Day 2: Kansas City, here we come

August 18, 20007
By Craig

Yep, Wilma is a real trooper. And Larry B. is the greatest. The trip to Winterset was a nice detour down memory lane. It’s always fun to show a pal where you grew up. It’s a great little town. White houses and white picket fences. Good enough for John Wayne’s first three months. I spent my first 18 years there.

After coffee and showers, Wilma and Larry demonstrated their dancing skills, Jamie test-drove the extra toilet seats in the basement and garage, and we toured the city. We checked out a couple of covered bridges and took the winding road to Clark’s tower in City Park, where we talked about the weather with some fellow Minnesota tourists. After a swing by the John Wayne birthplace, it was time to hit the road for real.

First Kansas City stop – rolled into KC just in time to meet Brady and one of the other folks at Hammepress letterpress shop in the Crossroads district. Nice shop, great work. They’ll be moving around the corner in a couple of weeks … wow, what a chore.

Got some cheap entertainment early in the day at Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club, where we listened to a sound check by a punk band and quaffed down a couple of Boulevards. We also learned from a colorful character that, if you’re not allowed to carry a gun or a knife, you can still carry a stick. “If you got a tree, you got a weapon.”

We found our way out to Rick and Tangela’s place in Overland Park and went out for the first BBQ experience of the trip at Gates. Mmmmmm….. snarf. More Boulevard and then a trip to the Westport area where we met Mark, a high school buddy of Rick’s and did what people do in Westport. Drink Irish car bombs. Then back to Overland Park where Rick nodded off early, Jamie knocked back a couple of margaritas, and Tangela and I stayed up til 5 am chatting and solving the world’s problems.