RoadTrip Day 2: Death by Kansas

We started day 2 after a delightful first night sleeping on the ground.  The sleeping pads worked out nicely and we found that by putting a blanket over our 2 pads they stayed together and the extra blanket made it feel almost like a bed.

We had stocked up on little drinks and snacks from the grocery store in an attempt to not spend all of our money at gas stations.  We also had reusable water bottles that we had decided would be the best way to stay hydrated, cut down on garbage, save room in the already full car, and save a dollar or three along the way.  By my estimate that is a Win, Win, Win, Win Situation.

We had breakfast while on the road as the mountains were calling our names only 1 state to our west.  After finishing our dry as sand granola bars with copious amounts of water we headed away from the sun, full of vigor.  We used GasBuddy to find the cheapest gas within 20 miles of us; it is important to drive 4 miles out of the way to save 2 cents a gallon and with the tank holding 12 gallons that is almost a whole quarter, Audrey.

We also took a look at the Roadside America app, which I mentioned has the crazy, quirky, interesting "tourist" spots.  Well near Kansas City there the famous Car-Henge (Stonehenge made of old cars), the Negro League Baseball Museum (lucky for Megan we hit town when they were closed), and the World's Largest Ball of String.  We had to see this!

Largest Ball of String

Let me tell you a little about the World's Largest Ball of String or WLBS; it is NOT TWINE!  Don't let anyone confuse the two.  Twine and string are not even in the same ballpark, the WLBS is offended if you think twine is really the same thing.  You may be thinking to ask someone that has been to the WLBS, what is the difference. My answer: I have no idea. But there it is, in a lonely corner of some restaurant's patio.  We got out, took a picture, read about how some bored child somewhere started making this ball and didn't stop until he was 59 years old, and then jumped back in the car before anyone could stop us to talk.

I think this was about the time I had to start limiting Megan's use of the Roadside America app.  But we were heading in the direction towards Colorado, already close to 20 miles in to Kansas with beautiful fields of amber grain waving; we'd be there in no time. . . . .

What I meant was there was no time that could measure how long it takes to drive across Kansas.

We started off by listening to the one Kansas City station I enjoy, the comedian station.  They play short clips from comedians' standup routines.  It is really enjoyable and I have to admit to Kansas that I caught myself smiling for portions of that drive.  But before we knew it, the station was lost to the airwaves and we were on our own.

We listened to some country radio, but too much talk about corn prices and soybean plantings for it to be a long term solution to our Kansas boredom.  We played the Alphabet Game, in order finding words that start with each letter.  Luckily, Salina, Kansas has a zoo or we might still be playing.

After the game, in which I can assure you that I won and Megan tried to cheat her way to victory, we listened to a few CDs that we had.  Zac Brown Band, The Killers, Coldplay, hillbillies playing the spoons, radio static, really anything we could find.  This is when I dubbed Kansas, the state that you even listen to the bad songs on CDs.

We didn't want to stop for lunch. Sorry, let me rephrase that, there are not any places to stop to eat lunch in Western Kansas so we pulled off at a rest stop and ate some leftovers that we had luckily packed.  Cold pizza and an ice cold coke.  I wondered if people in Western Kansas had refrigerators yet.

When we finally made it to Colorado we commented that the first field of amber waving grain really was beauitful, even majestic looking and then there was another 450 miles of the same stuff. Unfortunately for us, when you enter Colorado you aren't immediately thrown in to snow-capped mountains.  We drove on for another few hours as we were still deciding where to go first.

We had a friend that was going to be in Denver in 3 days and wanted to try to meet up with him and we had Colorado Springs planned for the weekend so we though Boulder would be a fun place to stay and then we could stay there, go to Estes Park or maybe up to Fort Collins to see New Belgium Brewery.  We got on Expedia and found a cheaper but still decent looking hotel in Boulder, plus it served breakfast which is always a great perk to have.  The Rodeway Inn turned out to be a decent place to stay especially for the $55/night fee.

We pulled in to town after getting stuck in Denver traffic under a steady downpour and low hanging clouds.  We couldn't even see the mountains.  But with the summer of 2012 just starting, I believe this was the last rain the Western US had until August.

