K.C. Trip Days 2 & 3
Apr. 4th, 2004 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterHere I am at Union Station again. Travis & I have said our farewells, and he's headed back home while I headed over here to hop on-line for a bit. I could have gotten right onto 71 and headed due south for home from where I was, but this place was close enough that I figured what the heck.
After making yesterday's Day One entry, Travis and I headed out in my car (I was still interested in showing it off), stopping at an LC's barbecue place. LC's is the favorite K.C. barbecue of Pete "Wicked" Schlossberg, and I wanted to try it out once. (The location where we ate was located in the same building as an auto workshop.)
After that, we headed down to Micro Center so that I could shop for a printer (and some cheap DVD+ROMs). I picked up an Epson C84 (I think) for $80, a USB cable for it for $14, and 25 blank DVDs for about $20. Then we wandered toward Union Station, stopping at a frozen custard place for a snack, and browsing at the Deal$ store nearby. I found a bunch of $1 DVDs, including some Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmeses and a couple of Dorsey Brothers films (including The Fabulous Dorseys, which I had been wanting to find again for some time). We briefly visited the War Memorial, but it was late enough that the tower was already closed for the evening. So, instead, we headed over to Union Station and I got to tour the restoration section...a place where there were a bunch of displays on the history of Union Station, what it was like in its heyday, and how it was lovingly restored to the near-original condition in which it is today.
As I said in the last LJ entry I made from here, this is an amazing place...but with that exhibit, I became cognizant of how amazing it truly is. I can sit here and look up and see the ceiling detailing above me that actually looks just like it did back in the 1910s and 20s. I can just sit here, close my eyes, listen to the seashell-like sound ambiance, the echoes generated by the vast cavernous spaces, and imagine myself in the distant past, waiting for a train to come...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
We walked over the walkways to Crown Center, the Hallmark shopping mall, and spent a bit of time there, then went ahead and headed back to Travis's apartment after that. We loaded Travis's old 25" color TV set into my car (he'd replaced it with a new set, but it still works all right for the most part) and then we watched The Fabulous Dorseys, then after a couple hours of noodling around on the computer, Time Bandits. I'd never seen it before; it was quite amusing. Also, I bought from Travis the old MP3 CD player he'd tried out before going to the iPod.
One amusing thing that happened last night involved the "spring forward" to standard time from Daylight Savings. We went from 1:59 a.m. to 3 a.m., losing an hour. The ironic thing is that the last weekend I visited Travis, it was time to "fall back". I remarked to Travis that I had been so delighted back then that I'd chosen the weekend on which to visit in which I could gain an extra hour...little did I know that I'd simply be transferring that hour from this visit!
This morning, we both got up about noon, then headed downtown to do the memorial and Union. Third time was the charm: it was open this time, and we rode the elevator up to the top of that granite tower. We spent 15 minutes or so looking around; Travis took a couple photos of me, and I took a few, too, including one of my car. Then we went over to the Union Station again to view the exibits at the Science Center...a section on Corridas—Mexican folk songs of the 19th and 20th centuries—and a display on exploration of the deepest parts of the seas. Then we headed over to Bryant's.
Mmm, Bryant's Barbecue. World famous barbecue, for which people come from thousands of miles away. An entirely unprepossessing facade on a run-down building in an old part of town conceals barbecue for which President Carter would reportedly land Air Force One while on cross-country trips. About $8 gets you about a pound of meat, and a few slices of wonder bread to keep it company. I ate all I could hold, and still managed to take home enough for my lunch for the next week or so. (Tip to neophyte Bryant's-goers: take a ziploc bag with you, because their idea of a take-home kit is simply to wrap the meat in brown paper.)
After that, Travis showed me where we were on a map, and suggested I should take the Paseo down to 71 south to take me directly home. It sounded like a good plan to me, but I decided to head over here to Union Station for a last minute mail-check and journal post before heading out. I know I'm wasting daylight, but OTOH, the sun was already right at the point where it was shining right in my eyes when I was driving west...and I knew if I didn't bang out this journal entry now, I would be much too tired to do so when I got home.
I'm going to spend a bit more time sitting here lookin around—and digesting the big wad of meat I ate at Bryant's—and then I'm going to get back in the car and head home. I'll hit the Wal-Mart in Harrisonville for gas and caffeine, then head down to Clinton and from there to Springfield. I have been taking the 44/71 route, forming the two legs of a right triangle, but this time I'll take the hypotenuse, for variety's sake.
I had been thinking about watching Hellboy in a swanky theater up here before heading home—it opened this weekend, I really want to see it, but Travis had less than zero interest in it so we couldn't hit it together—but reluctantly decided against it this time; I'm going to be getting home late enough as it is, and I can watch it another time.
