A very good weekend trip to Kansas City. Other than the heat, of course.

Travel

It was probably our easiest drive between Indy and KC we’ve ever had without driving at night. A few slowdowns, a few standard trucks passing each other or slow people in the fast lane issues. But otherwise it was kind of smooth sailing.

One side effect of me switching to a smaller car without a third row is that trips like this can be problematic. Our girls bitch when they have to ride 10 minutes to dinner three-across in the back seat. Eight-ish hours was going to be a shitshow. We decided that the expense of renting a van was worth the reduction in bitching and increase in comfort for all. That was a good call. Plenty of room for our bags, the girls weren’t on top of each other, and we got pretty solid fuel mileage.

Speaking of fuel, it saddened us that the father we got from Indy, the more the price of gas fell. I mean, it was good for this trip. But sucks that it reinforced the reality that Indiana typically has some of the highest gas prices outside of California.[1] Anyway, when I bought gas in Lawrence on Friday, I was paying a full dollar less per gallon than in Indy. Joy.

OK, onto the trip itself. Some of you know many of these details but I’ll go ahead and act like no one knows nothing.

Thursday

We mixed things up and stayed at the Hampton Inn near the Power & Light District rather than on the Plaza. We haven’t ever checked out downtown on any of our trips other than driving through, so it was cool to see the many changes that have taken place down there in the 19 years since we moved to Indy. The streetcar stop was directly below our room. More on that later.

Thursday night we met my aunt and uncle for dinner at Parlor. The food we sampled from the various vendors ranged from ok to very good. When I walked to the bar to order our first drinks, I scanned the QR code to pull up the drink menu. The bartender said that if I was a quick chooser I had two minutes to still get happy hour prices. I asked her if she had anything local. She began to rattle off the list and when she said “Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat” I said, “Two please!”

As she poured them she commented how Boulevard really isn’t local anymore since they got bought out awhile back. This very nice looking young woman sitting at the bar next to me shook her head and said, “They’re sellouts.”

Oh my!

I asked that they not hold it against me and took my beers and fled.

Friday – KU

Friday was our KU campus visit. This was my first trip back to Lawrence in 12 years, and only my second in 19+ years. Which seems crazy. It’s just hard to carve out a day in Lawrence when we have generally taken these quick trips to KC and are trying to see as many people as possible in a compressed time frame.

I honestly don’t remember the last time I took I–70 to Lawrence. It’s been well over 20 years, for sure. The girls were totally confused by the concept of toll roads.

We arrived on campus a little early, so I drove by a couple of my old apartments and then we hit the bookstore to scout out possible purchases for after the tour. M quickly piped up, “KU has way better shirts than anywhere we’ve been so far.” Score one for the Jayhawks! She was right. I think the KU bookstore had more shirts than the IU and Purdue bookstores combined.


The KU admissions presentation was outstanding. M agreed with me that it was the best of the six we’ve been to, so it wasn’t just a biased KU alum’s opinion. Most of that was because of the guy who was leading the presentation. He was great, funny and full of personality. He was a stark contrast to the lady who presented at IU last Monday, who basically read from a script and overused the word “beautiful.” KU really hits hard on being an AAU accredited school, and that got M’s attention. I told her IU and Purdue are also AAU schools, so that means KU has many of the academic benefits of those schools without the sheer size. In many ways it is the perfect blend of a Big 10 school and Miami, Ohio.

Between the shirts, our peeks at campus, the presentation, and the fat chunk of scholarship money M’s grades qualify her for, she was professing some interest. I’ll admit while I thought it was a long shot, I was getting excited about her at least applying.

Then we took the tour.

Listen, it was nasty hot and humid. It was a Friday late in the tour cycle. Our entire group seemed a little low energy. But the tour kind of sucked. Our guide wasn’t very good, he skipped some of the best parts of campus, we didn’t go inside a single building, and he did more telling than showing about the things that make KU an interesting option.

The tour walked out to a stopping point where families could grab a bus that would take them to stops at professional schools if they had appointments, dorm tours if scheduled, and eventually back to the Union where we started. We waited around for about five minutes and decided to hoof it back rather than wait, as everyone was getting hungry. I think the walk up the Hill in the heat extinguished any interest M had in KU. We were all dripping when we got back up to Wescoe beach.

On the way to the Union I walked us through the main part of campus the tour had missed. M said, “Why didn’t he take us here? This is awesome.”

Unbelievable.

I also corrected a few “facts” our guide had wrong. He was a nice enough kid and I’m hoping he was just off his game Friday.

