Kansas City

John and I. We are kind of a big deal.

December 7th, 2013

After my stay at Carlsbad, I made my way towards Kansas City to visit my friend John. Originally I had wanted to stop in Austin Texas, but after I checked the distance (8 hours out of my way!) I decided to leave that for another trip.

Texas is very much like the back roads in Michigan. There is a lot of land, most of it is farms, and there is no where to stop outside of the towns. I left Carlsbad around 2pm on the 4th, and it is 8 hours to Kansas City. Because it was so late in the year, I only had a few hours to drive before it got dark. So I stopped in some small town (I can't remember which) in Texas for the night.

The next day, I drove into a freak snowstorm near Oklahoma City. Being from Michigan, it wasn't a big deal that there was a few inches of snow on the ground. However, if you aren't used to it (hint, most people down south aren't), you can have a real bad time. So there I was, in my tiny car, scooting along, while big trucks and vans are swerving all over the place. In order to not die, I cut my travel plans super short for that day and stayed in a hotel. I was too scared of the other drivers to go out and explore the city. I think I ended up staying in and watching a movie on my computer.

Finally, after all the added travel time, I arrived in Kansas City!

John and I sampled the local BBQ (Oklahoma Joe's, Gates, and Smokebox), learned why you shouldn't have BBQ every night for dinner (the meat farts were horrid), toured The Roasterie  (a really cool coffee roaster that uses air roasting), and toured Boulevard brewing (and of course sampled the brews!).

John on the coffee tour

Boulevard's bottling line. They weren't bottling on that day

We also hung out with his girlfriend at the time, Laura. She cooked dinner and we played a few games of Settlers of Catan, further proving I am not good at that game. However we had fun and got to talk a bit, which was a nice change of pace. I hadn't had many people to talk to for a while.

The three of us took a trip towards Weston. It is a cool little city. It was originally built up on the Mississippi River. So you had a lot of buildings with docks on them. The river flooded, and redirected the river bed away from the buildings. So you have a bunch of buildings with docks that open up to nothing. Supposedly it is a pretty weird sight.

Now I say supposedly because I never actually saw the city. On our way out there, we ran into some icy conditions on the road. Much like me, not an issue for John: he is used to driving in winter weather. Not so much for others. Out of nowhere, there is a car PARKED in the road, no warning lights or anything. Someone had spun out and thought it would be a good idea to just leave their car where it was and stand on the side of the road. John swerved to miss a collision, but ended up spinning into the median, then back to the right shoulder of the road.

We were all ok, but John's car (thankfully his old car and not his Mustang) was totaled. As we were collecting ourselves, we hear a semi's horn blaring. We turned around and a semi was slamming on the breaks to avoid slamming into the car John nearly hit. Where was the driver of said car? Standing right next to it, paralyzed with fear. Luckily, the semi was able to stop. He put his flashers on and helped to move the car off to the side of the road. More than enough excitement in those few minutes to last a lifetime.

John and I spent the next day trying to find out whether his car could be fixed (nope!) and where he could get a decent price for scrap. I feel pretty bad about the whole thing. We wouldn't have been heading out to Weston had I not been visiting. It also left John car-less for the winter months since he doesn't drive his Mustang during the winter. It definitely left a damper on the stop.

Sorry for the lack of pictures on this one. John and I were having too much fun for me to stop and pull out my phone for pictures!