Day 33 - Wichita & The Chisholm Trail, OK

We started the morning off visiting a couple of 'must see' places in Wichita. The first one was the number one attraction (according to TripAdvisor) the Nifty Nut House. This store was huge and it contained nuts, dried fruit and sweets. We sampled a lot of different nuts and sweets and ending up buying some spicy corn, sea salt, caramel and chocolate covered popcorn and some caramel mixed nuts.

We then headed to another top Wichita attraction, the first ever Pizza Hut! It was located at Wichita State University and took us a while to find as it was moved to a new location at the end of last year. Whilst we were searching, it was a good opportunity to see an American university. It was huge and all the facilities looked super modern, including the massive baseball stadium which looked just as big and impressive as some of the national team stadiums.

We found the Pizza Hut which was very small brick building, I guess all businesses start somewhere! There was a museum inside but it wasn't open when we visited, I took a couple of photos through the window although they didn't come out very well due to my shadow.

We left Wichita and headed for Oklahoma City via the Chisholm Trail. The Chisholm Trail is an old cattle drive route where animals would be herded by cowboys from the ranches in Texas to the railway in Kansas. Once you get out of the big city and cross the Oklahoma state line, the trail becomes a scenic road through farmland, with a couple of historic markers and a few small towns to stop off on the way.

The ladies at the Oklahoma Tourist Information stop were very helpful and gave us a lot of information about the Chisholm Trail and Oklahoma. It helped us to decide what to spent our time seeing. We decided to stop off at a town called Enid for lunch.

The tourist guide said that Enid had "boundless opportunities, vibrant shopping, unique places to eat, and original events and attractions". It was very quiet when we visited but that could be because it was a weekday and the shops were not very tourist focused but it did have a nice walking route that took you a couple of blocks around the main square.

Enid was one of the stops for people on the Chisholm Trail needing food or water. There were a number of statues and information boards about the trail. We didn't see all of these as they are located in and around the town, included in a number of parks but our walk around the downtown area gave us enough information.

We found a 'unique' place to eat, a British pub (well an Irish pub called Callahan's, decorated with British memoribilia and serving British style food). We really wanted to try local food on our trip but we really couldn't resist trying the American version of our Doner Kebab. It was not quite the same, if anything, it seemed healthier (grilled meat on a pita style bread with salad and feta cheese) and it was really good!

One from unique and fun thing we found in Enid was the bridge on Main Street. Despite looking like a monster, having flashing lights and a large height sign, trucks are still gobbled up with it (hit the bridge as they're too big)! We passed under without being eaten but Fin is only little. 

After Enid, we carried on down the Chisolm Trail through a number of different towns heading towards out next stop, Kingfisher. 

Kingfisher has a lovely old fashioned main highstreet and its not difficult to imagine what it would have been like back when the cattleman would visit. On one side of the highstreets is a monument to the trail and to the creator of the trail Jesse Chisholm. The stores along the highstreet were trailored to local needs so we didn't find anywhere to stop for an ice cream, coffee or beer but maybe this is an area that not many tourists stop off at so there is no need for these stores. 

Next we headed to another stop recommended by the ladies in the Oklahoma Tourist Office, the Chisholm Trail Museum.

Our favourite part of this museum was the Pioneer Village. There were two houses, a school, a church and the first bank building in Kingfisher. The building and their contents were in great conidition and original, even the contents felt original and I think most of it was!

It was really interesting to learn a bit more history of the trail how it originally went through Indian Territory, how Jesse negotiated safe passage with the Indians (he could speak 14 dialects!) and then how the trail ended with the land rush of 1889.

From Kingfisher, we headed into Oklahoma City where we are due to spend the next couple of nights.