Vacation...kinda

Well…Kansas City was an experience! Let me first off tell you that Jessica and I do not have much luck when it comes to us getting away for a while, when it is just us. We have had great trips to places like Washington D.C., St. Louis, Dallas, Huntsville, Minneapolis Etc., but any time it is just Jessica and I, it usually turns into a National Lampoons movie. For the two years that we have been married, Jessica and I have not had the opportunity to take an anniversary trip just the two of us. We decided that we would take a weekend get-a-way to Kansas City, Mo, to catch a ball game and do some shopping…or so we thought.

We left Friday morning and heading north on I-35. All the way to Wichita, everything was fine. Smooth ride, not a lot of traffic, and then we hit Wichita. It decided to rain on us the ENTIRE way from Wichita to Kansas City. (I don’t know if you have driven I-35 north from Wichita to Emporia, but if you have you know there is NOTHING there. No trees, lakes, gas stations…nothing). So by the time we get to Kansas City, the rain had calmed down to a light sprinkle. I told Jessica they would not call the MLB game we were going to see that night unless there was lightening. (We hadn’t seen lightening the whole way there, that is why I was still excited). About 15 minutes after I had told her that, a bolt flashed across the sky and the thunder all but shook our car off the road. By that time I was mad. I love MLB, I had been looking forward to this weekend for the longest time. I had driven all day, wanted to see a game, and have a fun night, and now I can’t.

So we finally arrive in KC, and we check into the Holiday Inn right across the street from Arrowhead and Koffman Stadiums. (Seriously, we were so close; I could tee up a driver and put a golf ball in the outfield of the baseball stadium.) We check into the hotel and go upstairs to plan what we were going to do next, and when we get into the room and turn on the T.V, the satellite has gone out because of the rain. Needless to say we were beginning to get frustrated. About 10 minutes later the T.V finally came on, and on channel 28 was the movie National Lampoons Vacation. One of my favorite movies was on, and it was on at the exact time that they have been driving to Wally World, and when they got there it was closed. I felt like Clark Griswold. I had been driving all day to get to see something that I was not going to get to see. If there were a moose in the lobby of the hotel, I would have punched it in the nose!

We decide to go to Crown Center, and walk around and do some shopping. So we hit CC around 7:30-8:00 and walked around for a few minutes, and then we decide to go eat some famous KC B-B-Q. It had been recommended by Jessica’s dad that we try Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue restaurant in downtown KC. We found it in about 10 minutes, and went in to eat.

We walked in and immediately felt a little under dressed. We told them a table for two, and they proceeded to walk us thru the entire restaurant and sat us at the last table, in the back of the restaurant, right next to the kitchen. At this time, we are a little upset, but we are not people who like to cause a scene, or make a big deal about things, so we made the best of where we were. While eating, I looked out a window and could not see the building next to us, because the rain was coming down so hard. (This was the second storm of 4 that was supposed to hit KC in the next 7 hours.) The food was ok, but we ate slowly to let the storm pass, and when it had passed, we left. As we walked out the door, there was standing water, ankle deep, from the curb to about 15 feet out into the parking lot. The only way to get to our car was for me to take off my shoes and socks and walk thru this water to get to the car. I get to the car and back up to get Jess, and she starts walking thru the water. About half way out, she lost her flip-flop and had to chase after it…I laughed at her! We decided to lick our wounds and call it a night.

We get back to the hotel room, and once again, we do not have satellite signal. So for the next 30 minutes, we had nothing to do, so Jessica started unpacking our bag. About 5 minutes later, I hear “oh crap”, and Jessica telling me she left the bathroom bag at home. Now in the bathroom consisted of our toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, hair gel, brushes, Jess’ medication, Etc. So I had to go to the gas station across the street and get deodorant, and toothbrushes and toothpaste while it was still raining. So with Jess missing her meds, she slept about an hour that night.

The next morning, we got up at around 9, and got ready to go eat some b-fast. This is the only $90 hotel I have stayed at that did not offer a continental b-fast, so we had to go eat at Denny’s! woo-hoo! After Denny’s, we decided to go to Crown Plaza and do some shopping. So we make our way thru the Ghetto and hit Crown Plaza. By the time we Hit Crown Plaza, another storm decided to hit KC, and it began to pour down on us again. So we looked at each other, and said, “lets go home”. So we headed home around 10:30 and drove thru rain the entire way back until the Oklahoma border. After that it was perfect weather.

Throughout all of this entire weekend, Jess and I managed to find the humor in it all, and not one argument came from it! No matter what happens to us, we can always find the humor in situations! Even though the weekend was pretty much a bust, we still accomplished our goal of getting out of town for a while!