This post covers the rest of our trip to St. Joseph, MO. It includes a Mother’s Day Midwest style, a pinball tournament, a golf tournament and league, another menu tasting at the Den, Ben and Hanna’s wedding, and our return to California.
Sunday was Mother’s Day. Cindy, Machelle, and Heather did not have their mothers in St. Joseph, so they made a special tea party lunch for Nancy, Scott’s mother.
And they made special hats for the tea party.
All of the ladies had a wonderful time. A few days later we went to Biggins Sports Bar and Grill with Scott, Heather, Bobby, and Machelle.
On Tuesday nights, they have a buy one get one free pork tenderloin sandwich. The sandwich was huge and a great deal when you got the second one for free.
As for the name, I thought perhaps it was a playful name that had multiple meanings. Nope. It meant large breasts. Just look at a few of the menu items.
Interesting name aside, the Tuesday Pork Loin Sandwich deal is a real good one that would have earned a link if only they had a website. I would caution against doing an internet search for this place. Just saying. The next day I found out one of my and Todd’s golf partners from California had passed away unexpectedly. That was a heck of a blow. Craig was an outstanding man and fun person to be around. He will be sorely missed.
I have created a tribute page to Craig that you can view by clicking on the link in the header. It will be updated as the tribute continues.
Now for some happier news from this trip. The next weekend, the BBC Gang went to the Fraternal Order of the Eagles Lodge for a live concert by a local band that played 70s and 80s music. They were very good, and we had a really fun time.
We were also celebrating with Don and Elsie, our neighbors across the street, who were celebrating Elsie’s birthday.
A great time was had by all. The next day Scott, Bobby, and I were back at River Bluff Brewing for our second Pinball Tournament. Scott was hoping to improve on his last place finish from last time, I wanted to improve on my 7th place finish, and Bobby just wanted to drink some beer, but we made him play pinball too. The last tournament we played in had 19 players, and this one only had 12. It had similar rules as last time, four players per machine with 1st place getting 4 points, 2nd place getting 2 points, 3rd place getting 1 point, and 4th place receiving no points. The only difference was we were playing until one player reached 24 points. Also, the tournament organizer, Tom, had to play to make an even 12 players, but he did not get to win any prizes. Hopefully, we would all do well. The top three finishers received small cash prizes, so that was the goal. We were all playing relatively well, and with one game left, Bobby and I had a chance at third place. A small chance, but we had a chance. And even though Scott was out of the money, he had definitely improved from the last time. Tom was in first place and he didn’t count toward the standings. That put me in 4th place, one point away from third place. However, I needed to score at least one more point than “Bill” in the final game. Bobby was in fourth place, but needed a win, with both me and “Bill” finishing last in our respective games. Here is how we stood.
Of course, the final game had me, Bobby, and Scott playing against each other with “Jordan,” the eventual winner, as our fourth. “Bill” was luckier as he drew two players with less points than he had, and the eventual 2nd place finisher as his fourth player. All “Bill” had to do was finish 3rd or better and he was in third place by himself. Here are the final round results.
Somehow “Bill” lost, and I finished 3rd to put “Bill” and I in a tie for third place. We split the $10 prize and basically got our entrance fee back. Bobby finished a respectable 5th with Scott improving to 7th. We had a blast and will return again. If you want to play pinball or drink some delicious beer, use the link below to visit River Bluff.
The next week the crazy weather started again.
We were on the border of a lever 3 and level 4 tornado threat. Then at 2:44 pm, the “Tornado Watch” was issued. Rut-row.
Luckily, there were no tornados, just some heavy rain with marble sized hail.
A few days later when it cleared up, we went and ate lunch at Hank and Aces BBQ. We have wanted to try this place for the last three years and we finally did it.
This is the ultimate hole in the wall place. They smoke the meat in the back, all of the seating is on picnic benches in the front, and you order at a window from outside of the building. I was going to order the beef brisket, but they had a special Cajun spiced pork loin. I had to try that. Cindy had the pulled pork.
