Wichita KS "city meet" - April 18, 2026

[A.J. Bertin]

I hope you all managed to escape hail damage to your vehicles.

Yep!  Our vehicles are fine.

I now have a bandaid in the middle of my forehead as a result of running into the still-opening garage door trying to get the mower under cover.

Yikes!  That sounds painful.

I'm still planning to appear for both lunch and dinner tomorrow.

Sounds good... see you then.

[A.J. Bertin]

Some last-minute assignments came up for me, so I likely will not be able to make it tomorrow (graduating in 2 weeks, so I want to make sure all that gets done). Have fun out there tomorrow!

Sorry you won't be able to join us... but I certainly wish you the best.  Congratulations on your graduation!

[SSOWorld]

Suggested remedy for hail dampening - no guarantee that it would work. (Not my home - I use my garage - thus the car survived the hailstorm that happened 1 year ago here in Platteville WI - unlike the shed)

[kphoger]

I now have a bandaid in the middle of my forehead

I appreciate your making it easier for everyone to recognize you at the restaurant.

Suggested remedy for hail dampening - no guarantee that it would work.

I used to ratchet-strap a piece of wood paneling to my windshield.  With our current vehicle, the tie-down points underneath aren't as well positioned for that, though.

[J N Winkler]

Automotive glass is pretty tough.  Of the four cars I have kept in the Wichita area, two (both ungaraged) were damaged beyond economic repair by hail, but none has had any glass breaks due to it.  The real threat is to sheet metal since golf-ball-size hailstones and up will dimple it and very little of it can be replaced easily.

There are people locally who cannot garage all of their vehicles and have thus installed tie-down points in their driveways.  When hail is in the forecast, they rush out to attach lightweight frames to these points and secure ballistic netting to them.  I have not heard that this approach works well, however.

Newcomers to Wichita frequently ask (on the local subreddit and in other venues) whether they should be worried about tornadoes.  The usual answer is that while they blow through this area with reasonable frequency, and are extremely dangerous to anyone in their path, the vast bulk of an individual's economic losses due to weather are far more likely to come from hail and unusually strong straight-line wind.

[kphoger]

There are people locally who cannot garage all of their vehicles

Our house doesn't even have a garage.  Years ago, it must have been converted into a big bedroom.  That's what we use as the daycare play room -slash- Scentsy work room.

Come to think of it, I'm 44 years old and have never kept a car in a garage.

I don't care about hail damage to the sheet metal, because I don't care how nice my car looks.

In our previous neighborhood, I was much more concerned about a huge tree limb coming down in storms than I was about the actual storms themselves.

[J N Winkler]

Our house doesn't even have a garage.  Years ago, it must have been converted into a big bedroom.  That's what we use as the daycare play room -slash- Scentsy work room.

In Wichita at least, houses of the vintage and living area square footage of yours typically had two gables facing the front of the property, one of which was an attached one-car garage while the other was a bedroom.  Many such dwellings have indeed had the garage converted into an additional room that forms part of the interior living space.  In nearly all cases you can assume this has been done if the gable has a window that looks out onto a driveway.

I don't care about hail damage to the sheet metal, because I don't care how nice my car looks.

There is admittedly something to be said for not having to feel like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs whenever a thunderstorm rolls through.

In our previous neighborhood, I was much more concerned about a huge tree limb coming down in storms than I was about the actual storms themselves.

I have certainly known people whose vehicles were rendered totally undriveable by limbs falling on them in storms.

[kphoger]

We have no tree in our front yard, and both our next-door neighbor and the one across the street have had trees removed since we've lived here.  So we get a lot of full sun in the summer afternoon heat, but we don't have to worry about tree limbs.  I'll take it.

Several years ago, before the next-door neighbor's was removed, I was out clearing snow off the car, and a huge limb finally gave way from the weight of the snow on the tree.  Cra-a-a-a-a-ck! Pow! Crunch!  It landed just a few feet from the car and about scared me to death.

[kphoger]

Hey, it was good to see you guys yesterday.

Eric and Jonathan — Wow, it really has been a long time since the last roadmeet here.  I can tell because you don't look as young as you once did.  But, of course, I'm sure I haven't aged a week!  (Just kidding.  Eric still looks like he's sixteen.)

Jonathan — This feels weird to say to someone who is hearing-impaired, but I'm sorry the restaurant atmosphere was so loud.  I feel like it made communication between you and us just too difficult most of the time.  Weird as it may sound, I kind of miss just writing things down in a notebook.

