Kansas & Oklahoma
TWIN TRAILS
With their open roads and friendly wayside towns, the welcoming sister states of Kansas and Oklahoma offer the perfect all-American road trip, advises Roger St. Pierre
I
t’s no exaggeration to suggest that almost every student who ever read Jack Kerouac’s On The Road hankers
after someday taking the Great American Road Trip. And where better to do it than along
some of the remaining stretches of iconic Route 66 – ‘Main Street USA’ – as it wends its way through the glorious prairie states of Kansas and Oklahoma? It’s an easy sell to anyone who enjoys a
driving holiday on truly open roads – highly marketable to groups of friends, families, couples and solo travellers alike. For in these kissing-cousin lightly trafficked states, the tarmac strings together lively cities like Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Wichita and Kansas City – whose downtown is actually shared with next- door Missouri – and friendly little towns
38 June 2011 •
www.sellinglonghaul.com
dotted across a truly rural landscape. Vast panoramas stretch across the wheat-field-strewn flatlands of the Great Plains and the wild flower-bedecked rolling grassland hills of the prairie to hauntingly beautiful low mountains. Cow town names like Dodge City –
haunt of Wyatt Earpe and home of the infamous Boot Hill cemetery – Wichita and Abilene come straight out of any western. Tradition lives on. For many locals 10-gallon Stetson hats and ornate Cuban-heeled cowboy boots seem de-rigeur. A visit to a rodeo is a must while dude ranch stays are especially popular with British guests. Once trodden by vast herds of bison
the two states offer a striking contrast to more familiar US holiday destinations. Standing at the end of the infamous
‘Trail of Tears’, 39 sovereign nations were forcefully driven to this new territory. These are the lands where 19th Century pioneers staged the biggest land grab in history, and where the 1930s Depression and dustbowl disaster spawned the gritty and evocative writings of John Steinbeck and the mournful songs of Woody Guthrie. Not surprisingly, there are fascinating
museums aplenty. In Abilene they showcase the life and times of their home boy-president of the USA, Dwight D Eisenhower; Lawson has the Museum of the Great Plains and the Comanche National Museum, there’s the brilliant National Cowboy & Western Heritage
Museum in Oklahoma City, Duncan hosts the Chisholm Trail Museum and if your clients want to discover the story of ‘The Mother Road’ advise them to make their way between the vintage Chevys and serried rows of Harleys into the Route 66 Museum in Clinton. There’s a fascinating space museum in
Hutchinson, and the small Kansas town also offers guided tours of the massive Underground Salt Museum, whose vast diggings today serve roles as a nuclear bomb and natural disaster-proof repository for millions of archives. Quirkiest of all has to be the statue-
strewn house and Garden of Eden in Lucas, created by Civil War veteran and eccentric SP Dinsmore. You might spot the world’s largest pop
bottle in Arcadia, the enormous oilman statue that welcomes you to the city of Tulsa, or the giant ceramic cowboy boot that adorns an Oklahoma City sidewalk – but there are plenty of natural scenic attractions too. Man and the great outdoors are in
perfect harmony each spring for the awesome Symphony In The Flint Hills concert, while an alternative to Route 66 is to enjoy the extraordinary ecosystems found along the Wetlands & Wildlife National Scenic Byway. Diversity is the key-word here, giving agents and consultants the opportunity to work with operators and use their combined knowledge and skills to devise a holiday package that really fits the bill.
UP CLOSE & PERSONAL
BY ROGER ST. PIERRE "They do everything big in this part of the globe and my jam-packed 10-day road trip kicked off with a visit to the huge Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival, staged at the cavernous Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. This colourful event celebrates the arts
and crafts and one of the biggest and most colourful dance competitions in the world, with more than 1,200 showing off their feathers. Only genuine Native Americans need apply to compete but everyone is welcome to watch. Find pow wow visitor etiquette tips at
www.travelok.com. Oklahoma has more Native American
residents than does any other state in the Union. The Cherokees, Chickasaws and other Indian Nations have their own museums and cultural centres around which a great itinerary can be woven."
KDTT
KDTT OKLAHOMA TOURISM
KDTT
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