They came with five different sauces that they made in house. There was: an Alabama White, a mayonnaise-based sauce; a Kansas City made with tomatoes, vinegar, some sort of sugar or sweetener, and chili spices; a Carolina Gold, a mustard-based sauce; a New Orleans, which had lemon, garlic, and Worcestershire sauce; and Texas Red, very similar to the Kansas City except a little spicier. They were all very good.
They also had homemade French fries that were the bomb.
For dessert, the owner gave us some of their homemade bread pudding. De-licious.
Our meat was very good as well. We will be back for sure. They would have earned a link if they had a website. If you want to try their very good food, they are at 4230 Saint Joseph Ave, Saint Joseph, MO, 64505. Our next stop was to head down to the Missouri River. It was reported to be near flood levels, and we wanted to see what that looked like. The river level was so high it was bank to bank and many of the trees by the riverbank were more than half underwater.
There was a ton of debris in the river and numerous trees just floating down the river.
The boat ramp used to go to a cement area adjacent to the river. Now the water was coming up the ramp.
Another new experience for us. Later in the week, Scott, Bobby, Machelle, and I played golf in a mini tournament at Duncan Hills Golf Course in Savannah.
It was a four-person scramble, which meant all four of us hit and we all got to go to the best shot of the group for our next shot. It should have been really easy for our group to shoot par on every hole. Should have, could have, would have. We stunk too much for that to happen. We ended up finishing four over par. And we still had a blast. The next day Cindy and I walked along one of the many walking trails in St. Joseph. We saw a deer and her fawn. The fawn was shy and not in the picture.
When we returned home, there were a lot of strange cloud formations. We have learned to try and read the clouds for bad weather, but we could not read these clouds.
Whatever these clouds meant, it wasn’t bad for us, so that was good. A few days later, I found a great deal for golf at Plattsburg County Club. Bobby, Scott, and I had heard the course was outstanding and were excited to play there.
The course was in great shape and a great place to play. The 10th hole is considered the hardest hole in NW Missouri, and we believed that. The hole was a 438-yard par 5 that started by going uphill on a terraced fairway that was over 200 yards with a 200-foot elevation gain. From there, you had a fairway with a wooded area along the left side of a very narrow fairway. The green was slanted and if you didn’t land on it perfectly, you would roll off. All three of us picked up after 9 strokes without getting it into the hole. Brutal. But we did love the overall course and it earned a link in the usual place. Later that evening, Heather, Cindy, and I went to The Den for their monthly new drink tasting. Scott was coaching basketball and could not join us. Here are the girls and the lineup for tasting.
I had to start with my usual.
That’s right, the Aviator. And here are the rest of our tastings.
I liked all of the drinks except for the last one, the Green Thai Affair. It had a very strong black licorice flavor, which is one of my least favorite flavors. As I have said before, The Den is very link worthy, and they earned another one that is at the end of this post. A few days later it was project time for Bobby, Scott and I at Scott and Heather’s house. With the wedding coming up, it was crunch time and a few projects had to be finished. One was replacing an eight-by-eight inch pillar that held up the corner of their pool house cover. The pillar had rotted out and was unsafe. Here is the good one to give an idea of how big it was.
First, Bobby led us in making a brace. Then we cut the pillar out.
The new pillar weighed about 350 pounds and definitely kicked all of our backsides. But we ultimately won and got it in. And without anyone having to visit a doctor. A Festivus miracle!
Over the next few days, Cindy and I worked together to make the bases that covered the hardware. Our bases turned out very good. Here is one of them.
Several times during our stay, we had lunch at the Seventh Street Cafe, located by the downtown square. They are open for breakfast and lunch. They make homemade soup every day that is always outstanding. And you know I love my soups. Their sandwiches are creative. We have never had a bad meal there and of course they have a link at the end of this post. You must go there and eat.
On one visit, I had the Philly Cheese Steak soup which was outstanding. Cindy had the Hard Hat sandwich with roast beef, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and chipotle mayo. On another visit, the soup was a creamy cauliflower. I do not like cauliflower and creamy soups are my least favorite, so I was not going to order it. The owner insisted I taste it, so I was polite and did. And boy was I glad I did. It was outstanding! Like I wrote before, get down there and try some of their food.
