http://trixter.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/the-diskette-that-blew-trixters-mind/

Last week I had the exciting opportunity to fly out to Wichita, Kansas for three nights. The first thing I noticed while getting off the plane was how flat the terrain was all around me, with not a single hill anywhere in sight, and, of course, how windy it was as a result. The hotel I stayed at was fairly nice, with approximately eleven floors, three dining areas, and a number of interesting guest services. My room was also nice and very comfortable.

On my first night, I dined in one of the hotel eateries where I ate a delicious rib eye steak, my favorite cut of meat. The steak was perfectly prepared naked, medium-rare, and thick-cut (over one inch thick). Cut from Midwestern Aberdeen Angus (Black Angus), fresh and never frozen, it was the best rib eye I have ever eaten. In addition to being freshly cut, its succulent tastiness was helped by the fact that Midwestern cattle consume different minerals as they graze than Northeastern cattle do, which produces a flavor that some people prefer. Kansas definitely knows its beef.

On my second night I went out for fantastic barbecue with those that I was meeting in Wichita. We went to Two Brothers Barbecue, where I ordered a combination dinner that included shredded loin, Kansas City-style burnt tips, and pulled pork. It was a great taste of the best of barbecue from three different regions–Southern, Midwestern, and Northeastern styles, respectively. The meat was delicately smoked very well, and several different barbecue sauce condiments were available.

On my final night, I ate in the hotel’s sports bar eatery where I had a strip steak. It was also cut from Midwestern Aberdeen Angus and was very flavorful and tender, and fairly juicy, the way strip steak should be, and much unlike the average strip steak in the Northeast nowadays. Apparently, strip steaks used to be much better in our region back in the old days, but for some reason or another tend to be dryer and less appetizing these days.

My flights all ran very smoothly, and getting through security at the airports was so easy I cannot imagine why people are always complaining about it. It seemed that there were plenty of checkpoint aisles and personnel  to handle all the travelers in a timely manner, but maybe that is a more recent achievement at airports than it was in the past. One thing to note is that there are two airports in Chicago, and one is a lot nicer to have a long layover in than the other (one has sit-down restaurants, small shops, and entertainment opportunities, while the other has only small shops, McDonald’s, and a bar). I was offered a free round-trip flight if I volunteered to take a later flight and give up my seat on my way back, but because my ride had already left to meet me at the airport, I decided I couldn’t take it. Maybe next time.