In downtown Boulder

We checked in to the hotel and unpacked all of our clothes from the car.  We figured out that we needed to utilize a 2 bag system, the overnight bag would be filled with clean clothes that we could access easily and the other large bag would be the dirty clothes and anything waiting to be worn later, which could be on the bottom of everything in the trunk.  I opened my large bag and found that my bottle of Nyquil that I had been taking to fight off a cold had leaked over a handful of clothes.  Annoyed and stressed I began doing a hand washing and ringing of clothes in the shower to get the red liquid and medicine smell out of my belongings.


Being satisfied with my wash and having taken our showers, we deserved to get some dinner and drinks.  We found a few places that according to UrbanSpoon, were right up our alley.  We went to Mountain Sun Brewery first because it was close to where we parked our car and the rain was starting to pick up, little did we know how lucky we were.  The place had a good feel to it and we decided to ask for a table, with a short wait the bar was looking might appealing.  We ordered a couple of pints of some FYIPA and Annapurna Amber and before we knew it we were sitting down at our table.  After being seated, our waiter Dave started answering our questions.  We wanted to taste a few of the beers and he was more than happy to bring us a round of samples to wet our taste buds.

Don't worry about how long this meal is taking to get through, there is a reason for the buildup.

Date Night Burger from Mountain Sun Brewery

The Date Night Burger.  The Date Night Burger is the reason.  I am not one to get caught up in hyperbole, but this was the best burger I have ever had in my life.  It was a big hunk of ground beef, thick bacon, roasted poblano peppers, date puree, and a glob (technical definition) of warm goat cheese.  I still have dreams about how this burger tasted.  I think Megan ordered some food too, excuse me for not remembering, I was in my own little zone.






After dinner, the rain had subsided a bit and we made our way to Walnut Brewery where we tried a few more beers.  We also made a friend at the bar that was there on business and had a heaping plate of mini donuts and was willing to share.  These delicious little morsels came with a chocolate and caramel dipping sauces. Our friend was from Colorado Springs and told us that we must go to Garden of the Gods and that if we were in the area we should try to go to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison out in Western Colorado.  This was exciting to hear because neither Megan nor I had heard of this place until we saw a "National Parks Magazine" in the grocery store and there was a little blurb about the Black Canyon.  We figured that if it was in a magazine and now we also had a personal recommendation from someone kind enough to share her donuts that it must be a place to see.

Starting the RoadTrip

I last left off with the preamble to the roadtrip as we readied our gear and said our heartfelt goodbye to our puppy as we left her in the tender hands of Mimi and Obo (my parents.)

Before I jump too far into the trip, I want to include a little more back story on what we had planned.  We knew we were going to head west from Chicago.  We didn't want to plan too much because we wanted to fly by the seat of our pants and didn't want to be rushing to move on if we loved a place or twiddling our thumbs if we were bored with a place.  This was going to be test for me as anyone that knows me understands that I am a planner and I'll call myself time conscious, others might say anxious.

We did reserve a place over Memorial Day Weekend, a place at the Grand Canyon, and a place in Yellowstone because well I needed to do something and I told myself that those times and places are always busy in the summer.  Other than those 6 nights we were going to be living free and easy for the next 5 weeks or so until the beginning of July when we had planned on going to see Steve Miller Band perform with my sister and parents.

As for how we were going to go about finding things to do, places to stay, where to eat, and any general information we needed while exploring the country, both Megan and I had our iPhones, my car has a plug so we could keep things charged.  The important iPhone apps that helped us the most were AllStays Camp & Tent, Trip Advisor, Expedia, UrbanSpoon, TV Food Maps, GasBuddy, Roadside America, and of course the Camera, Maps, and Weather Apps.  I will hopefully remember when we used them and be able to give them some reviews for their performance.

It was the morning of May 22nd, a sunny day with the heat of a midsummer's day in an already hot summer.  We had discussed possible routes towards Colorado, either driving through Nebraska or Kansas.  I believe this decision is similar to deciding between hammering nails under your fingernails or giving yourself an appendectomy.

