Time to Hit the Road

Our target departure date, July 28 arrives in now what seems like no time. John has plotted our route. We will head in a south-easterly direction with the intentions of seeing our friends, Tom and Laura now in North Carolina. This means we must travel from Colorado through Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and even a bit of the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee before reaching our "pit stop" outside of Charlotte, NC. Despite the fact that both John and I travelled by car with our families growing up, most of these areas of the country are new to us. However we are not "mad" road-warriors and decide that 400 miles per day is about our speed.

With that in mind, John makes reservations for overnight stays in Kansas City, MO and Louisville, KY. Since this region is known for its BBQ fare, the real question is which restaurants must we try along the way?  Of course, John has high hopes that we'll hit at least one such place made famous on his favorite show, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (aka Triple-D). In his pedantic way, he makes sure to make note of all such possibilities in and around our planned stop-overs.

The ride through Kansas is as expected, long and monotonous. Getting through Kansas City proves to be a fair challenge due to traffic and construction. Our hotel is on the eastern side of the city and John wisely decides that we will not backtrack to hit a Triple-D restaurant for BBQ that night. Instead we opt for a local chain recommended by the hotel called The Rib Crib. It's nothing to shout about.

The only memorable moment of our next leg is (no, NOT the famous arch in St. Louis - though we passed by it) but a little side-trip we couldn't resist to Cynthiana, Indiana! The town is well a small, rural farm-town and probably a nice community although not a place we'd ever consider for retirement despite its namesake - even our quest to find a coffee shop failed! I'm sure the corn is very good though!

John with the homerun hitter

Giant bat outside museum

Next evening when we reach Louisville, KY we're chatting with our friend, Andy about what we can do there. He mentions the Louisville Slugger Bat Museum and Factory! In fact it's right on our way and we both agree it'd be a fun addition to our itinerary. Indeed that proves to be the case. John swings a bat used for home-runs by Red Sox player, Big Papi. Then we enjoy the factory tour and spy bats waiting to be finished for another favorite Red Sox player, Kevin Youkilis. You can see more here!

Afterwards, we find our hotel and decide that once again the Triple-D restaurants are not convenient to our location. Instead, Cindy find's this place called Mark's Feed Store (MFS) that looks promising. As it turns out, MFS is terrific! Their BBQ is excellent but they also serve something called Burgoo which we learn is a Civil War stew. I can highly recommend both Mark's BBQ and that Burgoo although the Buttermilk Pie I try for dessert just doesn't hit it. In any case, we end up buying a couple bottles of their homemade BBQ Sauce to bring to Tom and Laura's.

Next stop, Charlotte, NC (or thereabouts)!