Amarillo by Morning

Day 27 – Kansas City, MO

Today was our longest travelling day of the trip.  We got on the road at 5:00 am Mountain Time to begin the over 900 mile journey from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Kansas City, Missouri with a stop in the middle in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  The ride was very long and, for the most part, very flat and not too exciting.  In fact, I cannot think of one interesting thing that we say in the entire 14+ hours of driving.  I take that back.  We did drive past Guthrie, Oklahoma.  There was a sign that said “Explore Guthrie” but I didn’t get a picture.  And people said "Howdy" when we stopped in Amarillo for gas.  Other than that, the closest we got to excitement was seeing the hometowns of Roger Miller (Erick, OK – sang “King of the Road”) and Garth Brooks (Yukon, OK).

As I mentioned, we went a bit out of the way to make a stop in Oklahoma City.  It wasn’t exactly on the way from Albuquerque to KC, but Amy and I wanted to stop and see the Memorial where the Murrah Federal Building once stood.  It was a very beautiful memorial.  I don’t know how to put these kinds of things into words, so I’ll just show the pictures. 

The observation deck, the Survivor's Tree, and the West Wall

The childrens' area.

The empty chairs, one for each victim.  Smaller chairs represent children.

Arrowhead on the left, Kauffman on the right.

We arrived in Kansas City at about 8:30 pm Central Time.  While our hotel is a little dated and nothing fancy at all, I was incredibly excited that it is across the street from both Arrowhead Stadium (home of the Chiefs) and Kauffman Stadium (home of the Royals).  I requested a west-facing room, so we are now on the top floor with a balcony overlooking both stadiums.  Amy laughed at me and was not nearly as excited as I am, but I still think it’s pretty cool.

We wanted to take advantage of our one night in KC, so we decided to experience two of the thinkgs it is best known for: the Blues and BBQ.  We headed to a place called BB’s Lawnside BBQ & Blues which I had seen featured on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain on the travel Channel.  It has actually been featured on multiple shows, but I had only caught the appearance on No Reservations.

All I should have to tell you about BB’s is that the two most prominent neon beer signs behind the band were for PBR and Schlitz.  To put it simply, it was awesome; the restaurant is a total dive in the best sort of way.  We got there just after 9:00 as the band was firing up.  There are no individual tables, just big, long, checkered table cloth covered tables with multiple groups at each table.  The walls are covered with blues memorabilia and murals depicting all the famous bluesmen hanging out at a blues joint.  Strung from the rafters are random strings of Christmas and chili pepper lights as well as more memorabilia.  Amy’s favorite was a banner showing a pig, napkin tied around the neck and knife and fork in hand, ready to dig into some grub.

 We sat down at the end of one of the tables and looked over the menu as the music filled up the not-so-big dining room.  We decided to get two dinners and share, ordering pork rib tips and beef burnt ends served with pit beans, white bread, pickles, and battered fries.  All of the meat is smoked in a 60 year old pit, and the smells hit you before you even enter the door (in fact, our clothes smell like we spent the whole night grilling out ourselves).  As we waited for our food, we enjoyed the fantastic music being performed by the Dave Mays band, a three piece group with drums, bass, and Dave Mays on lead guitar.  I took video so if I can figure out how to post it, I will.

Rib tips on the bottom, burnt ends on top.  Both with white bread, battered
fries, pickles, and pit beans.

Everything about the meal was perfect.  The food comes in a basket lined with a checkered paper napkin and a white plastic plate inside.  On top of the plate they put the two pieces of white bread and then cover it with the meat and drench it in Kansas City style BBQ sauce (KC BBQ is usually smoked, includes all types of meats - not just beef and pork, and the sauce is tomato and molasses based).  Around the meat are the sides which included pit beans cooked with honey glazed ham or pork belly (couldn’t tell which), loads of pickles, and battered fries which are huge, deep-fried hunks of potato.  The sides were fantastic, but the meat was to die for.  Amy’s favorite was the burnt ends (the burnt ends of a beef brisket), but my favorite were the rib tips.  The portions were huge and we both ate ourselves in to a meat induced food coma.  The service was also fantastic as I ever saw the bottom of my sweet tea and Amy had a new PBR before she was done with her first.  Incredible music, outstanding food, and a perfect ambiance – we couldn’t have hope for more.

Tomorrow, we spend a little time exploring KC (ok, we’re just gonna go check out the two stadiums – guess whose idea that was…) before sampling one more famous KC BBQ joint (Arthur Bryant’s).  Then, it’s off to St. Louis to hang out with Adam, Erin, and Audrey Taves for a couple days.