How to Find Free Stuff to Do
Today, I'm in northern Texas. Specifically, I’m in a relatively small town called Wichita Falls, Texas. Not the big Wichita Falls you’ve heard of. This…is the other one. But that’s why we’re here. Because I’m going to show you that even in a small town and on a budget, you can have a blast.
Not everything is bigger in Texas!
Finding Free Stuff Everywhere
So here’s what I’ve learned about traveling: no matter where you go, there’s always something free to do. And the big secret of budget travel is to start with this stuff. I always advocate for doing research into any place you visit.
Find out what they have to do there, learn about the most popular places to eat and this will help you figure out how you can best spend your time in any given location.
So for my trip to Texas, I wanted to find out everything Wichita Falls has to offer. And I was surprised to find out that actually, there are some cool things to see here.
Wichita Falls may be small, but there is a college here and like many colleges, there’s a free art gallery here. Lots of colleges actually have free galleries that are open to the public, so you should always check local schools when you’re a visitor, because you may just discover something amazing.
Wichita Falls Museum of Art
When I visited the Wichita Falls Museum of Art at the Midwestern State University Campus, they were doing an exhibit celebrating pop culture icons. They also had an exhibit featuring some historic exhibits and displays from the earlier days of Wichita Falls. It was actually really lovely and it was a great way to get out of the Texas heat.
The Kell House
Lots and lots of places you visit, no matter how big or small, have a historic house museum. There are several in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, and there’s a really stunning one in Wichita Falls called the Kell House.
It actually isn’t free to go inside, but I didn’t. I wandered around outside and took pictures and no one cared, so even a paid attraction can become a free attraction. And there were no signs warning against trespassing or forbidding pictures, so it was all okay.
Kemp Center for the Arts
Wichita Falls is also home to the Kemp Center for the Arts, which is an event space and free art gallery. There’s even an amazing sculpture garden outside. I walked all around it and it was a really nice time. There was a wedding also scheduled on the day I was at the Center, but most of it was open and I was able to see most of the art, so it was no big deal.
I got to see some cool stuff here, and it just proves that it’s always a good idea to take a little time to look up information about anywhere you might be going. You may not expect to find fine art in a small Texas town and might never look for it, and you’d miss out on all of this!
World’s Littlest Skyscraper
You should also check out any interesting shops in the places you visit. I discovered two really unique places in Wichita Falls. The first is the World’s Littlest Skyscraper, which is just plain cute.
It’s a retail store inside. They have lots of clothes but they also have photographs and information about the skyscraper. It’s super interesting and it's super unique to this small Texas town.
You never know what you’ll discover when you start checking out a place.
Picker’s Universe
I also discovered Picker’s Universe, which is a thrift shop that has a whole restaurant, which is totally overpriced by the way. I do not recommend it. But there were a ton of really cool items in the shop area of the building.
You could really spend an entire day looking at stuff here and still not see everything that’s hidden here. I got to speak to one of the owners of the building and learned a lot more about it, which was cool.
I strike up conversations with random people I see all the time when I’m traveling because you never do know who you’ll end up speaking with, and that’s what happened during my visit here.
Even if you’re ordinarily a shy person or a person who doesn’t like to interact with others, you don’t have to be that when you’re away from home. Remember that when you’re traveling, you can be whoever you want to be.
I mean, don’t be out there acting out and breaking laws and hurting people and all that, but you can be brave. You can talk to people, try things, eat things you wouldn’t ever eat. Just open up a little bit more than usual, try things a little bit more than usual and you will end up having an amazing time.
And if not and it’s all horrible, you will get an interesting story out of it. And you can fuss at me in the comments if you try it and it turns out my advice is awful. That’s totally okay.
Look Around
The surprises in Wichita Falls actually began as soon as I arrived. When I got into the airport, which by the way was the smallest airport I have ever seen, there was an entire little exhibit there. This was an aviation exhibit and it was actually quite interesting and super unique, because I have never seen anything like that at an airport before.
Sometimes, all you need to do is just take a look around. You may see cool stuff you never expected.
There’s always free stuff to do wherever you go, and the more free stuff you do, the less you spend on paid stuff to do. So do the research, and you may discover some really interesting stuff out there in the world.
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