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Saturday, August 13, 2011

Today's target was Leawood, KS and barbecue in Kansas City with our friends Kay and David. We did not want to spend another day on major freeways, so programmed the various GPS devices for back roads and a break in Enid, OK. The sunrise in Amarillo and the changes in the sky as we drove were marvelous. Daryl had done a little research on the local favorites for lunch in Enid so that we would not end up at a chain or with fast food. After 260 miles on the road, we ended up in Enid looking for Callahan's, which turned out to be in the older downtown area and at 11:45 am, still not open. Daryl called and they apologized and said they would open the door in a few minutes, which was a good thing since we were standing in front of it. Callahan's was the first on a list of "Irish pubs" we tried over the length of the trip. Rob and Doug tried Scotch Eggs, which are hard-boiled eggs, wrapped in sausage meat, then dipped in crumbs and deep-fried. They both gave them a thumb's-up. Marilyn and Daryl were a little less adventurous. After lunch we chose the roads more traveled for the second part of the day's drive, 302 miles. We meandered up through Oklahoma into Kansas and diagonally across the state until we reached Leawood, part of the Kansas City MO/KS area. We had booked a more "trendy" hotel, Aloft, part of the Starwood group, primarily because it was close to Kay and David's home. Kay had been in the hospital for the surgical removal of an abscess in her throat only two days before, but claimed to be fine. We went over to their house and sat in the screened in porch for a while to socialize. They had picked one of the Jack Stack restaurants for dinner so that Doug could have Kansas City BBQ. The restaurant didn't take reservations but the line wasn't bad and the meal was enjoyed by all, except maybe Kay with her sore throat. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel so we could make our signature early departure. David gave us all barbecue sauce and steak rub to remember the dinner.

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