At the end of the month, The Den had an event called “The Backyard Bash.” It was in the downtown area, and they had a bunch of fun “backyard” type games you could play. The whole BBC gang attended, and we all had a fun time.
They also had a blind draw double elimination cornhole tournament. What you did was sign up and they assigned you a partner. After your team lost two games, you were eliminated from the tournament. Bobby, Machelle, Scott, and I all signed up. My partner and I ended up eliminating both Bobby and Scott’s teams. Then we got eliminated before we could play Machelle. Machelle and her partner ended up finishing fourth. A few days after that, we were all invited to Machelle and Bobby’s son’s 40th birthday party. They ordered the cake from Walmart and it was a classic. See for yourself.
Not only is the mixture of upper-case and lower-case letters an interesting choice, but clearly spelling was not a priority. You have to love it.
During this stay, we put up our bird feeder and Cindy was so excited when some birds finally showed up. Here is a cardinal.
One day when we were driving around a neighborhood outside of the downtown area, we saw a raccoon peeking out of a sewer.
How can that not make you smile. Prior to us leaving, we like to have a final dinner at Adams Bar and Grill. This stay was no exception. Here is the whole BBC Gang in all of its glory.
The food at Adams is very good but would not normally qualify for a link. But because the service is so good and we just enjoy going there, they are link worthy. Too bad they do not have a website. The night before we left was our final golf game in the spring league. My regular partner Don and I were in first place in the “D” Flight. We just needed to have a decent round of around 32 points, and we would hold on and finish in first place. We shot a 35. We hoped to at least finish in the top 3, but time would tell. A week later, we learned we finished in first place by 1/2 a point. That was close.
Our last stop in Missouri was Springfield for Scott and Heather’s son’s wedding. There are a decent number of people who will be referenced, so here is a breakdown of the players. Sort of a digital program if you will. Ben is Scott and Heather’s son; Hanna is his soon to be wife; Nancy and Denby are Scott’s parents; Pat and Bob are Heather’s mom and stepdad; Mary and Joel are Hanna’s parents; Jason and Debbie are Heather’s brother and sister-in-law; Garrett and Connor are Jason and Debbie’s sons; Raymar is a friend of Jason and Debbie from high school, and has become everyone’s friend; Al is Scott and Heather’s friend from Santa Clarita; Adam is Al’s son; and Greg is Bob’s son. Here is a photo from the wedding so you can put names to a few faces.
We arrived on Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel, where a significant number of the out-of-town guests were staying. Prior to dinner, Ben wanted to show us an interesting liquor store that also had a do-it-yourself wine tasting area. That we had to see. It was called the Brown Derby and Ben insisted it was a mile or less down the road. It was actually 3.5 miles down the road, which doesn’t sound like much of a difference, but on a busy road the extra 2.5 miles took another 10 minutes and left us all wondering if we were going to the correct place. Ben would not hear the end of his inability to estimate time and distance. At least he took us to an interesting place. Here are the wine tasting machines. Basically, you get a card you load money onto. You put the card in a machine and select the wine and size you want, and the machine fills your glass. We didn’t try it this time but will when we return at some future date. If you want to have a machine sell you wine in Springfield Missouri, use the link below.
For dinner we went with 20 other people either in the wedding party, or wedding guests, and all ate at Texas Roadhouse. As crazy and crowded as that was, Texas Roadhouse did a great job. A link worthy job to be exact. You know where to find it. Overnight there was one heck of a thunderstorm complete with copious amounts of rain. Luckily, it stopped by the morning, because we had a full day ahead of us. Most of us did, anyway. Cindy woke up with a migraine headache and had to stay in bed hoping to beat it. I, along with several of the California people (Jason, Debbie, Raymar, Garrett, Connor, Al, and Adam) helped Scott and Heather run wedding errands for the first half of the day. From there, we all had to go out to Ben and Hanna’s house to help load a trailer for the wedding. Ben assured us it was no more than a 20-minute drive away. Jason and I were suspicious, and with good reason. After a 35-minute drive, we arrived at the house. Once again, Ben was on the receiving end of many jokes about his continued inability to judge time and distance. And he was teased even further when we discovered the trailer we were there to load was locked and the person with the key would not be available until later that evening. Even though it was a dry run of either 40 or 70 minutes (round trip), depending on who you asked, it was nice to see Ben and Hanna’s new house. On the way back to the hotel, we had lunch then stopped at the World’s Largest Fork. There is a bit of a controversy behind this title. This fork is the largest based on mass. It is 35 feet tall and weighs 11 tons. In Creede, Colorado, there is a fork that is 40 feet tall, but only weights 600 pounds. Why would any self-respecting fork enthusiast waste their time on a fork that weighs under a ton? I don’t know but I can assure you I’m in no hurry to visit Creed, Colorado. There is another fork of note in Fairview, Oregon. That fork is 37 feet tall, but only weighs 2 tons. Again, I’m not making a special trip to Fairview, but I have to admit I would visit that fork if I was in the area. Now back to the best fork to visit. Here it is!
