2024 Trip 6, Part 2 – Cindy and My Return to St. Joseph, Missouri

This post covers the highlights of the second half of our return to our house in St. Joseph, Missouri.

This segment of our trip starts with a visit from our great friends, the Webers. This time, instead of driving, they flew into Kansas City International Airport. We picked them up and took them to dinner at Q39 near downtown Kansas City. Todd is an incredible BBQ chef, so I enjoy having him try KC BBQ for his opinion of it. He liked Q39 and it earned a link. The next day, Todd, Scott, Bobby, and I golfed at the Plattsburg Country Club. This is one of my favorite courses and we all had a great time. Here is the course layout and the view from the 9th tee.

If you want to golf there, use the link at the end of this post. The next day, Todd, Edie, Cindy, and I headed down to the city of Parkview. It claimed to have a nice older downtown area, and it did.

We started with lunch at a French bistro named Cafe Des Amis. The food was outstanding. They had quiches, crepes, and the like. I had the Beef Bourguignon, a type of beef stew. It was amazing. Everyone else really enjoyed their meals as well and they clearly earned a link. After some shopping, we returned to St. Joseph and had dinner at Felix. Then it was off to meet Scott, Heather, Machelle, and Bobby at the Wyeth Tootle Mansion for the Voices of the Past tour.

We did this tour last year and had a really good time. The tour starts at the mansion with one of the character speakers. This year’s theme was Unsolved Mysteries. Each speaker was dressed as a person from the past who was involved in an unsolved mystery. After our first speaker, we took a bus to the Mt. Mora Cemetary where the rest of the speakers were waiting to tell us their stories.

Once again, Bobby was part of the entertainment while we waited for our return bus.

We ended the evening with a nightcap at The Den. They had it decorated for Halloween.

The next day we visited Schweizer Orchards, right down the road from us. It is an orchard that has some pick your own fruits, that we did not do, and a fruit and vegetable store, which we did visit.

They even used some interesting units of measurement, like a bushel and a peck.

We made a few purchases and had lunch downtown at the 7th Street Cafe. It was link worthy as usual. Dinner was at Willie’s Bar and Grill in Atchison, Kansas with Todd, Edie, Cindy, Don, and Marie. Bobby and Machele could not make this event. Why Atchison, Kansas you ask. Because we were taking the haunted houses of Atchison trolly tour. Atchison has more haunted houses per capita than most other cities. Unfortunately, we only drove by the houses and heard stories about the houses from our tour guide. I think it would be fun to go on a tour where you get to go inside some of the houses. Maybe next time. We still had a very good time.

Salle House, most haunted house in Kansas

After an enjoyable tour where we may or may not have seen some actual ghosts, it all depended on your own perspective, we ended at the Visitor Center than happens to have a bar in it. Lucky us. The city of Atchinson, Kansas is worth a visit, so use the link at the end of this post to check out their visitor center and events around town.

L to R: Bartender, Scott, Heather, Don, Marie

The next day, Todd, Edie, Cindy, and I went to the Amish town of Jamesport. Of course, we had to have the delicious chicken and homemade baked goods at Gingerich Dutch Pantry. After some sightseeing, we returned to St. Joseph and freshened up for the evening’s outing. We met Scott, Heather, Bobby, and Machelle and our first stop was the newly opened Parkway Distillery.

One of the owners gave us a tour and pointed out all of the rescued antiques they had in the place. The main bar is from the Goetz Brewery Stein Room, there are historical pieces from the Stockyards Exchange Building, and some doors and pieces from the old courthouse are among the items. It is very well done, and the drinks are delicious. They distill their own vodka, gin and whiskey, but of course the whiskey will not be ready for several years. This is a must visit, so use the link in the usual place. Our second stop was at Coleman Hawkins Park, a park in the main square downtown, to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Days.

We ate some tacos, enjoyed some music, then headed to the roof of Felix’s Room 108 to watch the celebration from above.

L to R: Scott, Heather, Edie, Todd, Cindy, and me

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day. The next morning, we took Todd and Edie to the Historic City Market in Kansas City. It has a farmer’s market, restaurants, shops, outdoor vendors, and the Steamboat Arabia Museum. This is another must visit. The link is in the usual place.