A.J. — It was really good to meet you in person.  Your enthusiasm really rubbed off, I think, and I'm happy to hear you enjoyed your time in Wichita.  Even if I didn't make it for lunch, I still feel like our time at dinner was sufficient to get to know people.  And I'm glad we decided to go over to the hotel to spend some time with Brian.  I'd like to have stayed longer but, even as it was, the kids were already in bed when I got home (still awake so I could say good-night).  If I'd thought of it, I might have invited folks over for cocktails the evening before or something like that.  Oh and, hey, from poking around on Reddit, I get the impression that "dragging Douglas" (like what I remember from high school in a small town, or like American Graffiti) really is a tradition that people still do here every year—typically just Friday and Saturday nights when the weather first starts to turn warm—so you picked the absolute worst time of the whole year to book a hotel room facing Douglas.  I hope you got a little better sleep last night.

Roth (the man) — I said this about Winkler back in 2013, but you look nothing like I imagined.  And I guess I figured that, based on your everlasting disdain for Olive Garden and most other things on the forum, you must be a total sourpuss in real life, so it was nice to be pleasantly surprised.  (I imagine you could probably say the same thing about me.  At least, I sure hope I'm more pleasant in real life than I am online.)  I pray the rest of your travels treat you well.

I can't wait to hear about everyone's exploration of the city and to see pictures.

[A.J. Bertin]

Hey, it was good to see you guys yesterday.

I'm so glad you were able join us!  (At least for dinner and the time we all had with Brian afterwards.)

A.J. — It was really good to meet you in person.  Your enthusiasm really rubbed off, I think, and I'm happy to hear you enjoyed your time in Wichita.  Even if I didn't make it for lunch, I still feel like our time at dinner was sufficient to get to know people.  And I'm glad we decided to go over to the hotel to spend some time with Brian.  I'd like to have stayed longer but, even as it was, the kids were already in bed when I got home (still awake so I could say good-night).  If I'd thought of it, I might have invited folks over for cocktails the evening before or something like that.  Oh and, hey, from poking around on Reddit, I get the impression that "dragging Douglas" (like what I remember from high school in a small town, or like American Graffiti) really is a tradition that people still do here every year—typically just Friday and Saturday nights when the weather first starts to turn warm—so you picked the absolute worst time of the whole year to book a hotel room facing Douglas.  I hope you got a little better sleep last night.

Thank you very much for the kind words.  I really appreciate it!  Yes I've gotten into a groove of hosting my "city meets" every year since 2019 (well, except for the two COVID years) and I always try to approach them with a spirit of curiosity and exploration... not knowing what I don't know until I arrive.  The "city meets" are quite different from regular road meets and they are certainly not for everyone... but I enjoy organizing them and am thrilled that there are some folks in our community who enjoy attending them.  It's sort of adventure and I definitely appreciate that others are willing to join me for the ride!

No worries at all about not inviting us over for cocktails the night before.  All good!  Your presence in the evening was great.  And no worries about leaving when you did after our time with Brian.  It was getting pretty late by that point, and I was honestly starting to get tired too... but since it was the hotel that I happened to be staying at, I didn't have to drive anywhere to retire for the evening.  All I needed to do was hop on the elevator and walk a few steps to my room.  LOL

And as for "Dragging Douglas", thank you for sharing this info!  Really good to know.  That's part of the adventure with my city meets.  Because I go into them not knowing anything about the city, it's sort of a risk I'm willing to take... where something I'm not expecting happens and I just deal with it for the sake of the adventure/exploration.  (And the attendees who join me seem to be okay with that risk, too.)  I guess I'm glad "Dragging Douglas" is not a regular occurrence!  And of course, since I'd had no idea that this was taking place, I wouldn't have known to request a non-Douglas-facing room back when I first made my hotel reservation several months ago.  But honestly, one nice thing about having a room that faced Douglas was that I liked the view.

I can't wait to hear about everyone's exploration of the city and to see pictures.

Oftentimes what I do, during the dinner portion of my "city meet", is have everyone go around the table and share what they did and saw in the afternoon.  That didn't happen this time, I think, because of how small our group was and how casually the conversation flowed.  I think some of us shared this during one-on-one conversations at the table that not everyone could hear... but maybe next year, I need to get back to having the group pause their casual chats and have everyone go around and share what they did/saw so that everyone can hear at the same time.

I do intend to post a recap message here within the next day or two (after I return home) and can use that opportunity to share all that I did and saw between lunch and dinner.  Perhaps other attendees might want to do the same if they feel compelled to do so. 

[okroads]

Hey, it was good to see you guys yesterday.

Eric and Jonathan — Wow, it really has been a long time since the last roadmeet here.  I can tell because you don't look as young as you once did.  But, of course, I'm sure I haven't aged a week!  (Just kidding.  Eric still looks like he's sixteen.)

