Sunday we packed up and continued west along US-10 towards Minneapolis. Along the way, for lunch, we stopped at a little roadside diner, Angel's Hwy 63 Diner (in case you are wondering why it is the Hwy 63 Diner; US-10 and WI-63 are the same highway at this point), in Ellsworth Wisconsin. It looked like others had the same idea as two couples, who were together, followed by 3 couples, traveling together in a couple of RVs, arrived just before us. Not a lot of people but for this small hole in the wall, it appeared to be a bit overwhelming so we had a bit of a wait for our meals. That said, the chef's salad as well as the eggs with sausages (and sourdough toast with PB) were more than decent.
Continuing along US-10 we crossed into Minnesota and soon found ourselves in the southern suburbs of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St Paul) on our way to the KOA in Jordan, about 35 minutes south of downtown Minneapolis. Along the way we nearly witnessed another case of folks driving too fast and following too close. We came upon the scene some minutes after it happened. It appears one car must have slowed for a yellow light causing about 6 others to pile into each other. It didn't look like there were any serious injuries but several airbags had gone off. Folks had the situation under control so other than a bit of rubber necking we didn't stop. We arrived at the KOA late afternoon and after getting checked in we drove out to a Caribou Coffee for a couple of iced lattes then to a Cub grocery store where we picked up some nice looking pork chops for dinner. Turns out they were as tough as old boots!
That evening our neighbours Paul and Jenelle came over and introduced themselves and their six kids. They have two teenagers (a boy and a girl), a six year old boy, four year old twin boys and a baby boy. The smaller kids were in awe of our wee trailer and wanted to go inside. One of the twins said he liked it because it was only one step out of bed to the breakfast table :-) The other twin thought it was really fun to be able stand in the trailer and rock it a bit. Anyway, they seem like a real nice family and over the days we were there we were very impressed with how the teenagers looked out for the younger ones while Paul was away at work. They live about 2-3 hours north of Minneapolis and Paul commutes that every day. They are here this week so they can spend a bit more time together and he doesn't have to commute as far. It was also funny that the window for the slide out where the little ones slept was overlooking our picnic table and we were under a lot of scrutiny from tiny eyes :-)
Although we generally prefer going to day games, so that we are not having to drive in a strange large city late at night, we decided to do a night game in Minneapolis to give us a couple of extra days getting out to the west coast. So we'll go to a game Tuesday night rather than Thursday afternoon and leave Minneapolis Wednesday instead of Friday.
Monday morning we headed into Minneapolis to go to Target Field to get tickets for Tuesday night's game. Easy drive into town and easy parking right outside the ticket area. Within minutes we had our tickets. We spent a bit more than we wanted but the agent promised us shade and excellent seats. We'll see when we get to the game! It turned out that the big team store was open so we opted to pick up our standard souvenirs now while there was nobody else in the store.
After getting the tickets we drove over to the twin city - St Paul; to Grand Ave, an area purported to be very trendy with cool boutiques, restaurants and The Yarnery, a knitting store Kris wanted to go. BUT, first things first; it was time for some lunch. We walked along Grand Ave for a bit before deciding on the Bonfire where we shared a nice bowl of chicken tortilla soup and a thin crust 3 meat pizza. Excellent! After lunch Kris went over to The Yarnery where she found some patterns and wool she was looking for while Brian went to a bakery next door for some dessert.... a somewhat decadent and tasty chocolate and raspberry scone. On the way home we stopped at a Trader Joe's for some pre-made salads for dinner and to stock up a bit on the strategic wine supply, always a good idea!
Tuesday we lounged around and did laundry killing time before we had to head into Minneapolis sometime around mid afternoon. For lunch we munched on cheese and crackers and some tomatoes we had in the cooler. We headed into town a little after 3:00 and got there in just over half an hour, found a parking spot in the parkade right across the street from Target Field; in fact the spot was on the same level as the walkover into the stadium. Sweet! With lots of time before the first pitch at 7:10 PM we wandered through the Skywalk System into the downtown core. Man did this place ever remind us of Calgary. The Minneapolis Skywalk System covers about 8 miles of the downtown core. The Calgary Plus 15 System covers closer to 11 miles. The Nicollet Mall is a pedestrian shopping and dining mall that runs about 11 blocks through the middle of downtown Minneapolis. The Stephen Ave Mall is a similar type of mall that runs about 5 blocks through the middle of downtown Calgary.
