The True Blue Tradition

Viva Kansas City! After a mediocre stay in Denver, Cristy and I had a great time today in Kansas City.

The day started with a trip to Kauffman Stadium, home of your Kansas City Royals. The stadium is about 15 minutes southwest of town in the center of a parking lot. A big parking lot -- one they actually share with the Chiefs' Arrowhead Stadium. It's interesting -- I hate the Chiefs but I've always been fond of the Royals...

We didn't have tickets, so we purchased two at the stadium box office. They were good seats -- down the line in right, just past the infied, maybe 25 rows from the field. It struck us as soon as we walked in -- Kauffman is a great ballpark. The upper deck has this neat way of sloping down as it reaches the outfield, the giant crown scoreboard was impressive, and the fountains/waterfalls were spectacular. (Cristy loved the watefalls.) The stadium was very cozy -- not too big like Coors was. It's not flashy or expensive -- just a solid Midwestern ballpark and a great place to watch a baseball game. We really enjoyed it.

When we entered I got an embrodiered Royals bathroom case for Father's Day (guys only!). The Royals fans near us were all great fans. They cheered hard for Alex Gordon, despite his struggles, and the only irritating fans were irritating for being /too/ in to the game. This wasn't like the trendy Colorado Rockies crowd -- it was families for Father's Day and genuine baseball fans. It improved the whole experience.

The game itself was a bit closer than the one we saw at Coors. The Royals took the lead early, the Marlins came back to tie, and then Esteban German got the winning hit around the 6th inning. The Marlins had a chance to tie in the 7th before Zach Grienke shut them down. Final score was 5-4 in favor of the home nine.

After the game we went back to our hotel to take showers -- it was only 84 degrees at first pitch, but sitting in the sun (as we did for the second half of the game) felt a lot hotter. A lot hotter. Unfortunately though, our hotel is real crummy -- and we have no Internet! Eleventh hotel of the trip, and the first one where the Internet wasn't functioning. So we hopped in the car in search of Internet and ended up at a Panera Bread in Overland Park. Not the epitome of convenience.

After taking care of some Internet things, we went for an authentic Kansas City BBQ dinner at Hayward's BBQ Pit. It got good reviews online, was near where we were, and was an independent place (not some chain). And let me tell you, the place delivered. I don't know much about what makes Kansas City barbecue so special, but what made this place delicious was the sauce. It wasn't hot or tangy or vinegary -- just a perfect, mild barbecue sauce. Very good.

Tomorrow will be the last day of our trip. We're heading to St. Louis (only 250 miles!) where we'll see the Cardinals and Royals at Busch Stadium tomorrow night. Then on Tuesday, we're going to head back to Nashville to rest, recover, and eat some square meals again.

It's hard to think that after 4,000 miles and so many memories that the trip is almost over. Neither of us want it to end but all trips must. We'll blog about St. Louis tomorrow and then have some wrap-up things in the next few days.