In M’s welcome bag was a 20% off the entire purchase at the KU Bookstore, so we did some shopping. I was in heaven, but only walked out with a couple stickers. They had some amazing gear but I have purchased like eight KU shirts already this year. The girls all got nice sweatshirts, though.

So I don’t think M will be a Jayhawk. But L is interested so maybe we’ll try again in four years!

My brain was literally cramping last week trying to come up with a place to eat lunch while in Lawrence. Which of my old favorites should I hit? I reached the point of mental paralysis and consulted with brother in Jayhawkdom E$, who suggested the Ladybird Diner. This was a brilliant rec: the food and environment were fantastic. If you’re ever in LFK, you should stop by.

After lunch we did some more driving around and then made the pilgrimage to Allen Fieldhouse. This was my only misstep of the day. I didn’t research how to partake in all the new exhibits at the Fieldhouse. I figured you just walk into the building and you’ll see everything. They do have the little museum display in the main entrance. But the main part of AFH was closed off, so the girls couldn’t see the court. I assumed this meant the area with the original rules of basketball was also off limits for the day. It wasn’t until that evening that I read those are in a whole other building that may well have been open. L was bummed she didn’t see the court, but we did get to see the latest national championship trophy.


On our way out of town we swung by the house I lived in for two years, aka The Big Yellow House. Which is now brown. If you know, you know. Naturally there was an accident at 23rd and Mass when we were there. We used to call 911 at least once a week because of accidents there. Some things never change.

Friday night the Murray family graciously hosted many of you. It was great to see all of you who were able to make it.

Saturday – Raytown and More

Saturday morning we took the streetcar up to the River Market. I ate many lunches and dinners in the River Market in my adult KC years. But I don’t think I had been to the farmers market since I was a little kid. It was fabulous! I remarked at how when I was a kid it was pretty much all local Italian vendors. I did hear one old lady speaking some Italian Saturday. I was amazed by how many world cultures were represented in the area now. A Vietnamese place. A Thai place. The spice store with all kinds of exotic, wonderful smelling spices on display. Vendors selling all kinds of Asian and Latin foods. Good for KC.

We took the streetcar back down to Union Station and walked around there a bit. I showed the girls the bullet holes that remain from the Kansas City Massacre. I found that more interesting than they did.

A few weeks back M said it would be funny if we went to the Taco Bell I worked at in Raytown on our visit. That jogged my memory that I had read about a really good barbecue place that was right around the corner. We met the Nesbitt family and Stacey B at Harp Barbecue for lunch. Sure enough, the old TB building was still there, although now it is a Chinese takeout place. M asked if that was the actual building I worked in. Hell yes, it was! All it had was a new coat of paint.

Harp’s was terrific. I had the burnt ends which were top notch. The sides were solid. The rest of the family had pulled pork which they all approved of. The beer from Crane Brewery was good, too. A little oasis of culture in a town not always known for that.

After lunch I drove the girls by the three houses we lived in, my old high and elementary schools, and numerous car washes I used. We popped into a CVS and the girls were disappointed I didn’t buy any of the RHS swag they were selling.


After our Raytown sojourn, we headed to the Plaza for the obligatory shopping trip. It was sales tax free weekend in Missouri, which made the stores extra packed. Not the most fun on a day when the heat index was something like 107.

While on the Plaza I got stopped by a guy who was with Amnesty International trying to hit me up for a donation. I interrupted him and thanked him but said we were late to meet someone. That shut him down. I turned and there was a red light greeting me. So we just stood there awkwardly until it changed to green. The girls were trying to sustain their giggles the entire time.[2]

For dinner Saturday we met the Vogel family. Our first choice was going to have trouble seating us so we bopped down the street and went to Carmen’s. It was a great meal with great friends. As much as I miss the Plaza, I think Brookside is the part of Kansas City I miss most. We just don’t have an area like that in Indy. Everything that is similar is either just a couple notches bigger or smaller and lacks that special Brookside feel.

That was our weekend in Kansas City. Other than the heat and not getting into see Allen Fieldhouse, I have zero complaints. I think the girls all enjoyed it as well.


  1. This is mostly due to our gas coming from refineries to the north, which increases the transportation cost to get that gas to us. Plus those refineries are old and both constantly shutting down for repairs and under some more significant environmental restrictions.  ↩

  2. That’s only my second-best effort at avoiding solicitors on the Plaza. Years ago I was stopped by a very nice young lady. She asked how my day was going. I grabbed my stomach and said I had just eaten too much barbecue (truth), my stomach was a little upset (not true), and I needed to find a restroom. She encouraged me to find one. I walked in mock distress until I was out of her sight. Then I laughed and laughed.  ↩