St Louis to Kansas City…

Woke around 8am and had a workout,  i asked the concierge last night if they had any details about going up the arch and was given a pamphlet saying the times, directions etc We had to check out at noon so packed all the bags so we could go see the arch, head back and then checkout straight away.

We went for the buffet breakfast in the hotel at 9ish, i just wanted a bagel and Kami wanted some hash browns and bacon. By the time we had added it all up it was cheaper to do the buffet breakfast at $15 a head, however i commented to the server that it would be an expensive bagel for me and she said she would only charge us for one buffet and to help ourselves!

After breakfast we walked the mile or so to the arch. It was early Saturday morning and the roads were real quiet not only with people but cars as well. I have to say i was surprised how nice St Louis was, the building were beautiful all around the city, i would have loved to have stayed longer and  had a better look round but it was the KC show tonight so we had to leave around midday and make the 4 hour drive to at least be able to check in the hotel before the show tonight.

Few buildings in St Louis.
     
     

I was  real surprised just how big the St Louis arch was,i had no idea till we got to the bottom of it that it was that big!! (yes i know if i had a nickel,lol) Id seen pictures of it online and when we drove into the city yesterday but the sheer size doesn't hit you till your stood at the bottom, it was nigh on impossible to take any pictures and fir the whole arch in the pictures when you were closer than 1.4 mile away!

Stainless steel arch                         The arch                               Kami pretending to be roger During Comfy Numb!
   
     

We made our way down to the entrance to go up the arch. The entrance was like going through airport security with x-ray and metal detectors. I was fine is tripped off everything that was metal and went through without a problem. However Kami was special!! She has a few plates and screws in her back due to surgery a few years ago and depending on the sensitivity of the the metal detector depends on whether it goes off when Kami walks through! This one must have been sensitive as the noise sounded and she was asked to go to one side to be searched!

Kamis back X-ray from a few years ago!!

We bought a ticket to go up the arch but out trip times wasn't for another 45 minutes, it said on the ticket that the trip was approximately 45 minutes to an hour long, it was then i realised it was gonna be way after noon when we got back to the hotel so i made a cal back to them to check we were ok with our bags in the room till we got back, it was fine with them. There's a couple of gift shops, an exhibition and a couple of other things all underground where you go to get to the top of the arch. Today they also had a few tables set up and around them were the actual people that built the arch all those years ago! They were selling large posters for a $ each and you were able to walk round the tables and get them to sign them! Had i been able to get a cardboard postal tube i would have gone and got one signed however i didn't like the idea of carrying the poster round me till we found a tube so i didn't bother.

Arch exhibition, pictures from the building of the arch and kami in a replica of one of the sections.

   

I had no idea at all how they've got visitors to the top, id been thinking about it the day before and didn't know if they had a lift that went half way and you walk the rest of it there was like  just steps that you had to climb! When i finally saw how you get to the top i was amazed! I've never seen anything like it before, not even sure if there is any other lift type thing like it anywhere else in the world!!

We were given a number and told to walk down to the door with that number, it was then that i saw the size of the door! it was no bigger than 4 feet high and probably about 18 inches wide! i had no idea what to expect when the door opened and what i did see was certainly not what i expected!

     

When the door opened there were 4 people inside that had come back down from the top, the exited to their right and i was then able to see five small white seats inside a white pod type enclosure that must have been no bigger than 5 feet by 5 feet!! i had to duck my head when i went through the door and keep my head ducked down in the pod for the whole four minute trip to the top!

The 5 person pod!            Kami getting in the pod.

 

The ride to the top of the arch!

It was ingenious how it worked, each pod was on a roller type system and as it went upwards it also rolled backwards to keep the pod level i was loving watching out of the small window as were going up but the couple who were in the pod was us were  a touch worried to say the least!

Once at the top there were a couple of steps to walk up before you actually reached the middle of the arch at the top, obviously the floor was slanted as you walked up to the middle and once there  there was very little head height for someone as tall as me!

At the top of the arch

 

The lookout windows although very narrow and small were cool as it actually gave you not only a great look outwards but they were angled downwards so you laid down in front of them and looked down toward the bottom.

The windows from the ground below     And from the inside                            St Louis through the lookout window

   

Looking straight down below!                Arch shadow                                     Bottom of the arch

  

The ride back down only took 3 minutes but was just as cool as coming up. we were in pod 8 both coming up and going down but with different people.

