This post covers both of our stays in St. Joseph, including the famous Culver BBQ, and our trip to Texas to return Dan B to his house and visit Corrianne at her house.

St. Joseph, Part 1

On our first full day back, we met the Culver’s at Felix Street Gourmet’s Room 108, where the Culvers are members. Since there was an event going on in the main area, we went to the rooftop patio.

From the roof top, you have a very good view of the downtown square area.

We had a delicious dinner, some wine, and had a great time catching up. Both Felix Street Gourmet and Room 108 (if you’re a member or know one) are worth the visit. Check out their links at the end of this post.

The next day I had to have my truck’s windshield replaced due to a large crack. Scott picked me up from the repair shop and we went and did some thrift shopping looking for golf clubs and Scott’s outfit for next year’s chili cook off. We struck out on the clubs, but Scott scored on a suit.

On Thursday (day 3 if you’re counting), we all went down to the Summit Grill in Gladstone, just outside of Kansas City. The food there is outstanding. I had the Nashville Hot Chicken Sandwich, and it was off the charts good. Cindy and Sylvia split the Grilled Chicken & Goat Cheese Salad, which they enjoyed immensely. I don’t remember what Scott and Heather ate, but they loved their food as well. There is a link at the end of this post. After lunch, Scott and Bobby had their golf league at the Copper Hill Golf Club, also the home to Prestyn’s Wine Bar. Since the golf league was short players on that day, I was able to golf as a substitute. After golf, the girls joined us at Prestyn’s for some food and drinks. A great time was had by all. Of course, the golf and wine have links at the end of this post.

On Saturday morning, I drove down to the airport and picked up Dan who had flown in for the Culver’s BBQ bonanza. Later that day, we all attended the BBQ at the Culver’s house. As usual, there were lots of people and even more food. Here are Cindy and Sylvia working on a tray of smoked pork, turning it into pulled pork.

Here is just a sampling of some of the food. There was smoked/pulled pork, my personal favorite cupcake chicken, bacon wrapped chicken drumsticks, smoked brisket, smoked pork ribs, baked beans, deviled eggs, several different types of green salad, macaroni salad, potato salad, cheese and crackers, and even more. It is safe to say if you left hungry, it was your own fault.

Here are a few of the hungry guests.

A great time was had by all.

On Sunday, Dan and I drove down to Kansas City, Missouri to do some sightseeing. Our first stop was at the Mormon Temple. It was erected in 2012 and is a beautiful building with well-manicured grounds.

Our next stop was in Independence, Missouri where we saw the shiny metal spire that is the headquarters for the Community of Christ church, an off shoot of Mormonism, but different than the core Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That being said, the building was unique and worth taking a look at. We also visited the Mormons’ Independence Visitors’ Center across the street. That was interesting as well. If you are interested in visiting yourself, there is a link at the end of this post.

We finished off with a visit to the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum. Dan loves to visit presidential libraries and this one was no exception. This was my second visit, and it was still enjoyable. Go see it for yourself. There is a link at the end of this post.

On Monday, Dan and I were scheduled to golf with Scott and Bobby at the Paradise Point Golf Complex at Smithville Lake. The morning started with rain and a pretty strong thunderstorm. To me, a thunderstorm means no golf as it is not wise to wave lightning rods around in a thunderstorm. In Missouri, a thunderstorm only means a delay in golfing, not a cancellation. Here is what it looked like looking out from the club house during the “delay.”

Once the storm cleared, we were off. The course was wet, but in great shape.

Once again, a great time was had by all. While we were golfing, Cindy and Heather were dropping Sylvia off at the airport so she could fly home to California.

Spring, Texas

The next day we drove to Dallas, Texas and dropped Dan off at a parking lot where he had parked for his flight to St. Joe. From there, we headed down to Spring, Texas to spend a few days with Corrianne. This time we were able to spend the night at her house in her spare bedroom. On the drive to Spring, Big Red (my truck), passed 100,000 miles.

We were able to spend three full days on this visit. On our first full day, we went to lunch with her neighbors across the street, Frank and Irmgard. They have been very welcoming to Corrianne and have baked her bread several times. It was nice spending some time with them. They are truly nice people. That night, Corrianne made us a delicious stir fry dinner.