We returned to St. Joseph and toured the St. Joseph Museums. The museums are comprised of the Glore Psychiatric Museum, the Black Archives, the Archaeology and Native American Galleries, and the Doll Museum. Cindy and I have visited these exhibits before, but it was the first time for Todd and Edie. We toured all five of the exhibits.

Here are a few pictures from the Glore Psychiatric Museum.

We saw some dueling pistols and bug jewelry from the Archaeology and Native American Galleries.

And some unusual dolls from the Doll Museum.

The St. Joseph Museums are another must visit. You know where to find the link. This was our last outing with the Webers before they flew back to CA. Several days later, we joined Bobby and Machelle at Scott and Heather’s house for a Halloween craft night of decorating cookies sent to us from Heather’s mom (Pat) in CA. Here is some of our handiwork.

A few days later, we all went to the Missouri Theater for the Taste of Ireland dance and music show. They did not allow any pictures or recordings during the show, so here are two pictures of the stage before the show started.

The dancing and music were amazing. I would see this show again if it ever returns. The following week we finally had our new carpet installed in our bedroom and on the stairs. The St. Joseph house has mostly wood floor and tile floors, with the exception of our bedroom and the stairs to the second floor. I thought the old carpet was fine, but was outvoted 1-0. Here is the old bedroom carpet.

And this is the new bedroom carpet.

The colors are close, with the new carpet being slightly lighter. Here is the before and after of the stairs.

Since we had redone the carpet, I decided to replace the two blinds in our bedroom window with a single blind. If you look at the picture of the old blinds, the circled item is a piece of paper that was clipped to the blinds. This was necessary because the streetlight in front of our house would shine in the gap between the blinds and hit me right in the eyes every night. The paper was not needed with the single blind and it just looked better. Judge for yourself.

The installation process caused a day of havoc as we had to move all of our bedroom furniture into the living room first thing in the morning, then return it to the bedroom that night.

All of the effort was worth it and now everything is back to normal. On the night of the carpet installation, Bobby, Machelle, Heather, Cindy and I went to the Trail Theater to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Scott was unavailable as he had basketball practice.

Front Row: Me, Machelle, Heather Back row: Cindy, Bobby

We had a great time and even danced the Time Warp in the aisles. If you have the chance to see this movie, do it and dance the Time Warp. It is so much fun. The next day we participated in the zombie crawl to benefit the Friends of the St. Joseph Animal Shelter. The crawl starts at D & G Bar and Grill and they encourage dressing up as zombies. So of course we did.

In this picture of us inside D & G, I love how the picture somehow was distorted and Bobby’s body as abnormally larger than his head!

L to R: Bobby, Marie, Don, Me, Scott, Cindy, Heather

He is the crowd walking down Fredrick Avenue.

And a great time was had by all and the animal shelter benefitted as well. Cindy and I spent the following weekend in Kansas City for her birthday. On the way to our hotel, we stopped at the Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. This is an amazing place with tranquil gardens, beautiful nature scenery, and fantastic bird watching opportunities.

The Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens is a truly amazing place and is more than link worthy. Visit it yourself using the link at the end of this post. We spent the weekend at the Intercontinental Kansas City, overlooking the country club plaza.

There was nightly entertainment in the lobby/bar area.

The next day was walked to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. It is known for its giant shuttlecocks on the grounds, among other things.

There was also some interesting art on the outside of the museum.

Near the entrance, was a Dia de los Muertos exhibit where you could write a message to one of your departed relatives and it would be “delivered” during a ceremony later on. Yes, we each sent a message to the beyond.

Here are some paintings from a few famous artists with a description of their art.

And some paintings from some less famous artists.

Here are some interesting non-painting art pieces.

And here is a piece I posed for. It was difficult, but I did it for the art!