Ready to go back down      Kami in the pod!                                     Back on the ground

   

I loved going up the arch and it was definitely a highlight on my trip so far. Its something i would most certainly recommend anyone does if they are ever in St Louis, i would go up it again in a heartbeat and spend a lot more time up there than we were able to due to time constraints.

Few more pictures from the arch and around St Louis.

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Panorama picture from the top of the arch.


I just love these pictures i took when we were back on the ground as well.
    

We headed back to the hotel and checked out around 1pm, we had a four hour drive ahead of us and Kami wanted to stop on the way at a mall to pick a couple of things up from the Lush store. we did this and then headed out towards Kansas City and got there around 5pm without stopping at all on the way.

Day two in Kansas City..

It was a nice feeling today that i didn't have to get up to travel anywhere, hadn't got to be anywhere at a certain time of day and didn't have to meet up with anyone at any set time!

I love the pre show meet up and meeting up with friends but today Kami and  had a full day in Kansas City plus the night here and then fly out tomorrow. I just wanted to chill out today and do as little as possible. One thing i did want to do was go out for dinner tonight and sit down in a real nice restaurant, not be in any rush at all and just relax.

On the way to the venue for last nights show we saw a Chipotle Mexican place, as we didn't get to eat there last night we both agreed we’d go and have lunch there today.  I like this place and it turns out not only does Kami like it as well but half of the USA likes this chain of food according to the comments i got on my Facebook page after my status saying i was eating at Chipotle.  It was around 1:30 when we finally got there, I had one of the best workouts I've had so far this  morning at the hotel and was feeling great after having a shower and relaxing a little before heading out.

I had the burrito and Kami had the Tacos, it may not be the healthiest food around but man does that stuff taste good!

Chipotle Tacos                                          Chipotle Burrito!

 

After eating what seamed like a two pound burrito we walked around the are where we had been for last nights Halloween party after the show. It wasn't busy at all as its more a night time place with bars and restaurants

The outdoor plaza in Kansas City

   

Neither of us could believe how quiet it was out on the streets, ok it was Sunday afternoon but there wasn't a soul around and very little traffic on the roads.

The venue for last nights show.                    Downtown Kansas City

   

We both needed a couple of things from a store and were unable to find a Walgreens or seven eleven or anything so made our way back to the hotel with the intention of getting the car and driving around to find a store. We asked at the hotel lobby and were told there was a market store a couple of block down from the hotel. We walked back towards where we’d just come from and bought a couple of things and then headed back to the hotel. I fell asleep in my room on the bed and remember waking up and looking at the clock on the cabinet beside me, 4:30 it said in big red numbers, i looked around in the room, i had no idea where i was or whether it was 4:30am or 4:30pm! seriously, it was light outside but the room was kinda dark and i was totally disorientated for what must have only been ten seconds but seamed like thirty! it took me a while to remember where i was and what i was doing here!

When we walked down to the venue last night i spotted  a few nice restaurants with outdoor seating, it was real warm out last night but tonight it was a bit too cold to sit outside. We headed out to eat around 7pm and headed back down to the open air plaza expecting to see a few people dressed up in costumes as Halloween was actually tonight but i think most people celebrated it last night due to it being a Saturday. We saw little red riding hood and the wolf and a couple of people dressed up but the whole plaza was real quiet and it didn't look like anything would be going on tonight!
We walked past a couple of restaurants and read the menus and then carried on. We saw a real nice seafood grill place that looked exactly like the type of place i was looking for to eat. The food was  fantastic and it was even better when the waiter said that all their bottles of wine under $100 were half price tonight (i bet its the same very night! ) they didn't have the Ruffino gold that i like but they did have the regular Ruffino and at $18 for the bottle it was far cheaper than ordering a couple of glasses of house red!

For a starter we had goats cheese bruchetta, then i had the mesquite grilled Grouper on a bed of roasted bacon, corn and peppers with a light butter sauce. Kami had  the Ono with mashed Potatoes and Asparagus. Both meals were fantastic and i could have eaten there every night of the week! The desserts looked ok on the menu but the waiter told us they had a special that was 3 small espresso cups with plain, chocolate and orange Crème Brule in them, i LOVE Crème Brule and didn't even hesitate to order this. Kami did the same however she was wanting something with raspberries really and asked if it was possible to get any raspberries, the waited said he would see what he could do!  He came back to the table 5 minutes later with  3 small cups on a plate and 11 raspberries on the plate for Kami. Mine just came as regular with any raspberries but Kami did allow me to steal one of hers but only one.

