Third Day: to Kansas City, KS

Monday, July 9, 2007:

We are staying the night at Greg and Sandy Smith’s house in Kansas City. I had forgotten how generous Greg and his family are. Not only have they put us up for the night, but they took us out to Kokopelli, a Mexican restaurant nearby.

It was a great day in Kansas City for me. I think Jason for the most part was not terribly interested but was polite and went along for the ride. I acknowledged at one point that a lot of the things to see were “Hey, how about that?”-type items for everyone outside my family.

We got up early; Jason hit the treadmill; we both had breakfast and were on our way. Since we had stayed in Kingdom City the night before, we only had about 150 miles to go to get to KC. Along the way on the way into town I spoke to Greg and he recommended going to Bryant’s barbeque just east of KC. He told us it was a dive, and that’s about right, although they are quite proud of their founder, Arthur Bryant, who passed in 1982. There are a number of interesting historical pictures on the wall. You stand in line and order your sandwich or platter to a fellow through a hole in the (bulletproof?) glass. You can see the fireplace and chimney about 6 feet behind the glass. Jason and I didn’t get particularly close to what we ordered (me: pulled pork sandwich instead of the specialty: burnt ends sandwich, and Jason got a burnt ends and sliced pork combo sandwich instead of burnt ends/sausage) but we did really like what we got. Also, the sauces on the table were distinctively gritty or sandy, which was unusual but not bad once you put it on the meat. We got there early for lunch, so unfortunately I only ate about half of mine, but oh well.

From lunch we drove through one of the more interesting parts of town. There were several Church’s chicken sightings, as well as a Nails n Da’ Hood, Big D’s Liquor and several fried fish establishments. We eventually made it to Forest Hill cemetery. I was able to go into the office and get a map to the area of my grandparents burial plot. We drove by Satchel Paige’s burial island, which had a neat tombstone describing how he got the name Satchel (he was an excellent porter at Union Station in KC) and his 6 rules for living a long life such as: Don’t run anywhere, Don’t look behind you because someone is gaining on you, Don’t go out socializing and get into the bad juices and No red meat because it angers the blood. My grandparents are buried very near there. It took me awhile to find it but I finally did and it’s pretty cool because it is also my great-grandfather and great-grandmother in the same plot, and there are two evergreen trees marking the area on either side of the Robinson family tombstone. I spent a few minutes in contemplation and just as I was finishing and heading back to the car, it started sprinkling. Not so much rain that you speed up your walking any, but just enough to feel good on your face actually. After I got into the car and we pulled away from the plot, it really opened up. I felt grateful that I was able to spend a few minutes with my grandparents before the sky opened.

From the cemetery we were able to drive by Research Medical Center, which was where my grandfather was a top surgeon when it was Research Hospital. We then drove by my grandparents’ old house, which looked really good in a slate-blue color on the outside. Then I drove Jason by the Kansas City Country Club, where my dad used to ride his bike every day after school for a round of golf. Of course, in the process we crossed State Line Blvd, marking our official first entrance into Kansas.

I also wanted to drive by the Plaaaza (as opposed to the Plahhza you may have heard of in NYC). I didn’t remember exactly where it was, but found in my Aunt Judy’s email printout mention that a Plaaaza hotel was at the intersection of Ward Pkay and Wornall Road. So I found that intersection on the map and we drove down to it. That intersection was just some commercial buildings, and no Plaaaza or mall of any kind. At that point I realized that the two roads, which are essentially North-South parallel roads, also intersect to the North. So we finally found our way to the Plaaaza and saw some cool nice hotels and a lot of nice shopping, which I suppose most girls would like. We needed to find a Post Office to pick up some stamps for possible future postcards, so ended up going way north on Main St towards the downtown business district. Along the way we passed my grandparents’ old church, St. Paul’s Episcopal, which I remember going to a couple of times. We also made it to Union Station, which looks nice and saw a cool WWI memorial tower on top of a hill. In the midst of these travels, I was able to point out to Jason several fountains which are part of the coterie of fountains that are famous in KC. In fact, my family has a coffee table book of them.

At this point we called Greg and he was able to contact the current residents of 1015, Steve and Kate Hughes. Kate was there, so Jason and I were able to go over and take a quick look around the house. She was really nice. It was neat to see they have kept the spirit of the house largely the same. The laundry chute is still in use; the bedrooms look pretty much the same; each first floor room is being used for the same purpose. They did enlarge the kitchen by taking out the wall which created the butler’s pantry. The back stairs are exactly the same, as is the Master bedroom sitting room, which hasn’t been repainted. Also, Marie’s bedroom and bath on the third floor have not been changed at all yet. They took out the attic fan and put in central a/c, which allowed them to put back the old windows which had been there before the attic fan. It was a nice visit.

We then made it to over to Greg Smith’s house around 4 pm or so. He was so hospitable, and we sat out on the back porch, had a couple beers and caught up. Eventually his wife Sandy came home from work, his younger daughter and a friend came home and we went out to Kokopelli’s for Mexican. I wasn’t very hungry from the lunch and dinner the night before, but it was pretty good food.

On the way home from dinner, the Smiths dropped me off at my cousin-twice removed Dr. Art Robinson’s house. He is one of four brothers who are the first cousins of my grandfather. We had a very nice visit. He is the third of the brothers and the first two died at age 88. He’s 85 and told me that he has three years to go. He’s also been in the same house for 50 years come October. His younger brother is apparently around the corner. We just chatted and I shared about my plans and he was quite kind to invite me to any of his family events in Kansas City or Connecticut, where his branch of the family own several summer homes. I was able to walk to Greg’s from cousin Art’s. Along the way a red truck with several teenage boys drove by and asked me how to get to 68th St., which they were very near. I pointed them, and the next morning we noticed a half dozen houses that had been tp’ed. I feel partly responsible…but not too bad about it.

That’s all for the night, so Goodnight. (Finished in the car 7/10/07.)