM*
- 11/06/2012 04:10:07 PM
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