Elvis, Fountains and French Silk Pie

(Val) A weekend in the City of Fountains was just what the doctor ordered when it came to getting away from the stress of day-to-day living. After dropping the dog at a kennel, we headed up to Kansas City with our daughter behind the wheel for the first hundred miles. She did a great job, and I have a feeling that by the time her 18th birthday rolls around next month, she will have that long-awaited driver’s license in hand.

I had the luxury of riding in the back of the van, plugged into my Dell DJ while alternately reading and watching the scenery roll by. One thing that caught my eye and made me chuckle was an old tour bus parked next to someone’s home. Up in the destination window was the name “Elvis.” I have no idea if that was actually one of his tour busses, but I kind of doubt it.

Along the way to KC, we stopped in Columbia to drive through the MU campus. That place is huge! Our daughter isn’t really considering it as one of her options, but just for fun we thought we would check it out anyway. We’d been on the property for just a few minutes when I remembered the Jayhawk sticker in the back window of Ol’ Blue. For those who don’t know, there is a HUGE rivalry between the MU Tigers and the KU (Kanas) Jayhawks, and we just happen to be big KU basketball fans. None of us has any ties to the university, but we got hooked a few years back and nothing has been the same since. We survived the trip through the campus with no shots fired, but for a while there, I wondered…

Upon arrival in Olathe, we checked into our hotel, and then headed out to scope a local indoor karting facility. With the debut of Grand Prix Speedways just around the corner, I wanted a little something to see for comparison. We went inside and looked around at Sadler's Naskart facility. It’s a nice place with pool tables, video games and a snack bar as well as the race course. Folks of all ages looked like they were having a good time, and we wanted to join them, but the price was a bit steep. For all three of us to take a five minute ride, it would have been over $30. We opted to save that and spend it over at the Great Mall of Kansas.

After shopping at the mall for a while, we went in search of some French Silk Pie, which has kind of become a family tradition when we’re in the area. The pie was great way to finish off the evening.


Saturday morning we picked our son up from church camp and made our way up to Smithville Lake for a family reunion. The closer we got, the darker the sky became, and just as we got to the shelter, the sky opened up. There we were, thirty or so members of my family, huddled under a shelter on the banks of a lake while thunder rumbled, rain poured down and the wind kicked into a wild frenzy. We stuck it out for a while, wrapped in blankets and vinyl tablecloths, ever optimistic that it would eventually die down, but it just grew increasingly worse. (I was reminded of that scene in Caddy Shack where the pastor keeps saying “It’s going to blow over!” and then he is struck by lightning.) When whitecaps began to form, the guys made a mad dash retrieve vehicles, and like a line of cavalry, they circled in front of the shelter and stopped long enough for everyone to toss whatever they could inside, then hop in and go. We caravanned (in our Caravan!) to my cousin’s house, which was just a mile or so away, and spent the rest of the afternoon there. It all turned out just fine and we enjoyed our time together very much.

On Sunday, we made a quick stop at Union Station before heading out of town, and I had the pleasure of watching each of my kids as they played around with digital cameras. It was so cool to see them scope out different shots of the beautiful, historic train station. They both had a great time.

We ended up running over to Crown Center just long enough to see if the Zoom toy store had any Legos. (Have I mentioned that my son has an addiction to Legos?) Well, he was out of luck, but I found something that I just have to show Spring if we ever get up to KC together. Zoom has dozens and dozens of old, metal lunch boxes, which I know Spring loves because she uses one for a purse. The lunch boxes were so cool, and we had fun looking for the kind we carried back in the day. I never did find my Chitty Chitty Bang Bang one, but Scott found two of his, the U.S. Mailbox, and Adam 12. I loved seeing the Disney School Bus, which is one that I remember lots of my friends having. I took a couple of pictures, but they don’t do this collection justice.

The trip home was uneventful. I drove the first half, then switched places with my hubby. Finally, our daughter got to drive the last 40 miles or so.

As I sat in the comfy back seat of Ol’ Blue, watching the ever-changing panoramic view slip by, I pondered a few things:

• Has anyone ever really paid that cheap price advertised on hotel billboards? And if they did, what did that price get them? A cot tossed in some janitor’s closet and a free bar of soap?
  
• Does anyone but me feel sorry for the really small towns that have a “no services” sign slapped below their name along the highway?
  
• What are walnut bowls and who buys them?


• Has anyone ever driven through central Missouri, spotted the “See Rock City” signs on top of the barns and completely altered their travel plans?
  
• If Elvis is still alive, as some people imagine, would anyone really want to see him after all these years anyway? Seriously, do we really want to see him do ten years of “final shows” with Journey or the Rolling Stones? Maybe the Beatles had the right idea after all.


• I am driving along, and I pass a truckload of logs going east. A few minutes later, I see another truckload of logs, this one going west. Why???