If you like art museums, this is one not to miss. Use the link at the end of this post to get your KC art fix. For dinner, we walked to Capital Grill in the Country Club Plaza. We had a special tasting menu called the Wagyu and Wine. I had the Wagyu Cheeseburger that came with grilled onions, steak sauce and Vermont white cheddar cheese. It was paired with a Duckhorn Vineyards merlot. Cindy had the Wagyu Mushroom and Swiss Burger that had roasted shiitake mushrooms, Jarlsberg cheese and Truffle Aioli. It was paired with a Migration Pinot Noir. The meal ended with a special birthday dessert for Cindy. As usual, the meal was outstanding.

Capital Grill is more than link worthy so use the one at the end of this post to have a culinary treat. When we returned to St. Joseph, our first group outing was to have some fried chicken at Gina’s Cafe and Catering. We had eaten there before and love the fried chicken. This time they had a special mascot there.

Great food and good fun. Want to try it for yourself, use the link at the end of this post. A few days later was Halloween and this is Scott in his costume.

We did a craft where we were supposed to make bath bombs. Something went terribly wrong, and this is what we ended up with.

Needless to say, they ended up in the trash and not in anyone’s bath. A few days later, we went to the Den to see their Christmas decorations. It was amazing as usual.

And of course there was someone there with a small dog. It is either a small dog or small child.

Our last meal for this visit was at our house where we celebrated Bobby and Machelle’s birthdays.

L to R: Machelle, Heather, Scott, Cindy, Bobby

And so our St. Joseph stay came to an end. The next post will cover our drive home via Texas, where we visited Dan and his wife Chris, Corrianne and Alex, and Big Bend National Park. Make sure you only use good bath bombs until then.

LINKS

Q39

Plattsburg Country Club Golf Course

Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Capital Grill

Gina’s Cafe and Catering

2024 Trip 5 – Visiting the Montana Family Again, this time with Cindy and Corrianne

My month-long road trip continued. After an amazing Alaskan Cruise, it was back to being a landlubber. Sylvia flew out from Seattle, and Corrianne flew in from Houston. The third stop on the trip was a return to Montana, to visit the same crew. My new travel companions were Cindy and Corrianne.

Sunday, July 21st

After a pretty good night of sleep, we were off on our 10-hour drive to Red Rock, Montana. Our first stop was at a fruit stand on steroids that had cherries, specialty food, and even wine.

We bought some cherries and healthy snacks and were back on the road. The fruit stand was nice, but nowhere near being worthy of a link. We arrived at Aunt Barbara’s house around 10 PM, unloaded a few things, and went to bed. The next morning, I showed Cindy and Corrianne the large chicken coop Ed had built.

The chickens were a hit.

And Ziggy the dog was his usual loveable self.

On our first night, we were greeted by a really beautiful sunset.

The next day, Corrianne, Cindy, and I went into Dillon and had lunch at the Fiesta Mexican Taco Bus, one of our favorite places to eat. It is a school bus that has been converted into a Mexican food diner. It is super delicious and a must visit, so use the link below. While visiting the downtown area, I stumbled across the Dillon Liquor store. I really liked their sign.

On the way home, we stopped at the Indian petroglyph sight.

A few days into our visit, Corrianne, Cindy, and I visited Virginia City. Here is how Virginia City is described on their website. “Virginia City and Nevada City lie along Alder Gulch about one mile apart, and are the site of the richest placer gold strike in the Rocky Mountains, with an estimated total value of 100 million dollars throughout the 19th and 20th centuries! The area represents the true and original Old West. Virginia City was designated as the new territorial capital of Montana in 1865 when Alder Gulch had gathered most of Montana’s population. At its peak, 10,000 people flooded the area named “Fourteen-mile City” for the numerous settlements that lined the gulch. Virginia City became the largest settlement with an estimated population of 5,000 by mid-1864. It rapidly became the territory’s first social center and transportation hub.”

Virginia City is now a tourist destination with shops, food, and tourist activities.

We enjoyed our visit and recommend you visit there as well. Use the link below. We had a big BBQ scheduled for our last full day, so Corrianne gave Aunt Barbara a special Dodger manicure the day before the feast.

We had the opportunity to meet our Cousin Tim, who I had not seen in at least 50 years. It was great hanging out with him. The chickens liked him too.

