Wichita Illuminations

On our way to Arkansas for Christmas, we spent a night in Wichita. As soon as we checked into our hotel, I got online and bought tickets for the light show at the botanical gardens. I should have gotten a hint of what to expect when I saw the notice that read “Because of the warm weather, we expect large crowds. Be patient and kind.”

We arrived just after dark. We had to follow a long line of cars all the way around the gardens to find a spot to park. It was crowded from the start, but things just kept getting worse and worse the longer we stayed. By the time we left an hour and a half later, it was hard to move. In places, we were packed into crowds so dense we were simply stopped. In one place, a woman with a baby carriage kept smashing it into the back of my foot in an attempt to bulldoze her way through the crowd. I finally turned and stared at her. She said, “We’re all in the same boat, friend.” Maybe, but the rest of us were’t being jerks about it. I just started placing my foot in front of her wheel so she couldn’t move.

The lights were well done, but it was hard to enjoy them in the throng.

 

We stopped at Old Chicago Pizza on the way back to the hotel.

Earlier in the day, as we drove through WaKeeney, Kansas, we wrote a limerick in honor of the stiff wind. The next day, we wrote a second one in honor of the woman who cleaned the gas station bathrooms we were forced to use.

There was a young lass from WaKeeney
Who decided to wear a bikini
The Kansas wind rose
And parts of her froze
Soon the bikini was no more to be seeny

There was a short girl from Checotah
Whose john cleaning skills we took note of
She wiped scum off the wall
High as she was tall
And considered that she’d done her quota

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