Goat cheese Bruchetta                   Raspberry Crème Brule                      My plain Crème Brule

     

After dinner we went to see if there were any more people at the outdoor plaza but it was obviously just going to be a normal Sunday night around town and nothing special even though it was officially Halloween tonight.

We headed back to the hotel, got a pretty early night considering the times I've been going to bed the past few weeks and felt good from doing so the next day.

Cedar Rapids to St Louis….

We arrived at the Best Western hotel in Cedar Rapids later afternoon, went in the pool for half and hour and in the hot tub, it was nice just to relax and chill out after sitting down for the last few hours and especially after all the driving over the last few days. Neither Kami nor i were real hungry but when Kami mentioned she could eat some cake i thought i could eat some ice cream so we asked the receptionist at the hotel if there was anywhere we could go around to eat. She pointed us in the direction of a street about 3 miles away and said there's everything you could want! By the time we got there it was going on half past nine and most places close around 10pm out here in the Midwest so as a last resort we headed over to the god old ihop:)

I wasn't really hungry so went for the deep friend strawberry cheesecake with strawberries, ice cream, cream and other gooey stuff!  While sitting us at the table the waitress commented that they had their all you can eat pancake challenge on and that the record was nineteen so far so we would need to eat 20 to beat that!

10pm dinner!!                                             Quaker Oats factory

 

We drove back to the hotel, and i spotted the sign on the factory across the street, it was the Quaker oats factory, surely i would be able to get some oatmeal at the hotel in the morning for breakfast

Woke the next morning and we had a 4/5 hour drive ahead of us to get to St Louis, the scenery out here in the mid west consists of one thing, fields of grain and nothingness! The drive down to St Louis was pretty uneventful, we listened to the radio, Kami’s Ipod (well until she broke it!) and stopped once on the way down for a snack from memory but i honestly cant remember now, That's why i hate getting a few days behind with the blog because if i don't do it right away then i forget a long of the things that's happened. Gonna make sure i keep up with it every day now as best i can which is easier said that done!

Couple of things we saw on the drive down

Seriously ?

 

First view of the St Louis arch

   

We got into St Louis around 2pm, my friend Chris Manger and his dad and two friends were driving down from Indiana and were due to arrive around 3 o clock. It was the St Louis show tonight and we were all gonna get dinner before the show. We ate at the Hotel bistro and ad a great laugh chatting about Tattoos and Chris’s obsession with the people of Wal-Mart website!

Around 7pm e walked over to the venue that was literally across the street from the hotel where we were staying.

Goodbye Kansas City…

So its Monday the 1st November at 1:30pm central time and I'm sat on a flight from Kansas City To Baltimore, I'm then on another flight to Le Guardia however i had a text message on my phone before i left Kansas to say the connecting flight had been delayed 4 hours so I'm not expecting to get into New York now until around 10pm tonight as opposed to my scheduled time of 7pm! Kami also flew out of KC 5 minutes before me to Baltimore, she is expected in around 7pm so who knows maybe I'll see here there!

Woke around 9am this morning, had a shower, packed my case and collected the car from the front of the hotel.he ride to the airport was about 25 minutes according to the GPS and our flights left around 1:30 so there wasn't any rush at all. half way to the airport i noticed the gas gauge was well below zero and instead of saying  on the dash you have XX amount of miles left before your fuel runs out it actually said “low fuel” so I'd no idea how much gas we had left or how many miles we would last! i had to take the rental car back with a full tank so i hit the GPS’s fuel stops button and the nearest gas station was three miles away. Kami was sat on the edge of her seat panicking if we’d make it! it didn't help when i messed about with the gas peddle  as i was driving making it seem that we HAD run out of gas, she calmed down when we saw another gas station  1/4 mile down the street though:)

Filled up with gas, dove out to the airport and dropped off the rental car. I was flying out of Terminal B and Kami was going out of Terminal C, we called at my terminal, i waited inline for 20 minutes, checked my back and then got the red shuttle bus over to Terminal C, the line at Continentals desk wasn't long at all which was good as we didn't have a lot of time before both our flights left. It was now 12:30 and both our flights left at 1:30pm. It wasn't till Kami tried to check in that we realised her flight was operated by United under a Continentals code share. What did this mean ? well it meant we now had to get the red bus and travel over to Terminal A to check in for Kami’s flight. So in the space of 30 minutes we’d seen the sights of all three terminals of Kansas City Airport and  also worked out the red bus drive must visit each terminal once every 12 minutes, approx 4 times an hour and probably does that route 36 times a day 5 or 6 days a week! the things you do while your bored on an airport courtesy bus!

So Kami got to Terminal A, we said our goodbyes and i just got on the red bus to go back to terminal B when i received a text on my phone to say my flight connection from Baltimore was delayed from 5pm until 8pm!! ugghh

I went through security and headed down to my Southwest flight for the two and a half hour trip to Baltimore.

Kami lives in Woodbridge, VA and the flights were twice the price for her to fly direct into Washington DC so she took a flight into Baltimore too where her mom would pick her up, however she wasn't able to get on the Southwest flight that i was on so was flying United via Chicago and would arrive in Baltimore at 7pm. Had my connection onto New York being on time we would have missed each other but as my flight was delayed till 7:45 there was a chance i could see her and get to see Beth again one last time. Kami landed at 6:50 and we met up as she came through the gate, headed down to the baggage claim and her mom was sooooo surprised to see me. Her face was nearly as shocked as mine when she got me up in Omaha. We had a 5 minutes chat, i said my goodbyes and then ran from Terminal C to terminal A where i was departing from, security was good and there was no lines and i went straight through. As i got to the gate for my flight i could see the seats were empty and the guy who collected my boarding pass said i just made it! as i went down the ramp towards the plane he closed the door and followed me down!! I've never been that close on missing a flight before!! It had boarded early and was due to leave right away.

Beth and I in Baltimore

So its now  about 7:30pm I'm sat on the flight to New York where I'm staying with my friend Brad & Julee again for the next five nights, looking forward to chilling out tomorrow and maybe meeting up with my friend Ellie for lunch and then just relaxing for a day and maybe doing some shopping in New York.

Omaha day two…….

I didn't get too good a nights sleep last night, i think its just the change of scenery every night, the different beds and maybe the 12 hours of driving the day before!

I woke around 6:00am (or so i thought!) and surfed around online for over an hour before i heard Beth and her mom and dad wake up a while later and asked me to come down to join them for breakfast. Cereal, toast and cranberry juice:) it was then i noticed the clock on the microwave , it said 7:30am, this confused me a little as i knew id been up for more than an hour at least  and it was then i realised that although i had put the clock in my car back an hour yesterday onto central time i hadn't changed the clock on my laptop! so this morning when i was surfing around at what i thought was 6am was actually 5am!!

Beth's mom and dad had plans mid morning today and would be back around 10:30, Beth wanted to go to the store for something so i offered to take her and her mom and drive them back. I drove down to pick Kami up around ten thirty, i sat in Sue's Kitchen and watched the deer's in the back garden for 15 minutes while i waited for Kami to get ready.

We then headed back up to the house and Kami Beth, Ellie and i drove in my car to the store and Beth's dad drive there in his truck, we met up at Paneras and had a sandwich and sop for lunch before driving over to Kohl's and dropping Beth and Ellie off. Kami and i walked up the street to Wal-Mart and although i saw a few mullets around the store it was possible for me to take pictures of them. My good friend Chris M is a huge fan of the pictures of Wal-Mart store and id promised him id try to snap a few pictures while i was going around the US. There was one lady that had obviously had her grey hair dyed Ginger at some point but hadn't had it cut since it her roots had grown out, however this must have been several months if not years ago as the first 12 inches of her hair was now grey and the bottom 8 inches was ginger!!

After wondering round looking for mullets Kami and i went back to the car and Beth and Ellie had just finished shopping. Beth began to tell me about the bridge to nowhere and said we would go see it before the show, i was intrigued!

After getting back to Beth's parents Kami and i went back down to Sue's and i took Dinah the dog for a walk.

Walking Dinah                          Deer in woods behind Sue's house
 

Kami got ready for tonight's show and we headed back up to the other house. I jumped in the shower and freshened up and Susan and her husband Mike picked us all up in their minivan at around 4:00, we had booked a restaurant for 5:30 in downtown Omaha.