During our stay, Aunt Barbara and I played numerous games of cribbage. We also played my new version which had silly cards that changed the scoring system. That should have made it anyone’s game. But it didn’t. Aunt Barbara beat me at regular cribbage, then beat me at the silly card cribbage as well. Oh well, there is always next year. Here is the whole gang at the BBQ.

L to R Ed, Me, Aunt Barbara, Cindy (with a chicken), Corrianne, Cousin Mike, Cousin Tim, and Mike’s wife Barbara

Also during this stay, we sealed some of the fossils we found when I visited two weeks before. Here are a few ancient fern images.

And here is a great ancient fish image Cousin Ed found.

Here are some geodes Cousin Ed found and cut.

These are some crystals we found at Crystal Park.

And finally, some of the sapphires and garnets we found.

We had an amazing stay and really enjoyed our visit. We are already looking forward to next year. Our visit ended with Cindy, Corrianne, and I driving south to Salt Lake City. After lunch, we dropped Corrianne off at the airport for her flight back to Texas. Cindy and I stayed at a hotel in the downtown Salt Lake City area. After getting checked in, we walked a few blocks to the Salt Lake Brewing Company for dinner.

Cindy and I split a delicious cheeseburger and tater tots. And the dark beer they brewed was outstanding.

Their beer alone was good enough to earn a link so use it to check it out for yourself. The next day we went to the Natural History Museum of Utah, located on the campus of the University of Utah.

They had some fossil imprints on sandstone, like the ones we found in Montana.

There were a few amazing dinosaur displays.

And there was information on a new dinosaur discovery, the Lokiceratops Rangiformis.

We enjoyed the gem display, which reminded us of Cousin Ed.

There was a giant crystal too. Cindy placed her hand on front of it to give perspective as to how big it was.

One of the short-term displays were microsculptures of insects created by Levon Biss of Oxford University. Levon Biss’ photographic process is to composite thousands of insect pictures taken in various lighting conditions and create what he calls microsculptures. They were very interesting to say the least.

At the entrance to the microsculptures exhibit was a 3D model 300 times the actual size of a Tiger Beatle head. it was interesting and creepy at the same time. And it made me feel itchy too.

Here are a few pictures from the Native American display.

We spent the entire morning exploring the museum. This is one of the better natural history museums. We strongly encourage you to visit it if you are in the Salt Lake City area. You know where to find the link. For lunch, we headed off to a popular Salt Lake City Mexican restaurant named The Red Iguana. We had our usual favorites to give them the best test. I had the pork chili verde, and Cindy had the taquitos. Both of our meals came with rice and beans, and of course we started with chips and salsa. Even though our meal was not link worthy, it was still very good food.

We drove the truck to self-car wash and cleaned off the bugs and grime before returning to our hotel. For dinner, we walked across the street to Homecoming Southern Kitchen and Bar. The food and drinks were just above average, so no pictures or link. After dinner, we walked around the downtown area and ended up at Rockwell Ice Cream.

Rockwell’s ice cream is scratch made and is very delicious. We split a salted caramel that was quite link worthy. Use it to get some great Salt Lake City ice cream. The next day we packed up and were back on the road heading toward our next stop, Cedar City, Utah. We stopped for lunch at the Creamery in Beaver, Utah. I will not make any jokes about the last sentence; I’ll leave that to all of you readers.

The food was very good, they had a lot of shopping options if that is what you wanted to do, and their bathrooms were squeaky clean. The combination of those three things earned them a coveted link. A few hours later we checked into our hotel and freshened up for dinner. We decided to eat at Bruno’s Italian Deli. It had over 100 reviews on Yelp with a 4-star rating. This had to be good food, right? My GPS took us to a Chevron gas station, where we found the “restaurant” in a mini shopping center in the gas station parking lot. Not one review mentioned this was a gas station parking lot restaurant. Since we were hungry, we went in and gave it a try. The food was average at best, and they had a power outage right after we were served our food. At least we had something to eat. This was a 2-star dining establishment at best. Apparently, the residents and visitors of Cedar City do not know good Italian food. After the meal, we went to the Warehouse Bar Kitchen for a nightcap. The Warehouse was a hole in the wall type place in more of an industrial area and they also served food.

