Royals, Road Tripping, and the Rockies!

Tuesday we were still in Kansas City. Our day began with a trip to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in the jazz district of the city. It was a great museum and as I wandered through the exhibit, I was reminded of my May Term last year when I spent two weeks exploring museums. Kansas City took a lot of pride in their role as supporting the Kansas City Monarchs, a team that was part of the Negro Leagues. The exhibit was full of photographs, quotes, fun facts, and even a few videos.

The Negro Leagues Museum sat on one side of the lobby and on the other was the American Jazz Museum. Our tickets got us into both and the jazz museum and the contrast between the two was large. The Negro Leagues Museum had the Americana theme running throughout, focusing on the timeline as a whole, both in the United States and for the league. The jazz museum was flashier and focused more on the greats, such as Louie Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Ella Fitzgerald. However, both museums were proud of both their accomplishments and that these events occurred in the United States.

With facts floating in our heads, we walked a few blocks down to Arthur Bryant's BBQ. We couldn't be in Kansas without having authentic BBQ. The place was hopping and we all waited in anticipation for our sandwiches. There wasn't much talking as we ate, BBQ sauce getting everywhere. For me, eating at Arthur Bryant's was sentimental because my great aunt and uncle live in Kansas and every Christmas a Kansas Sampler would arrive with this BBQ sauce. It was neat to see the home of the sauce!

We headed back to Kauffman for game two. This time, we got a little closer to the action with seats on the third base line.

It was a beautiful night and an exciting game. The White Sox came away with another win against the Royals, 7-6. We saw yet another game when the bottom of the ninth was needed to decide the outcome of the game. Many of the Royals fans left early, so we kind of had the place to ourselves by the ninth. 

The next day, Wednesday (all the days are getting mixed together), we were up early to hit the road. We had about a 10 hour trip from Kansas to Colorado. It was our longest ride and by the end, I think we were all ready to stretch our legs and give ourselves some space from each other. The drive was pretty nice, up until about 40 miles from Denver. It started raining and then hailing. Dr. Bob pulled off at the nearest exit and we sat in a parking lot, watching the small balls of hail pile up on our windshield wipers. When it subsided, we made the final hike to Denver, arriving around rush hour. Finding $10 parking a few blocks from Coors Field, we piled out of the van, our legs happy to walk. 

It was beautiful both in the stadium and Colorado weather in general. Warm with a breeze that made everything right. Our seats were on the second deck, between the right and center fielders. 

It was a pretty view, although any long doubles or triples hit to to right or center field were obstructed by the balcony we were sitting on. The Rockies were unable to pull out a win, with the Giants taking the first game, 5-1. With the game over, we struggled through more Denver traffic to our hotel a little ways from the city. It was right to bed for us, the past two long days were catching up with us!