We first headed out to the”bridge to nowhere” this is a bridge that was built a few years ago from one side of the river to the other, the bridge spans the state of Nebraska and the state of Iowa.

All of us on the windy bridge!               Kami and Beth in different states!        Me in both states

   

Panorama of the bridge to nowhere:

At the Iowa side of the bridge there is literally nothing!! it just ends in fields of marshes and swamps!

    

After walking back over the bridge and back to the minivan we drove 5 minutes towards the restaurant and parked the car.

The restaurant was very similar to the one we all ate at in Washington DC a couple of weeks ago, it was primarily a steak house but also had salads, pasta and burgers. I went for the rib eye steak while Beth, Sue and Mike went for the House special which was an Omaha Fillet.

 

We had a great chat over dinner of how Sue had met Mike. Beth's husband mark used to fly B52 bombers in the air force and his navigator later became Beth's sisters husband! it was fun hearing stories of the B52 flights and one especially which Beth typed up below for my blog:

“Some of you know that Gonzo was a former B52 pilot. During the time that he was a co-pilot and a young first lieutenant (1979-1981) we were stationed at Minot AFB in North Dakota, and every crew in the bomb squadron took a turn being deployed to Guam for a month doing training exercises. The guys would go over with shopping lists for rosewood, jade, opals, pearls, and bigger furniture items like roll-top desks with in-laid jade on marble tops. Since they couldn’t leave the island of Guam in the bomber, the tanker (air refueling) crews could fly down to the Philippines with the shopping lists and fill the orders. They would bring back all the stuff to Guam, and transfer it over to the B52’s Where do you store papasan chairs and roll-top desks… why in the bomb bays of course. Since the training exercises didn’t require the use of conventional weapons, there was plenty of room in the bomb bay to strap down all this furniture and bring it back to Minot.
As we were relaying this story to Simon, I jumped in with “I bet tonight when Roger plays ‘Goodbye, Blue sky’ and you’re looking at the backdrop of the bombers and the bomb bay doors opening, you’ll think of roll-top desks falling out of the sky…..”
 
Sure enough at that nights show and the subsequent nights I've thought of that roll top desk falling from the animation:)
Kami and i headed down to the venue around 7pm as we were meeting up with Dave K before the show for a chat, we met up with the others before the start of the show and i told Beth and Kami i would see what i could d about bringing them down to the floor for the second half.
More pictures from the day in Omaha:

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Omaha day one continued….

So Beth, Kami and i walked over to Beth's sister Sue's for her to introduce me and figure out what time we were meeting tomorrow and meeting up for the show etc.

Her sister lived about a 10 minute walk away in a real nice neighbourhood and the area that backs onto their house is a mass of wild turkey's, squirrels, birds and wild deer! Its a real woodland type neighbourhood and Susan pointed out to me there was a Jogging/running track right across the street. I hadn't run for a few days but I'd also just driven 730 miles in just under 12 hours so didn't feel like going for a run now and wasn't really sure how i would feel in the morning, I'd also just had the biggest shock of my life with Kami jumping out of the closet and it was still sinking in that Her and Beth had pulled something like that off to surprise me!

I met Sue and one of her sons and Beth arranged the details for them to pick us up tomorrow around 4:30 to head down to the venue, see a little of downtown Omaha and to have dinner before the show.

Susan's family had a beautiful dog called Dinah and as most people who know me I'm a huge animal lover and would love to live in an area like they do with the wild deer running around in the back fields.

  
We walked back over Beth's parents and hung out and chatted in the living room for a couple of hours, just talking about travel, the UK, the USA and me trying to explain to Beth's dad the idea behind the game of cricket!! Kami, Beth and i watched a bit of TV before Beth went to bed after an hour, i then drove Kami down to Sue's where she ws staying and i headed back up to Beth's parents where i was staying.

Just got to Kansas City……

AMAZING show last night in St Louis, had a great day today going up the St Louis arch, then drove over to KC. Off out for food, then the show then we have a full day and night here tomorrow and then fly out to New Jersey on Monday. Halloween here tomorrow, never been in the US before on Halloween so that should be fun! Just gonna find a fun bar and enjoy the night tomorrow.

Will catch up in a couple of days, have a few days in New York next week and time to be able to put a few pictures up and write a few things up.