Monday, April 12, 2010

SOX in KC!


Click HERE to see photos from the trip or view in the slide show at the end.

Well, it was quite the spontaneous weekend to say the least. While watching the Red Sox play the Royals on Friday evening, Melissa came up with the idea to drive to Kansas City on Saturday and see the Sox play game two of their three game weekend series. I thought she was crazy, since we already had plans for the weekend and KC is 600+ miles and 9+ hours from our house. So she called her dad, Rich, and proposed the road trip to him. He was game and soon I was talked into it as well.

Rich showed up to our house at 6:30 a.m. on Sat. and we started the drive through one of the most uninteresting parts of the US, Eastern Colorado and Kansas. Not much to see other than signs at every little town saying that they are the birthplace of this famous person or president, or home to a museum with five legged cows, an 8,000 lb prairie dog, or the National Greyhound Hall of Fame. The Eastern part of Kansas seemed to be completely on fire with grass fires for as far as the eye could see and smoke blocking our views of the flat plains. But cops and residents in these areas seemed to not really care, so must be a typical spring occurrence.

We made great time and got to our hotel, which was across the street from the park, a couple hours before game time. We donned our Red Sox apparel and headed to the park with quite a few other Sox fans. It was a beautiful evening and the stands were almost full. They were giving away Royals jerseys to the first 20k fans, so the place filled up fast. Best tix we could get at the gate were in the upper deck, but the stadium is pretty intimate so the view was just fine. A great game that held our attention to the end and the Sox won 8-3.


We were high on the win and the 600 miles of driving, so we headed down to the ticket counter after the game and decided to get tickets to Sundays game as well. Better seats this time. Back at the hotel we wondered into the lobby bar and got a drink with a ton of other Sox fans. Chants of "Yankees Suck" popped up with the occasional "Sweet Caroline" being belted out by the happy crowd. 14,000 miles from Boston and the Nation was alive and kicking!


After a great nights sleep, we drove into downtown and walked around. It was dead in the business district so we headed towards the river and stumbled upon City Market, a great outdoor marketplace with everything from fruit and veggies, to spices and nuts, and yard sales and flowers. We grabbed a coffee and strolled around the plaza. Not about to pass up some fresh spices for $1 a scoop we grabbed a few bags as well as some peanuts for the game and then headed to lunch.

Our friend Mario suggested Arthur Bryant's as the place to go in KC for BBQ. The receptionist at the hotel also suggested another place. We figured asking a local would help, so Rich asked an old man with no teeth who looked like a local at the market. "I love Arthur Bryant's and they give you the most meat", he said. So between that and Mario's tip, we knew exactly where to go. The line was down the sidewalk even before they opened, so it had to be good. And boy was it! Fall off the bone ribs and delicious sweet pulled pork. I think we ate too much, and so did Wally!


Back to the ballpark. We checked out of our room and headed across the street. Half as many in the stands today. Guess the Royals fans only come out for the free shirts. There was a sea of red in the lower level and it was nice to cheer on the Sox with a ton of fellow fans. The weather was beautiful again for the 1:05 p.m. start and the Sox belted a bunch or runs to put us up early. The Royals made a bit of a comeback, but not quite enough as the Sox took two of three on the weekend with an 8-6 win.


Back to the car and a looooooong drive to Denver (thanks for driving most of the way Rich!). It was well worth the drive to see our beloved Red Sox win two. We are looking froward to the three game series in Denver vs the Rockies in June. We have tix to all three and the drive will be much easier!

GO SOX!!

Click HERE to see photos from the trip or view in the slide show below: