Visiting Beautiful Kansas

My oldest son Tim has been in Leavenworth Kansas for the past year studying at the Army Command and General Staff College. That's pretty far from Boise but it's closer than his home in Tennessee. I was able to combine a visit to him and my younger son (who lived in Nebraska at the time) last fall and the three of us got to spend a weekend together. Since Tim would be heading home in June I wanted to make one visit while I could. It turned out to be hard to find an open weekend, between my schedule, Sandy's schedule (when I have to be home to dog sit) and Tim's schedule as he got ready to leave. I was going to drive and do some hiking along the way but the timing turned out to be tight enough that I had to fly. I used some of the airline miles I had accumulated before retirement and booked a flight to Kansas City.

I flew out on a Friday morning and would get to Kansas City about 4 pm. Tim's place in Leavenworth isn't that far from the airport so he said he could be there after work to pick me up so I wouldn't have to wait long. It was a simple plan but I managed to screw it up. When I left the house at oh dark thirty I forgot my phone. Some people are never without their phones and would find that incomprehensible but I'm not really a phone guy. I wasn't worried though. I'm old school and I figured that I could get by for a weekend without my phone. That idea lasted until I had to connect with Tim. Neither of us knew the KC airport well enough to presdesignate a place to meet. So he didn't know where I was and I didn't know when he would get there. I ended up connecting to the airport WiFi with my Kindle and used it to email Sandy who texted Tim. She would then relay his replies back to me. Clumsy but we finally managed to find each other. I have to admit that I had made it as hard as possible.

Exploring the National WWI Museum

At least there weren't any other major problems for the rest of the weekend, although it turned out that while I didn't miss my phone, I did miss having my camera. So the only picture I have for this post is one that Tim took - a rare chance to see me on the Dog Blog.

After meeting at the airport Tim drove us to a tiny hole-in-the-wall pizza place. I have no idea where it was or even what it was called. The pizza was really good though. Then it was back to Leavenworth where we spent the evening at Grinders High Noon. Tim, Mickey and I had pizza there on the previous trip while we watched the BSU game. With pizza already checked off for the evening we just had a few beers while we caught up on what we'd been doing the past few months.

I had an idea for what we could do the next day - visit the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City. Before I could suggest it though Tim proposed going to...the WWI Museum. Great minds think alike.

We spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the museum. There were a lot of interesting displays and videos and it was well worth a visit. Afterwards we had a late lunch in downtown KC at the strangely named Milwaukee Delicatessen Company. My sandwhich was good but I wish I could have gotten a tshirt there. Sadly they didn't have any merchandise that featured their name.

We spent the evening at Buffalo Wild Wings watching the Brewers and then the NBA playoffs.

Sunday morning we had to walk all over downtown Leavenworth to find a place that was open for lunch. Lot's of places close on Sunday and it was even worse since it was Mother's Day. After going to three different places that were closed, we finally ended up at Luigi's Italian Restaurant. That was ok with me. I can always eat Italian.

Back at Tim's place I put the Brewer game on my PC and we set up the playtest copy of my wargame on the Battle of Fallujah. I really wanted to get Tim's feedback on the game so before the trip I had the map printed on plastic and carried it rolled up by hand (it was too long to fit in my luggage) through three airports and on two flights. It was worth it though as we had a good game. I was wondering about play balance. 25 VP is a draw. More is an insurgent victory while less is a Coalition win. The final score was 24 VP which was a narrow win for Tim. That's about as much you could ask for with regard to play balance.

After out game we watched the movie Free Solo on Netflix. Tim had never seen it before and it was only the third time for me. It's one of my favorite movies. Then Tim introduced me to Rick and Morty. Having been a physics major long ago in my college days I could relate to the Mad Scientist. I thought it was hilarious and I have been a fan ever since.

Tim had to go to work on Monday so i slept in and then spent the day walking all around Leavenworth. There isn't much to see but at least it was a nice day and I had a pleasant walk. When Tim got home we drove to Zona Rosa, a big shopping area near the airport, where we had dinner at Stone Canyon Pizza. Right across the street was a Barnes & Noble so Tim had to be patient because I spent over an hour browsing there. I ended up with a couple of good books, pretty much as many as I thought I could easily carry home along with my wargame map.

After dinner Tim dropped me off at a hotel near the airport. I had a very early flight so I figured it would be easier for both of us that way. The next day my flights home were routine and I was home by lunch time. It was a good trip and it was fun to be hang out with Tim for a couple of days.