After getting our bearings on the mall we stopped in at a Starbucks for a couple of iced lattes, grabbed a couple of counter seats overlooking the mall and sat and watched folks strolling the mall and just like Calgary, as late afternoon arrives the pedestrian population on the mall rises significantly. Great for people watching!
Late afternoon we headed back towards Target Field stopping at O'Donovans Irish Pub for some dinner prior to the game. Pretty good Sheperd's Pie but not as good as the ones we had back in Findlay Ohio (Week 16). On the way to the park we stopped back at the car to pick up our "game bag" (glove, water, peanuts) then went across the walkway directly to the park. Past security we stopped at a wall display of pictures from every major league ball park. We met a couple who were excited to tell us that after tonight's game they have only 10 parks to go in their quest to see them all. They were even more excited to hear that this game was our #30 making our quest now complete. We had a fun chat with them about our respective travels etc.
We wandered around the concourse for a bit then headed for our seats. Man, that ticket agent was right; they were totally in the shade...
... and they were GREAT SEATS and we had fab views of some of today's best hitters including the Ranger's Prince Fielder...
... and the Twin's Joe Mauer...
For the last game on our quest, to see all the MLB parks, we were treated to an excellent display of pitching, fielding and hitting. The Ranger's jumped to a 2-0 lead in the second inning on Elvis Andrus' two run homer and that score held up until the Twins rallied to tie the game at 2-2 in the eight before winning it in the bottom of the ninth on a run scoring walk off double. The fans were very happy!!!
Then the "not fun" started. We entered the parkade at 10:45, got in the car and joined the line heading out. The exit was essentially an on-ramp to I-394 westbound which is exactly where we wanted to go. So it sounded so easy. BUT.... unknown to us were the other 4 exits also merging onto I-394 as well as the construction in the westbound lanes that dropped all traffic on I-394 to a single lane about a mile from the parkade just past several other merging on ramps. Bottom line... it took us until after midnight just to get out of the parkade. All in all we did not get back to the KOA until after 1:00 AM. So an anticipated 35 minute drive ended up taking over two and a half hours!
After that snafu, when we got back to the KOA we grabbed a bottle of wine, found a spot in the campground with several vacant sites, set up our chairs and sat back to sip some wine and see if we can spot any sign of the Perseids which were expected to start tonight. No sign of shooting stars so with a bottle of wine finished we called it a night.
Wednesday morning we packed up and headed southwest toward Sioux Falls South Dakota. For lunch we stopped for what turned out to be a most mediocre lunch at Pub 500 in Mankato Minnesota. Should have tried a good looking place down the street instead. Oh well. You never know.
Once settled in at the KOA in Sioux Falls we drove into town to get some gas and check out the Athena Fibers yarn store where Kris picked up a cute pen (with sheep on it) and a great new sticker for the wee trailer "Knit Happens". While driving around town we witnessed, yet again, how much folks in these parts like to tailgate. In the space of two city blocks we saw the result of two separate multi-car rear-enders. On the way back to the KOA we stopped at a HyVee grocery store for some baked chicken pieces and pre-made salads for dinner; got back to the KOA and hit the pool. Nice but the water was still a bit on the warm side for our liking.
Thursday we turned southward toward Lincoln Nebraska. We were headed to the Camp A Way RV Park in Lincoln but the address our GPS had led us down a gravel road with no RV Park in sight when the GPS happily announced "arriving at Camp A Way on the left". Brian phoned the park and got proper directions... we needed to turn right off the freeway rather than left. Apparently lots of others have fallen into this particular GPS trap. The guy at the RV park explained that they had changed their address a few years ago specifically because of this problem but he said many GPS' still point to the old address. It'll probably take years to work itself through the GPS system.
Anyway, Lincoln is the home of the International Quilt Study Centre and Museum a "necessary" stop on our journey. Located on the campus of the University of Nebraska, the Quilt House is a beautiful modern building which houses a collection of some 4500 quilts from around the world. At any point in time they have the ability to display about 100 quilts and the ones they had on this day were exquisite...
.... and they also had a terrific display of doll beds with quilts as well as miniature sewing machines...
... wonderful place.
For dinner we stopped at another HyVee grocery store. This one was a brand new store and along with the usual deli counter they also have a pizza oven. We ordered up a thin crust pizza with sausage, onions and mushrooms and for all of $8.99 was a pretty darn good pizza.