Jonathan — This feels weird to say to someone who is hearing-impaired, but I'm sorry the restaurant atmosphere was so loud.  I feel like it made communication between you and us just too difficult most of the time.  Weird as it may sound, I kind of miss just writing things down in a notebook.

A.J. — It was really good to meet you in person.  Your enthusiasm really rubbed off, I think, and I'm happy to hear you enjoyed your time in Wichita.  Even if I didn't make it for lunch, I still feel like our time at dinner was sufficient to get to know people.  And I'm glad we decided to go over to the hotel to spend some time with Brian.  I'd like to have stayed longer but, even as it was, the kids were already in bed when I got home (still awake so I could say good-night).  If I'd thought of it, I might have invited folks over for cocktails the evening before or something like that.  Oh and, hey, from poking around on Reddit, I get the impression that "dragging Douglas" (like what I remember from high school in a small town, or like American Graffiti) really is a tradition that people still do here every year—typically just Friday and Saturday nights when the weather first starts to turn warm—so you picked the absolute worst time of the whole year to book a hotel room facing Douglas.  I hope you got a little better sleep last night.

Roth (the man) — I said this about Winkler back in 2013, but you look nothing like I imagined.  And I guess I figured that, based on your everlasting disdain for Olive Garden and most other things on the forum, you must be a total sourpuss in real life, so it was nice to be pleasantly surprised.  (I imagine you could probably say the same thing about me.  At least, I sure hope I'm more pleasant in real life than I am online.)  I pray the rest of your travels treat you well.

I can't wait to hear about everyone's exploration of the city and to see pictures.

It was great to see you too (along with everyone else there). The July 2013 Wichita meet was the last time I'd seen you & Jonathan, so about 13 years ago. I will gladly take it as a compliment that I "still look sixteen"  ; I turn 16 x 2 + 11 in July.

On my way home, I took K-42 -> K-49 -> K-44 -> K-2 -> US 281 -> OK 51 -> US 81 -> OK 3 -> I-344 -> I-240 -> I-35 so I could see some new territory (and some roads I hadn't driven in 20+ years).

My pictures from Saturday https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCRpT5 and Sunday https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCRwJs .

[kphoger]

My pictures from Saturday https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCRpT5 and Sunday https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCRwJs .

A.J. — Here is where I was talking about, where K-96 shares a brief bit of pavement with I-135.  Technically, I suppose, this same concurrency exists southbound too (as signed here), but realistically it no longer does with the direct ramp you mentioned from NB I-235 to EB K-96.

[J N Winkler]

It was great to see all of you on Saturday.  Speaking as a Wichita native, I want to thank those of you who came from out of town for investing your time and treasure (especially scarce days off) with us.  I know we don't exactly have a reputation as a tourist draw outside our immediate region, but--dragging Douglas and our messy parking situation aside--I like to think we are underrated.

It is also an interesting time to visit since much of the infrastructure you saw, such as the I-235/Kellogg stack/turban hybrid, the I-235/13th Street flyover, and the still-under-construction North Junction did not exist at the time of the last Wichita road meet in 2013, and much that exists now--such as K-96 between I-135 and 13th Street--will almost certainly be radically different just a few years from now.

Regarding the North Junction, the improvements currently underway will provide a separate set of lanes for eastbound K-96 to parallel I-135 while making the transition from its I-235 overlap to its own alignment east of I-135.  However, the same will not be true for the westbound direction, which will still ride along I-135 for a mile or so.  Thus, it will not be quite the same situation as, say, I-29/I-80 in Council Bluffs, I-35W/TH 62 in Minneapolis, or I-75/I-96 in Detroit.

Things will get interesting if and when construction of the Northwest Wichita Bypass begins.  It is currently planned as a westward extension of K-254 and the physical roadway will have its eastern terminus at K-96 near the Tyler Road overpass, where it bends to the north.  This will result in the northern flank of I-235 carrying the K-254 designation as well as K-96.

Jonathan — This feels weird to say to someone who is hearing-impaired, but I'm sorry the restaurant atmosphere was so loud.  I feel like it made communication between you and us just too difficult most of the time.  Weird as it may sound, I kind of miss just writing things down in a notebook.

I was honestly surprised Live Transcribe (which forms part of Google's suite of free apps for Android smartphones) worked as well as it did.  It does struggle with overlapping conversations and sometimes blends in words from multiple directions to form incomprehensible sentences.  Google recently updated it to incorporate a split screen where you can type input into the second pane, and last Saturday was actually the first time I had tried it.  I ended up mostly listening, not just because my typing speed is slower than normal speaking pace, but also to absorb outsiders' perspectives on aspects of the city I have become inured to by long familiarity.