On our second day, Corrianne started her new job at a Catholic School in downtown Houston. This left Cindy and I to do our own sightseeing, shopping, a few home repairs, etc. When Corrianne returned home, she filled us in on her first day, a good one. We had to have dinner at Torchy’s Tacos, our favorite taco place in south Texas. We were joined by Alex, Corrianne’s boyfriend. Dinner was outstanding. Yes, there is a link. You know where it is.

On our last full day, Corianne headed off to work and it was more of the same for Cindy and I. Once Corrianne returned, we met Alex at the Olive Oil restaurant in The Woodlands, an amazing Greek restaurant with a belly dancer and Greek dancing. Here are the male dancers.

Here is the belly dancer with a light up cape that sort of looked like wings.

This is the belly dancer teaching diners how to belly dance.

And here she is dancing at the table right next to us.

The food was beyond delicious, and the dancing was very good. This is a really fun place and a must visit when in The Woodlands. Feel free to use the link at the end of this post.

On our travel day back home, we started by having breakfast with Corrianne. It was a short trip, but very enjoyable. Her new house now feels like a home, and she has done a great job with it.

On our drive home, we stopped at the Buc-ee’s in Madisonville, Texas. We love Buc-ee’s and stop there every chance we get. This was our first time stopping on a weekend day (Saturday), and we were shocked at how crowded it was. Apparently, Buc-ee’s is an actual destination on the weekends, and not just a place to stop for gas, snacks and a clean bathroom. There was literally a traffic jam just trying to get into the parking lot. Here is what the inside of the store looked like.

Then to add to the chaos, the Buc-ee mascot appeared.

We still love Buc-ee’s, but may have to avoid it on the weekends. We were back on the road, and it took us a little over 12 hours to get back to our house in St. Joseph. Thankfully, the drive was relatively event free.

St. Joseph, Part 2

On our first day back, we drove with the Culvers down to Scott’s parents’ (Nancy and Denby) house, for a delicious lunch. Nancy made baked ham and cheese sandwiches with some homemade pies for dessert. There was a lemon pie and a coconut pie. Everything was delicious. If Denby and Nancy’s house was a restaurant, they would have earned a link.

A few nights later, we went to the Den for their monthly “new drink” tasting event. By we, I mean Cindy, Heather, Bobby, and myself. Scott had to coach basketball and Machelle was working. This is a fun monthly event where you get to taste and rate the new drinks that they have come up with for the month’s menu. We have done it twice before and it is a really good time. Here is a picture of half of Bobby, Cindy deep in thought, and Heather just having fun.

Here are two pictures of the inside of the Den.

And here is the picture of a really cool drink I had that was unique to the Den. It is called a Pilot. It was made with rye whiskey (my favorite), cigar syrup (a smokey sweetener), and cinnamon & clove bitters. It also had a burning piece of bark in it to simulate a lit cigar. It was fun to look at and tasted delicious.

As with our previous visits, we had a really good time and will return. Check it out for yourself. There is a link at the end of this post.

The next day, Scott, Bobby and I went to Copper Hill Golf Club to try and get 18 holes in. The problem was there were rain and thunderstorms predicted for the afternoon, so we were going to try and beat them. I knew it was going to be a wet day when my outside thermometer read 89% humidity as I was leaving.

Before we started our round, Bobby gave me a new golf hat. Here it is and I must say I look quite dapper.

On to the golf. Right after we hit our first shots on the first hole, the skies opened up and it poured. The good news is we were right next to the club house, so we went inside for the 10 minutes it rained. Once the rain stopped, we were off again. Here is Scott hitting a shot and Bobby hitting one from behind his cart.

We finished the first nine and started on the second nine. Two holes into the second nine, it started to lightly rain. That wasn’t really the problem. The thunder we kept hearing was the problem. Even though we never saw any lightning, there was definite thunder. I’m not a real worry wart, but I’m not a fan of waving lightning rods around in a thunderstorm. But Scott and Bobby both were sure the storm was to the north of us and we were safe. I looked around the course and not one person had left. Everyone else was still golfing too. I figured everyone else must know more than I do, or we were all going to get fried together. We finished the round without anyone being struck by lightning, but my game suffered a bit as I was quick to swing and get the lightning rod out of my hand.

That evening, we went with the Culvers to Weston and had dinner at the Tin Kitchen with his cousin John and John’s wife Dana. The Tin Kitchen was outstanding, as usual. It is very link worthy and there is one at the end of this post. After dinner, we went to John and Dana’s house and socialized in their backyard. They have a great view of Platte City from their backyard, and it was nice seeing the city lit up at night.