Friday we continued south on I-29 towards Kansas City. We stopped for gas and lunch at a Stuckey's along the way. It has been years since we have seen one of those. Anyway, for a truck stop kind of place, the restaurant served up a decent chef salad and omelet for lunch and we were quickly on our way. We arrived in the outskirts of Kansas City just as their rush hour was starting so we had pretty heavy traffic even as we took the ring road freeway around the north east of the city to our destination, the East Kansas KOA which is in the eastern suburb of Oak Grove. After getting settled in we thought we might try a newer BBQ place, Q39, for which we have heard good things, but when we phoned to check their hours we were told we needed reservations and we couldn't get in until 9:00 PM (it was now only about five) so we decided to pass on them for today. Instead we opted for a return to Oklahoma Joe's, the very popular place we tried, and really liked, three years ago when we were here. Three years ago there was a very short line. This time there was a very long line. We asked a couple of folks in front of us if they had any idea how long it would take to get in and served. The woman, who appeared to be well up on these things, said it would be about 40-45 minutes Hmmm.... well we are here so might as well stick it out. She was right, it did take just about right on 45 minutes for us to get to the order desk (you order, pay, get your food then sit at this place). Kris ordered sausage with smoked turkey while Brian ordered a half slab of ribs. We both added potato salad as a side. Unfortunately the food was a bit disappointing. Maybe our expectations were a bit too high or the wait was a bit too long but none of the food came close to being as good as we remembered it last time. We also found out that in the last couple of years they have changed the name of the place to be Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que. We can only hope the change in name did not bring about a negative change in the quality of the food and that tonight was just one of those anomalies when their food and our tastes just didn't match up. We guess the long line attests to their continued popularity.
We have found that in most large cities it is best to plan on accomplishing one and only one main errand. If you get that done along with something else then bonus. Saturday was this type of day. Our errand for today was to find a BBQ store we went to when we were here 3 years ago. We remember it being in a strip mall beside one of the Oklahoma Joe's we went to. We looked in our blog and decided it must have been the Joe's in Leawood so set our GPS to get us there. At this point in time there is a phenomenal amount of road construction going on in Kansas City and it took us over an hour to get to our destination. BUT.... no BBQ store. Hmmm, could have sworn it was here; so Brian went into the Joe's and asked about it and was told that The Kansas City BBQ Store is right beside the Joe's in Olathe. Rats... we forgot about that one! So off we went for another half hour drive to get there but there it was. We spent a bit of time browsing the store then picked out an assortment of rubs and sauces that we will try out when we get back home...
By the time we left the store it was early afternoon and time for some lunch. We decided to give Q39 a try. Another good half hour drive to get there only to find a line with a good half hour wait. BUT... they have a bar that doesn't play in the waiting game. Brian was able to snag a couple of seats together at the bar and we were in with no wait. To boot, the Jays/Yankees ball game was on TV right in front of us. Kris ordered a combination plate of brisket and burnt ends and Brian ordered yet another half slab of ribs. The plates also came with a decent chunk of corn bread... standard fare for most places in the west. The food was excellent and, hating to say it but, much better than last night at Joe's.. For a side we both ordered potato salad By the time we left the restaurant it was past mid afternoon and time for a nice cold iced latte (the outside temperature was in the high 90's and it was very humid) so we used the GPS to find a nearby Starbucks which turned out to be only about 5 minutes away. Nice. While at Starbucks we looked up AT&T retail stores as Kris' iPhone account was due for another month renewal. Luck was with us once again as there was an AT&T store within minutes. We got there pretty quick and got "checked in" by the store greeter who informed us we were next in line. After what seemed an eternity, an agent showed up and got us fixed up. By now it was after 5:00 and time to head back to the KOA. Along the way we decided to stop at LC's BBQ and pick up some BBQ for later munchies and dinner tomorrow. LC's is close to Kauffman Stadium, the home of the MLB Royals and there was a game starting at 7:00 PM and we hit LC's right in the middle of the pre-game rush so we had a bit of a wait there as well. Oh well, we are pretty sure this will be good. We picked up our order of a pound of burnt ends and a half pound of smoked turkey then headed back to the KOA to end the week with a dip in the pool before we say goodbye to Missouri tomorrow.
As a note, we had thought about going to the Royals game Saturday night but when we arrived in Kansas City on Friday and checked ticket availability, we found the cheapest seats available were $104 each and could not be guaranteed that we could get two together. Very popular. That's what comes with a winning team :-) We decided to give it a miss.
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