Oh for joy – we are settled in at the Kansas City downtown Westin with their heavenly beds, full service restaurants, spa and gym. The hotel is built into a hill and we have a 6th floor lanai room that opens out to a patio on a grassy knoll. It is just the break that both Zena and I need! John is just happy that we have both stopped complaining. It is all up hill from here as our final stop in Nashville offers the Hutton Hotel – a treat I slyly booked for us that offers pet floors with home made treats, pet walking, pet bathing and all around spoiling while their owners explore the sites! Zena is going to be booked for all. We explored several historical sites in Kansas City This is a typical large Midwest city where people commute to work, live in the suburbs and take no interest in the poverty that surrounds the city where they work. I saw this first hand living in downtown Hartford. Such a contrast of white and people of color. Kansas City offers a beautiful train station that has been meticulously restored. It is a combo of active train station and museum. I captured a nice picture that includes John and Zena after they were asked to leave -ha ha.
Zena is quite happy with our accommodations
We arrive for our baseball game at the Royals stadium which is co-located with the Kansas City Chiefs football stadium. Both stadiums are quite old. The access in to them is a horrible bottleneck in a crumbling neighborhood. Another example of greed where none of the fruits of the league are invested in the area that surrounds them. We arrive with our paid parking pass in hand, wait in the long car line and eagerly hand our pass to the attendant. Oops! We have purchased tickets for Tuesday not Monday!! We park anyway as there is no way to exit at this point paying for parking in cash with no tickets. I am uncharacteristically silent while John is chatting about how we can buy tickets at the gate and it will all work out. As part of my road trip reflection, I am practicing saying less! Hmmmmm! We already bought tickets and once is enough to see a few innings and eat a hot dog is what I say with my inside voice. I am pretty sure my inside voice is written all over my face because John keeps asking why I am so angry. I am not! At the ticket window, the polite women says she has no tickets in the section we wanted but she has free tickets, FREE tickets in a close by section. Someone turned them in because they decided not to attend. WHAT?? I think that Crazy Horse took pity on us after we made a stop to his memorial. I forgot to mention that we felt compelled to stop and view his sculpture and museum while in the Badlands. It is close to Mt Rushmore but privately funded and not nearly as visited. It is a project that includes the sculpture, a museum and a University dedicated to Native American Studies. We paid it forward by donating our tickets to the hotel for a staff member.
We ended our evening watching the DNC speeches. Given our journeys and the reflections we have had on the great spirit of our early settlers of our County, it was fitting to end the evening witnessing the amazing Michelle Obama.
I am loving your updates and following you on this trip!