On to Kansas City and BBQ!

Monday, September 16, 2024

 

Up this morning around 5, and down to breakfast just a bit after 6 am.  Interesting day, as we had originally planned to spend two nights in KC, do the ball game, and go to our favorite BBQ place, Jack Stack’s, and see a few other sights.  However, things changed when my oldest brother became ill earlier this year.

 

The past two years, on our prior two road trips, we had visited Michigan to see friends and family.  This year, however, as my oldest friend, Sandy, had passed away in December, and my eldest brother had indicated that he wanted to be buried in Michigan, next to his late wife, we had assumed that we would be visiting at some point this fall, we had NOT included a Michigan stop on our road trip.  However, turns out that Bern’s passed away in August and his interment in Michigan was private, with only his daughter and son-in-law, and my younger older brother and sister-in-law in attendance.  There was no service or memorial.  So … feeling that we did want to see the “folks” in Michigan, albeit briefly, we decided to see if we could work it in to our road trip … and, as Delta Airlines flies non-stop from Kansas City to Detroit, and we just so happened to have some Delta miles to use, we’re heading there in the morning … 6 am, to be exact.

 

We’ll be in Michigan Tuesday and Wednesday nights, and then head back to KC on Thursday, and move on to Oklahoma City.  So … only one night in KC, and we decided to forgo the baseball game (seeing as we went to one yesterday and went to a game last season here in KC) and instead have a nice dinner at Jack Stack’s BBQ!

 

So!  Long explanation; sorry!  Easy drive – about 6 hours, south from Minneapolis, into and through Iowa, and then into Missouri.  Basically along the I-35W and the I-35, and voila, we’re in Liberty, Missouri, just a few miles from the KC airport.

 

We stopped at our Hampton Inn (room 401; lovely and large with 2 tv’s!) and left the luggage, and then headed to our “favorite” Jack Stack’s – in Overland Park, which is about 20 miles southwest, but a pretty traffic-free drive, plus, we were able to stop and fill up at a Costco AND get $$$ at a Wells Fargo!  So!  Many things taken care of!

 

Dinner was wonderful, as expected – although they are still working on Metcalf – the street the restaurant is on – and it doesn’t seem like they’ve made much progress since last September!  Reminded us of Tucson, actually!!

 

We both had dinner salads with their incredible blue cheese dressing … YUMMY!  Then, I had their baby-back ribs, and R had their spare ribs (I have NO idea what the difference is …), mine served with a load baked potato, and R’s with excellent baked beans.  Wow!  Just as good as we remembered, and no, we had absolutely NO room whatsoever left for dessert!  Maybe next time!

 

Overland Park - great location!

Great lemonade!

Excellent salad with blue cheese dressing!

R's ribs and beans

Now that's a loaded baked potato!  Oh, and the ribs!

Then, back to Liberty and the hotel.  I was a bit concerned about traffic, but to be honest, even though we left the restaurant at 4:30 pm, we really didn’t have any problems getting around the city on the I-435 and back to the hotel by just a few minutes after 5!

 

I needed to run a quick load of laundry, which went well, and then I repacked.  As we’re only going to be in Michigan for 2 nights, we’re taking one carry-on suitcase, and a small backpack, and that’s it!  However, I had to go through everything and sort from the “his” and “hers” suitcases to a joint venture, which did take a few minutes – making sure, along the way, that there were no liquids or anything that shouldn’t be carried on.

 

Now all organized, and setting the clock for 3:30 am, as the airport is about 20 minutes away, and our flight leaves at 6 am…also need to figure out where the economy parking lot is, as I imagine it’ll be dark in the morning when we get there.  So … wrapping it up now and getting this posted!  Hopefully tomorrow night from Michigan!

 

Love to all,

m

xxx