To give you an idea of how big it is, here is a regular size fork at its base.
No, I didn’t happen to have a fork with me. Those forks were already there. And here is the crew.
Yes, of course the fork gets a link. It is on the Atlas Obscura website link below. And if you are not familiar with Atlas Obscura, you can go to their website using the link beneath the fork link. Atlas Obscura is a great website that has all kinds of travel related stuff on it. They also have an app for your phone that concentrates on unusual things to see near you, like giant forks. I have the app and highly recommend it. That evening was the rehearsal and dinner at the hotel. The rehearsal went well, and we all chowed down on some pizza. That night it stormed again and rained hard most of the night. That came into play when we arrived at the wedding venue the next day. Ben and Hanna were getting married at a barn venue just outside of town. On Sunday morning, Scott, Heather, Ben, Hanna, Jason, Debbie, Connor, Garrett, Raymar, Al, Adam, Mary, Joel, a few members of Hanna’s family I did not know, and I all went to the wedding venue first thing in the morning to set up for the wedding and reception.
Here is the area the wedding was supposed to take place.
Yes, all of the rain had flooded the dirt, rock, and bark area. So, it was on to a new area which was a concrete area on another side of the barn.
The area was dried off and seats and an arch were added for the wedding.
Then it was on to the inside. Tables were set up and decorated.
Here is the front door.
At the entrance were special boxes of cookies that were arranged by Pat and Bob.
The box contained animal crackers and a plastic animal. I was specifically in charge of the self-service beverage area.
There was lemonade, sweet tea, and bottles of wine. I thought this would be an easy job, but I was kept busy refilling beverages for most of the reception. Here are a few pictures from the wedding and reception.
After the reception, we all helped break the event down and headed back to our hotel for some well-deserved rest. The next day we went to the Springfield Wild Animal Safari in Stafford. That is where Hanna and Ben work. They gave our whole party a special tour that was a blast. We started with a bag of special animal food on a modified school bus that had no windows. Ben was our driver and there was the very real possibility we were not going to make it out alive. Just kidding. Ben was a great driver and both Ben and Hanna were great tour guides. Here is the inside of the bus and the view from my window.
The animals knew very well the bus meant food and were waiting for us. Most of the animals walked up to the bus and ate whatever food you threw to them.
Some of the animals wanted to be hand fed, like a llama and a Texas longhorn.
Here is Cindy feeding a buffalo.
My favorite was the camel. He came right up to the window and demanded food. He would even stick his head into the bus and take your whole bag of food if you were not careful.
After the really fun bus tour, we were able to walk around another area and feed some more animals. First, we were greeted by a screaming peacock as we got off of the bus.
Then it was off to feed baby deer, cows, goats, and llamas.
Our final feeding stop was the best. We got to feed a few giraffes.
The giraffes were very friendly and gentle. It was an amazing experience.
There were also animals in cages.
The Capuchin monkeys had a feeding tube you could use to put food in their cage. The monkeys loved it.
The sloths were moving around, albeit slowly as you would expect.
And here is Ben holding a baby alligator.
The animal safari is well worth the visit and earned a link below. After our visit, we headed off for our four-day three-night drive to California. The trip can be done in two days, and that is usually what we do on the way to Missouri. We have discovered a nice relaxing drive on the way back to California is more enjoyable for us. We spent the first night just outside of Oklahoma City. On the second day, we stayed in Albuquerque. On the way there, we stopped at my favorite steakhouse in Amarillo, Texas. That’s right, The Big Texan.