The next day, Cindy and I ran errands in the morning, and I got to be a golf sub at Copper Hill Golf Club for the men’s league again. After golf, we got cleaned up and Cindy and I drove Scott and Heather to Adam’s Bar and Grill where we met Bobby and Machelle for dinner. This was our second time eating at Adam’s and it was really good this time as well. If you’re staying in St. Joseph, or just passing through, Adam’s is worth the stop. Use the link at the end of this post for more information.

On Friday evening, Cindy and I hosted a neighborhood open house wine and cheese event. We invited everyone in our housing tract and had a pretty good showing with at least a third of the tract showing up. Everyone seemed to have a real good time and I can see us doing something like that again in the future. The next day, Scott and Heather dropped us off at the airport and we flew home.

This flight was not free from nonsense, but it showed how a company handles a mistake is very important. After our horrible experience with the airline that will never be named again, I cancelled their related credit card and switched to Southwest so we can start earning points there. On our flight home, we paid a little extra so we could have a direct flight from Kansas City to Burbank, via Oakland.

First, some airline terminology. A non-stop flight is one that goes from point A to point B without stopping. This is the best flight in my opinion as it has the least chance of something going wrong. Typically, these are also the most expensive flights because they are convenient, and more people want them. Next are direct flights. A direct flight is a flight that will take you from point A to point B without you getting off of the plane, but the plane with make at least one stop before it gets to point B. That was our flight. We had taken this flight once before, and it takes longer than a non-stop flight, but is way easier than having to change planes. Our flight was supposed to fly to Oakland, let some passengers off while some others get on, then continue on to Burbank with us still on board. Pretty simple, at least it was the first time. Not so much this time. We landed in Oakland and they made their normal announcements telling all of the disembarking passengers with connecting flights what gate to go to and so on. When the plane was about half empty, they made a new announcement that if you were going to Burbank, you needed to get off the plane and go to Gate 20 for your connecting flight. Huh?!? We asked the flight attendant if that was correct and were told that plane was not flying anymore that day and we need to get to gate 20. We gathered our things and started heading toward gate 20 from gate 26. It was only about a quarter of a mile walk, and luckily we didn’t dally, because as we got closer to our gate, we realized they were halfway through boarding. We should have boarded with group A, but ended up boarding at the back of Group B. It wasn’t that big of a deal, we still got to sit together, just further back on the plane than we normally are. As we flew to Burbank, it occurred to me that if we barely made it on the plane, there was no way our luggage was going to make it. Fast forward to baggage claim at Burbank, and no bags. No shocker there. I went to the baggage claim room for Southwest and talked to a very friendly employee. They looked up our flight and confirmed our bags were in Oakland. Here was the make-or-break point for Southwest. How were they going to handle this? The friendly employee said I had two options. When the bags came into Burbank, most likely the next day, they could deliver them to our house free of charge. Impressive. Or….I could come down and pick them up and receive a $300 credit toward future travel. You can call me the suitcase Uber, because I chose to pick them up and get the moola. And when I went down the next day, it was a very smooth process to get our bags and credit. One thumb up to Southwest. The only issue left was the extra cost for the direct flight that was not direct. The next day I called Southwest Customer Service and spoke to another friendly employee. I explained my situation, she confirmed it on her computer, and after apologizing, gave each of us a $100 flight credit for future travel. That was more than I expected. Then she realized we had paid $50 for the early bird check in. I explained we had used it in Kansas City when we boarded. She pointed out we didn’t get to use it in Oakland and refunded the $50 to our credit card. Now that is customer service, and I am a loyal Southwest customer. Two thumbs up to them and a link as well.

If the luck of the Irish stays with us, the next several posts will be about our 16-day trip to Ireland with Sylvia. Until then, “May the road rise to meet you!”

LINKS

Felix Street Gourmet

Felix Street Gourmet Room 108

Summit Grill – Gladstone

Copper Hill Golf Club

Prestyn’s Wine Bar

Independence Visitors’ Center

Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum

Paradise Point Golf Complex

Torchy’s Tacos

The Olive Oil Restaurant

The Den

Tin Kitchen

Adam‘s Bar and Grill

Southwest Airlines