Well, I think that's about it from here for tonight. More at some point down the road.
After making yesterday's Day One entry, Travis and I headed out in my car (I was still interested in showing it off), stopping at an LC's barbecue place. LC's is the favorite K.C. barbecue of Pete "Wicked" Schlossberg, and I wanted to try it out once. (The location where we ate was located in the same building as an auto workshop.)
After that, we headed down to Micro Center so that I could shop for a printer (and some cheap DVD+ROMs). I picked up an Epson C84 (I think) for $80, a USB cable for it for $14, and 25 blank DVDs for about $20. Then we wandered toward Union Station, stopping at a frozen custard place for a snack, and browsing at the Deal$ store nearby. I found a bunch of $1 DVDs, including some Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmeses and a couple of Dorsey Brothers films (including The Fabulous Dorseys, which I had been wanting to find again for some time). We briefly visited the War Memorial, but it was late enough that the tower was already closed for the evening. So, instead, we headed over to Union Station and I got to tour the restoration section...a place where there were a bunch of displays on the history of Union Station, what it was like in its heyday, and how it was lovingly restored to the near-original condition in which it is today.
As I said in the last LJ entry I made from here, this is an amazing place...but with that exhibit, I became cognizant of how amazing it truly is. I can sit here and look up and see the ceiling detailing above me that actually looks just like it did back in the 1910s and 20s. I can just sit here, close my eyes, listen to the seashell-like sound ambiance, the echoes generated by the vast cavernous spaces, and imagine myself in the distant past, waiting for a train to come...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
We walked over the walkways to Crown Center, the Hallmark shopping mall, and spent a bit of time there, then went ahead and headed back to Travis's apartment after that. We loaded Travis's old 25" color TV set into my car (he'd replaced it with a new set, but it still works all right for the most part) and then we watched The Fabulous Dorseys, then after a couple hours of noodling around on the computer, Time Bandits. I'd never seen it before; it was quite amusing. Also, I bought from Travis the old MP3 CD player he'd tried out before going to the iPod.
One amusing thing that happened last night involved the "spring forward" to standard time from Daylight Savings. We went from 1:59 a.m. to 3 a.m., losing an hour. The ironic thing is that the last weekend I visited Travis, it was time to "fall back". I remarked to Travis that I had been so delighted back then that I'd chosen the weekend on which to visit in which I could gain an extra hour...little did I know that I'd simply be transferring that hour from this visit!
This morning, we both got up about noon, then headed downtown to do the memorial and Union. Third time was the charm: it was open this time, and we rode the elevator up to the top of that granite tower. We spent 15 minutes or so looking around; Travis took a couple photos of me, and I took a few, too, including one of my car. Then we went over to the Union Station again to view the exibits at the Science Center...a section on Corridas—Mexican folk songs of the 19th and 20th centuries—and a display on exploration of the deepest parts of the seas. Then we headed over to Bryant's.
Mmm, Bryant's Barbecue. World famous barbecue, for which people come from thousands of miles away. An entirely unprepossessing facade on a run-down building in an old part of town conceals barbecue for which President Carter would reportedly land Air Force One while on cross-country trips. About $8 gets you about a pound of meat, and a few slices of wonder bread to keep it company. I ate all I could hold, and still managed to take home enough for my lunch for the next week or so. (Tip to neophyte Bryant's-goers: take a ziploc bag with you, because their idea of a take-home kit is simply to wrap the meat in brown paper.)
After that, Travis showed me where we were on a map, and suggested I should take the Paseo down to 71 south to take me directly home. It sounded like a good plan to me, but I decided to head over here to Union Station for a last minute mail-check and journal post before heading out. I know I'm wasting daylight, but OTOH, the sun was already right at the point where it was shining right in my eyes when I was driving west...and I knew if I didn't bang out this journal entry now, I would be much too tired to do so when I got home.
I'm going to spend a bit more time sitting here lookin around—and digesting the big wad of meat I ate at Bryant's—and then I'm going to get back in the car and head home. I'll hit the Wal-Mart in Harrisonville for gas and caffeine, then head down to Clinton and from there to Springfield. I have been taking the 44/71 route, forming the two legs of a right triangle, but this time I'll take the hypotenuse, for variety's sake.
I had been thinking about watching Hellboy in a swanky theater up here before heading home—it opened this weekend, I really want to see it, but Travis had less than zero interest in it so we couldn't hit it together—but reluctantly decided against it this time; I'm going to be getting home late enough as it is, and I can watch it another time.
Well, I think that's about it from here for tonight. More at some point down the road.
