Fall 2013 Trip to Kansas City - The Journey West

This is my third trip to Kansas City this year.  Normally I try to make it after Thanksgiving so I can enjoy the lights on the Country Club Plaza but this year Marilyn and I will be spending some time with our cousins Andy and Lois Sciolaro on a tour of the prairie.  They live just outside Wichita Kansas and it seemed a better chance for good weather now rather than early December.  As often happens, Marilyn is flying in on Friday and then the two of us will drive back together, visiting friends and family along the way.

I left early Sunday morning and made good progress even through some heavy downpours and strong winds between Buffalo and Erie.  This confirmed my decision to make this trip now rather than early December when those heavy downpours would have been WHITE!  Originally I had thought about stopping in Morgantown to visit Brendan and company for a day.  It is not exactly on the way but it does break the drive into two doable segments.  As it turned out, they were not going to be home that weekend but rather at a soccer tournament in Dayton Ohio where Braden and Brock were playing.  I thought perhaps we might pass each other on I-70 and thus there was a possibility of lunch together in Columbus.  As it turned out, however, both of them were playing in championship games with Braden's starting at 1:45 just as I would be passing by about 15 north on I-70.  As a result I took a two hour break and got to see them and see Braden's team win their championship game.  Click here to see some photos of her game.

I got back on the road and was able to listen to the Kansas City Chiefs game against Houston on ESPN radio.  I got to my stopping point in Terre Haute in time to watch the fourth quarter and see them win a close one to become, as it turned out, the only undefeated NFL team at the end of week seven.  I watched most of the Denver game and look forward to four weeks from now when the Chiefs go to Denver for their first of two games.

I left Terre Haute early the next morning and with the time change and good weather got to Kansas City before noon.  Mom looks wonderful and, as always, it was great to see her and get settled in.  That evening we had dinner with Anola who was leaving the next day for a three week trip to Hong Kong and the a tour of China.  Anola and Peter's son Gerry and his wife Kara live there due to Gerry's job as an editor with the New York Times International Edition, formerly the International Herald Tribune.

As soon as I arrived, Mom told me that she had lost her purse but eventually found in her apartment.  I was quite surprised at her answer when i asked her where it had been found.  "The dish washer," she said calmly.  Since Mom has, to my knowledge, never used her dishwasher...fortunately in this case, I asked her how it how come to be there.  She had no idea but since she uses it to store other items, it must have just hopped in by herself when she wasn't looking.