Oftentimes what I do, during the dinner portion of my "city meet", is have everyone go around the table and share what they did and saw in the afternoon.  That didn't happen this time, I think, because of how small our group was and how casually the conversation flowed.  I think some of us shared this during one-on-one conversations at the table that not everyone could hear... but maybe next year, I need to get back to having the group pause their casual chats and have everyone go around and share what they did/saw so that everyone can hear at the same time.

I did listen with considerable interest to your tentative plans for the next round of city meets.  Despite not being a clincher as such, I have set a sort of goal to visit the top 50 US metropolitan areas by population.  In combination with Atlanta and Miami, the large conurbation in Florida you mentioned forms a north-south line of three MSAs on my to-visit list.

[kphoger]

Regarding the North Junction, the improvements currently underway will provide a separate set of lanes for eastbound K-96 to parallel I-135 while making the transition from its I-235 overlap to its own alignment east of I-135.  However, the same will not be true for the westbound direction, which will still ride along I-135 for a mile or so.

Actually, that's already true.  Not future, but right now.  The former movement is what confused A.J., as he was expecting to share pavement with I-135 on his 235→96 journey.  And the latter movement just had the new ramp open up a couple of weeks ago.

[kphoger]

Things will get interesting if and when construction of the Northwest Wichita Bypass begins.  It is currently planned as a westward extension of K-254 and the physical roadway will have its eastern terminus at K-96 near the Tyler Road overpass, where it bends to the north.  This will result in the northern flank of I-235 carrying the K-254 designation as well as K-96.

You mention this about every five years or so, it seems.  Is this still really a 'plan'?

[A.J. Bertin]

I made it home earlier this evening from my trip to Wichita and back (after staying in Quincy IL last night).  Wow!  I've got lots to think about from the journey and from our gathering on Saturday which will take me some time.  Lots of really good things.

But first of all, I just want to thank everyone who was able to join us!  As always, it was great to see everyone who attended... including the Wichita locals Jonathan and Kyle.  (That's, honestly, one of the best things I enjoy about organizing my city meets... giving folks a reason to come together and explore a different city.)  The weather on Saturday was gorgeous, and I hope everyone enjoyed their meals at Meddys and Bite Me BBQ... and, of course, the conversations that took place.  And thank you, Brian Rawson-Ketchum, for suggesting that we go back to the hotel bar to meet up with Brian Reynolds since he wasn't able to join for dinner.  That was a nice way to end the evening.

Because we didn't go around the table at dinner to share with the full group the rundown of what each of us did and saw throughout the afternoon, I figured I would take Kyle up on his suggestion of sharing here what my afternoon consisted of.  Par for the course for me, it was a full afternoon that consisted of some roadgeek and non-roadgeek activities.  Prior to Saturday afternoon, I had walked the downtown both Friday (with my umbrella) and Saturday morning (in the sunshine) after breakfast.  I always make it a priority to see what the downtown areas are like in the cities I'm visiting for the first time.  But as for Saturday afternoon, here's my rundown:

1.  After I left Meddys, I drove the entire freeway network around Wichita... starting with a clockwise loop that entailed eastbound K-96 on the north side of Wichita then going over to I-35, then south to I-235 north, and then finishing K-96 where I'd started it at Greenwich Rd.  Then, I turned around and took K-96 west to I-135 south... almost all the way to I-235/I-35 but not quite.  I grabbed a little section of K-15 and got back on I-35 south before getting on I-135 north up to U.S. 54/400.  At that point, I finished my drive of the freeway network.  I had already gotten the entire stretch of 54/400 that I needed... so I was good there.

2.  I went to check out the Keeper of the Plains sculpture which is at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers.  The pedestrian bridges there were pretty cool too.  Nice spending a bit of time at that park with part of the Wichita skyline in view.

3.  I went to Andy's Custard (the College Hill location... Douglas Ave.) and enjoyed one of their treats.

4.  Being a big fan of craft beer and local breweries, I had to check out Wichita Brewing Company... sampled some beers at their location in Delano.

5.  I took a scenic drive that wound its way through some parks along the Little Arkansas River... Stackman Dr., River Blvd, etc.

6.  I briefly went up to the Bradley Fair shopping center to check it out.  I had heard it was kind of a nice area, and being somewhat of a retail geek, I figured it would be worth seeing.  I didn't go into any stores but just got an overview of the area.