Even though the food was bar type food, I believe we would have been happier if we had eaten at the Warehouse. Maybe next time. The drinks were very good as was the service and atmosphere. The next morning, we got an early start and hiked in Kolob Canyons.

Kolob Canyons is a district in the northwest corner of Zion National Park. It is beautiful and has many hiking trails within it. Here are some pictures from our visit.

We had a great time and the scenery was beautiful. We strongly recommend a visit, so use the link at the end of this post. After our hike, we had lunch in Parowan at Dede’s Farmhouse Cafe.

It was literally a farmhouse turned into a cafe.

I had a chili with beans and a salad that were pretty good.

Even though the food was not quite link worthy, this place is still worth a visit if you are in Parowan. We returned to our room and had no specific plans for the evening. Every year, between June and the beginning of October, Cedar City hosts the Utah Shakespeare Festival. We had seen advertisements for the festival numerous times over the years during our travels to and from Montana and always thought it would be fun to see sometime. It was now “sometime,” and I was able to get tickets to The Taming of the Shrew. After an average dinner, we went to the Southern Utah University campus, where all of the theaters are that host the festival. We arrived early and walked around the beautiful campus.

Our theatre was the Engelstad Theater and was a hexagon shaped building. We thought we had found the theater and were surprised it was open, and we could walk in so early with no staff there. But it had to be the place since it was a hexagon and had a sign identifying it as a Shakespearian theater.

With 15 minutes left until show time, and us being the only ones at the theater, we were clearly in the wrong place. Luckily, the correct theater was only a block away.

They asked for no pictures or video during the show, so I only snuck one in at the very beginning of the play.

The play itself was outstanding, and we really enjoyed ourselves. This is a must see when in Cedar City in the summer and fall. Thou shalst find a link at the termination of this missive.

The next day we drove to Las Vegas, our final stop on this trip. We stayed at the Palms Hotel, home of the Pearl Theater, where Pat Benatar and Neil Geraldo were performing. And since we had tickets to that concert, it would be really convenient to attend it. Our first night, we had to have dinner at our favorite restaurant. Lawry’s the Prime Rib. It was amazing as usual.

Even though I’ve included their link in past post, Lawry’s is so darn good it gets duplicate links. The next day we did some shopping, sightseeing, and of course visited the Pinball Hall of Fame. It was a relaxed and casual day as we waited for our evening concert.

Before the show, we ate at the Rojo Lounge. I had a margarita, where they had the tajin down the side of the glass instead of along the rim, and we started with chips, salsa, and queso.

For dinner, I had carnitas tacos with a side of rice and beans. Cindy had some green chili enchiladas. Everything was very good, and we can recommend a stop here. Note that it is a lounge, not a restaurant. All of the food was tapas type small plate foods. After dinner, it was off to the show.

The opening band was the Vindys. We had never seen them before, but they were pretty good.

Then it was on to the main act!

The show was really good and we had a great time. Of course there was the usual annoying jackwagon seated by us. It seems like most of the concerts we go to there is some annoying a-hole near us. This show was no exception. The guy in the shadows in the left side of the picture stood up most of the time, flailed his arms, yelled, clapped at inappropriate times, and generally needed to be punched in the throat. I was and am very annoyed because I’m sick and tired of paying good money for concert tickets only to have some moron near us take away from our enjoyment of the show. Enough said.

After a good night’s sleep, we drove home, ending my month-long road trip.

Stay tuned for the next post which will have highlights of our return to our house in St. Joseph, Missouri. And don’t forget you can visit any of the “link worthy” places we have visited by using the spreadsheet on my webpage. You can find it here. Blog Links

LINKS

Fiesta Mexican Taco Bus

Virginia City, MT

Salt Lake Brewing Company

Natural History Museum of Utah

Rockwell Ice Cream

The Creamery

Kolob Canyons

Utah Shakespeare Festival

Lawry’s the Prime Rib