Road Trip 2011: Part 2

With Day 1 of our Road Trip under our belts, we woke up early to begin Day 2: Nashville to Kansas City.

The scheduled lunch stop for the day would be in St. Louis, where we had our hearts set on some great barbecue.

 Yelp reviews steered us to Pappy's in St. Louis, and we were not disappointed!
While the line was long, the wait was worth it.  Famous for their ribs, we trusted the crowd, and soon had ribs and brisket at our indoor picnic table.  We learned, though, that Pappy's doesn't serve beer.  As perpetually well-stocked travelers, all it took was a quick run out to the stocked cooler in the car*, and we truly had a great barbecue feast.

*Boulevard Brewing Co., Meredith!

This line must mean they serve good ribs

After several more hours of driving, we pulled into Kansas City, where we couldn't help but hit another barbecue place for dinner--this time an old favorite.   This was a good end to Day 2.

A police man called me a tourist for taking this photo.  I hope you're grateful.

Road Trip Day 3 was my birthday, and part of my present was getting to be the passenger most of the day.
I drove just until he'd finished a conference call for the new job, then I gave up the wheel and assumed buffalo watch as we crossed Kansas.
Unfortunately, there were no buffalo to be seen that day, but I did see plenty of these:

Wind Turbines

It's not corn!  This is actually sorghum.

 We spent a few hours with Grandma, who lives in a very small town in Kansas.  We shared pictures and stories before hitting the road again.  We did drive through her small town and pass by some special spots first.

The old dairy my mother-in-law's family ran when she was growing up

Some road-trip games saved the day: Slang Flashcards (who knew I needed so much work on my slang?)  We also received a free tank of gas (long story).

By the end of the day, we were relieved to be pulling into Denver, Colorado.  Despite our veering course to hit the barbecue joints the day before, we found ourselves safely back on the brewery trail, and we enjoyed my birthday dinner at Wynkoop Brewing Company, right as the sun was setting.  Nice views!

Highlights of the night were tasting the green chile beer--they have removed all the heat from the chilies, but left the flavor...it was so interesting!--and the buffalo wings, which were perhaps the best we've ever had.

Day 3 ended with the smell sounds coming from the crazy group of hippies that shared our hotel with us.  They were there for a concert, and they were hard to miss.  We found them still awake and doing their thing early the next morning, when I got heckled about the surfboard on top our car in Denver...  Ohhh, hippies, get back to your drum circle.

More to come.

To catch up on the Road Trip:

Part 1