Yes, the title is cheesy but it really does describe our adventure! :)
In 60 hours we had driven 1,000 miles, went to a baseball game, suffered from heat exhaustion, had a tire shred on the interstate, spent 5 hours in a place we never heard of, had lunch at Red Robin, had dinner at a “family style” restaurant, drove through a torrential rains storm, and purchased new furniture. I’m tired!
Our strange odyssey started Thursday morning as we headed to Kansas City to see the KC Royals play the NY Yankees. My sister-in-law “E” works for the KC Royals organization and was able to get free tickets for us (free is always good). My inclination was to take the Mustang but at the last minute I decided to take the Audi instead. Our trip to Kansas City was uneventful. We took state routes instead of the interstate and saw some very interesting bits of Illinois and Missouri that we have never seen before. We crossed the narrowest bridge I have ever been on that had two way traffic! Bridges are not my favorite thing and this bridge qualifies as something from one of my nightmares.
We arrived in Kansas City with a couple of hours to spare before we had to meet “E”. We had a last minute hotel change and while the new hotel was somewhat cheaper, it was not worth what we paid for the night. The wallpaper was peeling, the bed was rock hard, the air conditioner had a high pitched whine, the toilet ran and the drains were very slow. The best thing about the hotel was that it was across from Kauffman stadium.
At 4:30 we met “E” and she gave us a phenomenal tour of the stadium. We saw lots of cool “behind the scenes” stuff that just blew our minds. We met several people connected with the KC Royals baseball team, we got to see the Royals club house even! Our tour finished about an hour before the game started so we decided to get some dinner at the ballpark. We decided hot dogs were the way to go (gotta have hot dogs at a baseball game after all). We each had gourmet dogs, mine had blue cheese on it and “S” chose a Chicago style dog with all the fixings. Then we took our seats. at 7 p.m., it was 100 degrees out with a “feels like” temperature of 110 degrees. It was hotter in the stadium with people on all sides of us. We left after the 5th inning as we were both suffering from heat exhaustion. At least the hotel was close by!
Friday morning saw us on the road bright and early. We stopped at Chick-fil-a for breakfast (“S” loves Chick-fil-a) and decided to stop at one in the St. Louis area for lunch. This meant a change in our driving plans. Rather than taking the scenic route (with the creepy bridge) through the country, we would be on the interstate for the entire trip. The interstate is fine, just a wee bit boring though. About 45 miles west of St. Louis, the front tire on the drivers side literally disintegrated on us. Thankfully it held air long enough for us to get to a tire store in Lake St. Louis. Even though the store was booked solid, they had my car up on a rack within 10 minutes of our arrival and showed us the exposed steel belts in the tire and the rubber bits wrapped around the axle. Yikes! Talk about lucky! The store did not have tires that would fit my car and had to have them brought in from another store which would be a 4 hour wait. This was fine with us. We were just grateful they were able to take care of us. Rather than have us hang around the waiting area for all that time, the manager dropped us off at a strip mall/theater complex about a half mile away (it was 100 degrees outside and he didn’t want us to walk in the heat).
We had lunch at Red Robin. We’d always been curious about it so we looked on this as a great way to finally try it out. The atmosphere was nice, the service was great, but the price was too high for the quality of the hamburgers we got. At least we finally got to try them out though! Then we walked over to the theater and saw “The Other Guys” and I was pleasantly surprised by the movie and the fact that I enjoyed it. After the movie we walked back to the tire store (there was a nice breeze so the walk wasn’t too bad). They had just received the tires (we had to replace both front tires) and about to mount them. The car had to be aligned as well. The manager of the store gave us directions to avoid the worst of St. Louis traffic and told us about this quaint little “mom and pop” diner that had home-made pie to die for. We figured what the heck, why not? So off we went on two new tires and headed into Illinois and a mere ten miles past the turn off to I-55 was the Blue Springs Cafe. I had chicken and dumplings, “S” had baked chicken and stuffing and we each had a slice of pie. By the time our food arrived, we were too tired to even want to eat so everything was packed into “to go” boxes and we hit the road once again. I’m pretty sure our waitress thought we were slightly insane.
About 1.5 hours from home we encountered a torrential rain storm that dropped visibility to almost nothing. We spent 40 minutes creeping at 40 miles per hour on the interstate. There was a semi ahead of me and I stuck to him like glue! I was very grateful for the new tires as there was quite a bit of water on the road.
We finally arrived home at 9:30, only 6 hours later than we had originally planned. I had a shower and climbed into bed. I was utterly exhausted! Ein and Edward quickly put in an appearance and I fell asleep curled up with them. Nothing like kitties to put a person to sleep! :)
The following morning we drove to the IKEA store in Bolingbrook, IL and purchased a couple of chairs and foot stools to replace our very worn out couch and love seat. The trip was uneventful and we enjoyed Swedish Meatballs and a triple layer chocolate cake that was delicious. We spent a few hours exploring IKEA (we only explored the second floor, we will explore the first floor on our next trip). We picked up our flat pack chairs, foot stools and cushions and loaded up the car and headed home. The drive is 2.75 hours and it felt like an eternity to me. We arrived home just in time to feed the cats their dinner and then just watch TV until bed time.
Just as I was falling asleep, I started imagining all of the horrible things that could have happened to us when the tire shredded. No one was hurt, the car wasn’t damaged (the Audi was my father’s car and he gave it to me the week before he died so it has very special meaning to me) and we experienced something very special while waiting for the tires. It isn’t every day one comes across such outstanding customer service as we did. Yes, it could have been worse. All we lost was a few hours of travel time, not a big deal. My only regret is that I didn’t have a spindle and fiber in my purse!
Sunday we dismembered the couch and love seat and made about a bajillion trips to the dumpster with the bits and pieces. I am so glad to finally get rid of the couches! The living room looks great with our new chairs and foot stools. Lots of space now and the traffic pattern is much better. As much as it sucked carrying out the pieces of the dismembered couches, it was worth the effort. I’m still amazed at how big the room looks without the clunky, plaid couches. The cats still haven’t forgiven us for destroying “their” furniture. Hopefully they get over their displeasure soon!
It certainly has been an exciting few days for us. :) I hope the rest of our vacation is tame by comparison!
Oh yes, my new foot stool makes the perfect spinning stool! :)
