Day 2
Trip Start
Sep 12, 2010
1
3
15
Trip End
Sep 25, 2010
Kansas City, Kansas
Monday, September 13, 2010
We crossed the state of Kansas today, ready to be bored out of our minds. Everyone had warned us of the flat landscape. For us Brits though, it was a wonderful sight! The never-ending horizon and biggest sky you've ever seen were a treat. Are we mad?? We thought it was beautiful.
To add to the entertainment, there are large billboards along the interstate advertising "amazing" attractions in 60 miles time. The best one we saw today was the one advertising the world's largest Czech egg - coming soon! I almost want to turn round and come back in a few months. We are also bombarded with images and text about Jesus every 10 miles or so (Mike swears the photos were taken by John the Baptist ...).
One billboard caught my eye - the Oz Museum. I was reminded that The Wizard of Oz was all about Kansas. Does anyone know if any of it was filmed in Kansas? Unfortunately, I may never know as I was again outvoted 3 to 1 and wasn't allowed to visit the museum.
When we stopped for lunch, the temperature had risen into the 90s but it was the humidity that was the biggest surprise. Someone told us that it would be like stepping outside and having a hot wet towel wrapped around you - so right. You immediately start to look for the next air-conditioned place and this time we chose Subway. Mike and Jenny had never visited a Subway before so I spent 10 minutes talking them through the process to prepare them for the 101 choices they were about to make. The Subway staff had a great time holding their hand and bringing out samples of flat bread to help Mike & Jenny make their decisions. All in all, it only took around 25 minutes to get a 6-inch sub which I thought was pretty good-going for their first time!
John Prine and The Eagles accompanied us in our minivan across Kansas as Mike and Jenny took in the subtle differences of travelling in the US. They were surprised to see a minimum speed limit of 40 miles an hour (showing under a maximum of 70).
Kansas City is actually split over two states, Kansas and Missouri. In the afternoon, we visited Kansas City, Missouri. Such a wonderful surprise! All the architecture was based on Seville, their sister city. We also discovered a Cancer Survivors Park which was very moving. It took people on a journey through cancer, from diagnosis through treatment to recovery.
In the evening we crossed over the border again as we'd heard that the best jazz places were there. We visited the Historic Jazz District which was very quiet but I guess not surprising for a Monday evening. There weren't many places to visit but we found a wonderfully welcoming place called The Blue Room. Not only did it have an amazing jazz band but it also featured the history of jazz all around the room. Entertaining AND educational! One of the band started to find out where we were all from and when Jenny shouted out "England!", we all got a round of applause and she was told that she was officially their number one fan, plus received a wonderful bear hug on the way out!
Dinner was downtown at an Irish pub/restaurant called the Raglan Road Irish Pub where the humidity finally broke into a heavy downpour and we drove, soggy but happy, back to the motel.
Tomorrow St Louis!