Home of the free 72-ounce steak, with an asterisk. The asterisk is you must finish the whole steak, all 4.5 pounds of it, three breaded shrimp, a baked potato, a dinner salad, and one roll. All within an hour. That’s enough food for a family of four.
The current record holder for this challenge is 125-pound Molly Schuyler who completed the challenge in 4 minutes and 18 seconds. I would struggle to eat the shrimp and roll in that amount of time. Crazy.
Cindy and I ate our regular lunches in about 30 minutes and were on our way. Is there a link? You bet there is. We got into Albuquerque in the early evening and freshened up. We were tired of being in the car and wanted to walk to a restaurant nearby. It was close to 100 degrees outside, so we didn’t want to walk very far. We found a restaurant named Sixty-Six Acres that was about a block from our hotel. That was the choice.
We got in during happy hour, so I started with their drink special, a pomegranate and fruit juice with jalapeno margarita. It was really good. We also ordered an appetizer. It was a baked brie with toasted almonds and honey. There were toasted pita wedges and sliced apple to pair with the cheese. It was delicious as well.
Cindy had the Classic Cheeseburger. It was a basic cheeseburger with fresh ingredients. I had the Pork Belly Bahn Mi. It had a kale mix, jalapenos, cucumber, pickled radish, sriracha mayo and cilantro. Both sandwiches were delicious. If you’re in Albuquerque and hungry, I’d give Sixty-Six Acres a shot. Feel free to use the link below. Our last stop on the way to California was Lake Havasu City. We stopped for lunch in Flagstaff at the Toasted Owl. It had very eclectic interior decorations with tons of owl items. The menu was on the healthier side, which is what we were looking for.
When we arrived, we were told two large parties had just been seated and we should expect a delay in food coming out of the kitchen. We took a chance and stayed. It was a good choice as the staff really hustled and we did not notice a delay in getting our food. Cindy had the BLAT, bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato, and mixed greens on toasted wheat bread. I had the Grilled Cheese Incident, a two-cheese mix, tomato, and artichoke hearts on grilled sourdough.
The food was really good and the service was top notch. If you’re looking for a healthy bite in the Flagstaff area, check them out using the link below. We continued on with our next stop being the Grand Canyon Deer Farm again outside of Williams, Arizona. We stopped there on our last trip through and had so much fun, we had to do it again. It’s basically a large petting zoo where you feed and pet deer and goats.
Here I am petting the goats.
Here we both are feeding the deer.
There were also some other animals there, but you could not feed them.
This is an absolute must visit for the whole family. Use the link below the next time you are passing through the Williams area. When we drove into Lake Havasu City looking for our hotel, we saw several signs with directions to the London Bridge. The London Bridge is a famous landmark in Lake Havasu City. I thought someone bought a bridge in London, had it dismantled and had it shipped there, then reassembled. The real story is a bit less interesting. The person who started Lake Havasu City bought a 1830’s bridge in London and only had the exterior granite blocks from the original bridge cut and transported to the United States for use in the construction of the bridge. So, the bridge is basically a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge. Not quite as interesting as I originally believed. We decided if we had time, we would try to see the London Bridge before we left. It turned out our hotel was next door to the bridge, so we definitely got to see it.
If you are wondering if there is a link to information about the bridge, the answer is no. When we walked near the bridge, we passed this couple walking toward the bridge.
Then we both noticed the man’s right ankle.
He was wearing an ankle monitor. You don’t see that every day. Hopefully he was allowed to be out and about. The next day we finished the drive to California without incident.
The next post will be about our stay in California during June, and my trip with my brother Wade and my mom to Montana to visit the world-famous Aunt Barbara and my cousins Mike and Ed and Mike’s wife Barbara. Until then, “monitor” as many bridges as you like.
PS. I just finished a Blog Link page that has a spreadsheet containing links to all of the places and things that have earned links so far. It will get updated as more links are added. Go check it out and learn how it came to be.
LINKS
River Bluff Brewing