7.  I refueled my car at Costco and returned to my hotel for just a little while before it was time to walk over to Bite Me BBQ.  While I was at my hotel, I used the pool for a little bit and enjoyed the glass-bottom extension of the pool (on the 6th floor) that looks down at the sidewalk below.  Kind of a neat feature of the hotel I was staying at.

I was quite pleased with everything I accomplished!

[SSOWorld]

...
But as for Saturday afternoon, here's my rundown:
...
7.  I refueled my car at Costco and returned to my hotel for just a little while before it was time to walk over to Bite Me BBQ.  While I was at my hotel, I used the pool for a little bit and enjoyed the glass-bottom extension of the pool (on the 6th floor) that looks down at the sidewalk below.  Kind of a neat feature of the hotel I was staying at.

I was quite pleased with everything I accomplished!

#Caturday

[J N Winkler]

Things will get interesting if and when construction of the Northwest Wichita Bypass begins.  It is currently planned as a westward extension of K-254 and the physical roadway will have its eastern terminus at K-96 near the Tyler Road overpass, where it bends to the north.  This will result in the northern flank of I-235 carrying the K-254 designation as well as K-96.

You mention this about every five years or so, it seems.  Is this still really a 'plan'?

It is still a plan.  KDOT has been buying parcels for corridor preservation purposes for about 20 years now.  If you go into the county GIS, you will see quite a few in the area with owner identified as "Secretary of Transportation."  Some of them have weird shapes that are clearly intended to prevent abutting owners from building driveway connections within the access control envelope at future interchanges.

KDOT also held its latest biennial round of local consult meetings last fall, and when they came through Wichita, our local movers and shakers pressed them to advance the bypass to compilation of an environmental document.  I suspect we will start to see tangible progress once other projects that are further along in the pipeline, such as the K-96 widening and the Kingman bypass, proceed to construction.  This said, I have not heard how the various linkages will be developed in the Goddard area to provide an access-controlled connection all the way from Kellogg in west Wichita to the 1970's freeway that begins just east of Garden Plain.

[okroads]

During the afternoon of the meet, I drove K-254 -> US 54 -> K-99 -> US 160 -> K-15 which took me through El Dorado, Eureka, Howard, Moline, Winfield, and Derby. The main highlight was "Kansas' Oldest Swinging Bridge" located in Moline. https://flickr.com/photos/okroads/55218053351/in/album-72177720333184886

[kphoger]

Well, since sharing everyone's driving routes is the thing to do... 

Here is my route to the restaurant.  You can see where I drove around the parking lot but found no empty spots, so I found free parallel parking along the tracks instead.

And here is my route home again that evening.

[kphoger]

4.  Being a big fan of craft beer and local breweries, I had to check out Wichita Brewing Company... sampled some beers at their location in Delano.

Nowadays, people simply drive across the Arkansas River on Douglas to get to the hip Delano neighborhood for a bite to eat or some shopping—or maybe to sample some craft beer.  But back in the late 19th Century, the town of Delano was where most of the saloons and brothels and gambling halls were located.  It's where the riffraff was, and the Douglas bridge was what separated that seedy suburb from Wichita.

While Wyatt Earp was a member of the Wichita police force in the 1870s, Michael Meagher was marshal.  When Meagher was running for re-election, his opponent William Smith said some stuff about him that made Wyatt Earp angry.  Across the river in Delano, Earp challenged Smith to a fist-fight, and Earp won.  That violent behavior was just one more of a string of violent episodes in Earp's time in Wichita, but it led the commission to decide not to re-hire him.  When he lost his job as a policeman in Wichita, he moved to Dodge City instead;  a few years later, he moved from there to Tombstone, Arizona.

The gunfight at O.K. Corral happened 5½ years after his time as Wichita lawman ended.

[J N Winkler]

One other historical tidbit:  the only woman to sign Wichita's petition for incorporation in 1870--a washerwoman named Catherine McCarty--was the mother of Billy the Kid.

[kphoger]

much that exists now--such as K-96 between I-135 and 13th Street--will almost certainly be radically different just a few years from now.

To what extent should I believe the prevalence of DDIs in the image below?


https://www.newenglandconstruction.news/PBE/article/D94BE7EC-major-improvements-coming-to-wichita-s-k-96-construction-expected-to-begin-in-2026

Edited because I had quoted the wrong thing.

[Scott5114]

That sunflower-in-a-black-circle shield they're using would look pretty sharp as an actual sign.

[kphoger]

That sunflower-in-a-black-circle shield they're using would look pretty sharp as an actual sign.

I think it's actually dark blue, rather than black.

Check it out here:  https://www.ksdot.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/3463/638942178012600000