Leaving Mimi and Oboe's in the freshly cleaned Red Jeep

We picked the latter, as in taking the Kansas route, so we left the Chicago suburbs at 7:05 a.m., already 5 minutes late by my plan but I didn't say anything to Megan about that.  The day before we left, we had searched what to do while on our drive as we were hoping to make it to Kansas City on our first night.  We didn't want to spend too much time in the Midwest because the fun to be had was out in the mountains and we wanted to make it there as quickly as we could.

Future Birthplace of Captain Kirk in Riverside, IA

While searching for stops to make along our route, we found a few gems that we didn't want to miss.  On the Roadside America app, which is essentially every odd, quirky, off the beaten path tourist stop across the country.  Well, in Iowa we found ourselves driving to the town of Riverside, IA to see the Future Birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk from Star Trek.  Megan is a Star Trek fan and thought this was going to be so cool.  It was less than thrilling for me but I knew I would get her back on the trip for the things that I enjoy a little too much.




Which lucky for me, unlucky for her, was only a few miles down the road from Riverside in Des Moines.  My beloved Chicago Cubs AAA farm team was playing an afternoon game and we just happened to be driving through town as the game started.  We threw the car in park at a metered spot for 75 cents and bought a pair of $8 tickets.  It was a great day to be at the ballpark and we enjoyed a few innings and snacked on a hot dog and a beer.  Man did it feel like a classic American afternoon.

Principle Park, Des Moines, IA - Home of the Iowa Cubs

We headed towards KC after I had had my fill of baseball which was a bit longer than Megan who had her fill after about the third pitch. I know what you are thinking, three pitches wow, she actually might enjoy baseball but she was a little distracted during the first and second pitches with her beer. We just needed to make one more quick stop in Iowa at the Hot Air Balloon Museum in Indianola, IA.  This was an important place for Megan as her dad is a hot air balloon pilot as I have already mentioned.  Well, he isn't just a normal pilot; he is a National Champion pilot from back in the early 90s.  The museum in Indinaola is also the Hall of Fame and Megan's dad has his picture up on the wall.

In the Basket at the Hot Air Balloon Museum

We entered the museum with a definite sense of entitlement, as we knew someone on the Wall of Champions, and quickly found out that we also knew a hell of a lot more than the little old lady working at the museum.  We versed her up on some ballooning secrets, snapped a few photos, and of course had to buy a cheap souvenir before heading back to the Jeep.

Oklahoma Joe's BBQ

 We drove the final part to Kansas City with relative ease.  At my previous job, I worked with a fellow that was from Kansas City and with a short text exchange he told me straight away not to miss Oklahoma Joe's BBQ and a margarita from Ponak's couldn't hurt either.  Oklahoma Joe's is a gas station BBQ that knows what they are doing.  I was loving the Chicken Z Man sandwich, which isn't on the menu but my boy Jason told me to follow his lead and go off menu.  BBQ Chicken, Cheese, Onion Ring, Sauce. It was Zelicious!  I also was very surprised with the chicken gumbo.



 After dinner, Megan and I decided, "Hey, we are on vacation. Let's do some margaritas. Why not get the pitcher."  Ponak's does things a little differently, they serve their 'ritas on the rocks and they also have a tap to keep 'em flowing.  They look like they would be way to sour because they are lime green but the tequila balances them out enough and there seems to be a healthy (/unhealthy) amount in each.

We knew we couldn't have too many drinks at Ponak's because we still needed to find a place to stay so we snatched up a 6 pack of Boulevard, KC's favorite local brew, quickly found a campsite on my iPhone app only about 20 minutes outside of downtown and headed that way.

Our Camp at Weston Bend State Park, MO

We stayed at Weston Bend State Park which was on the Missouri side.  We were just starting to work out our routine of setting up tents, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, arranging clothes in suitcases, and keeping the car clean enough to live out of for the next month. But we had our camp set up and fire burning within minutes.  We relaxed with our beers next to the fire and discussed all the things that we were excited about on the trip!