An Icy Morning in Kansas City

Mary And Tom Up Close

Lee's Summit, southeast of Kansas City, at 7:30

I was up around 7:15, came down to a wet morning, trees iced over, icicles hanging from the branches.  No snow, just wet, cold rain at the moment though it should get better as the weekend progresses.  Ice pellets forecast for the morning as well.

Yesterday, fortunately, was a long wet drive but no ICE thank goodness.  It was forecast for the Kansas City area and south, but we timed it well so all we had were wet roads, slick somewhat but never icy.  We left Dallas in rain, with flood warnings for the city, streets around University Park flooded but passable.  We got on #75 north through the city, stayed on it for the next five hours, where it turned to #69 once we hit the Oklahoma line.  Just  past Tulsa, Oklahoma, we picked up the turnpike, #44 to Joplin, MO, and then on #49, straight north to Kansas City.  Must of the ride through Oklahoma was through an occasional small farming town, with a couple of lights, stores and gas stations, then through farms for the next thirty or forty miles, than another town.  It was more fun than a major highway though slower.  It rained most of the way but only really hard for about ten minutes, so it was not nail biting.  There was not much beauty along the drive, at least nothing spectacular like mountains, just a few inland lakes which was surprising as we don't think of Oklahoma as having lakes, just pastures and cows, which they obvious do, lots of cows along the way.  And from Texas all the way north to Kansas City, it was flat, with an occasional hump, not even what I would call a hill.  That's why much of it is called the Plains I guess.

Catching Up

We arrived  thankfully around 4:00, just about the hour we expected.  And noone was home, as Tom and family had run off to the store, expecting us later.  So our arrival was anticlimactic after 8 hours of boredom but they drove in just as we finished unpacking the car.  Everyone looks great, happy to have a few days off from school and work.  Tom quickly made us some guacamole, opened a couple of beers, and we settled in comfortably, like we never left a year ago Thanksgiving. We were filled in on all the kids lives, Marlena's school, Nick's college plans; it looks like he's going to Arkansas, at least that's his first choice for now, a great school for him.

Kitchen Helpers

Baba With His Grandchildren, Nick and Marlena

Around 6:00, Tom got cooking, as we were having his fabulous shrimp with asparagus.  Everyone helped out as sous chefs, and by 7:00, we had a great pasta dinner, with garlic bread, as good as anything we might get at Lidia's, where we are going tonight for dinner.

A Shrimp Pasta Dinner A La Tom

We then settled down in the living room, on their couches, along with Hannah, Nick's girlfriend, and watched another 'Baba movie', at least that's what my grandchildren call foreign movies we like to watch with them.  We couldn't get Marisa and the rest of the Albarrans to watch it but the Davis's are more pliable, perhaps because it was our first day, so we watched a German film both Evie and I love called MOSTLY MARTHA, made in 2001, about a neurotic chef who ends up having to take care of her sister's eight year old daughter.  She obviously has no idea how to take care of a little girl and problems evolve but it ends having a happy ending, a feel good movie, well acted with a good story line.

Mostly Missed Marisa

We were all tired by the end of the movie so we went up to bed around 10:30.  It sure felt good to be in Kansas City, warm and comfortable, no eight hour drive ahead of us for a few days.