On day nine, I started the trip a little earlier still, as Geoff had to head to work fairly early. This meant that I was two hours away from KC, at 7:30 AM, with my only real obligation to arrive in KC being around 2 or 3. I decided to take advantage of the early morning lack of traffic, and head to KC early. I needed to put the car in for service, and I wasn't sure exactly how long the explanation or booking procedure would take, and I wanted to write back to family, who I've been patently ignoring for a full week because of the hecticness of my schedule.

I arrived around 10:15 AM, due to a couple of road closures and a couple of detours I missed, but I arrived nonetheless. I spent about twenty minutes browsing in a Barnes & Noble, and a further twenty writing e-mails, and then explored the mall I had found myself at. I played a couple of games at the arcade, did a little KC gift browsing, and marvelled at the fact that I had passed through three towns in the two minutes before I arrived at the mall, for some reason.

I then phoned Jimmy, who had graciously agreed to pick me up when it became clear that I needed my car in for service, and we got me set up at his parents' house, since they had offered to let me stay in their spare room for the two days I'll be here. Mike was home, and we ended up going out to lunch at Big Bam's, a burger joint here in KC located in a smallish donut-shop shaped restaurant. They served excellent burgers, really well seasoned, and an assortment of other sides which were all good as well.

We then went out to see The Wolverine, since there were no concrete plans for Tuesday other than a supper with Bill and Craig. I enjoyed it, despite the incredible logical inconsistencies, and at least they didn't botch the ending as badly as Wolverine: Origins did. We came back, I got unpacked, showered, and went out to Jack Stack's for a BBQ supper.

Again, it was delicious, I had the sampler platter, so a little bit of everything, and we chatted for far too long, until we were pretty much the last customers in the place. We chatted a little more outside, said our goodbyes, and that was the end of the day.

If it sounds like a tame day in comparison, it was, but probably only because today is expected to be a fairly long and involved one with lots of planning having gone down behind the scenes. Only one photo today, mostly because of the lack of photographable activities and landmarks. I would have taken a picture of the ridiculous Kansas City Royals stadium, but it passed by too fast, and there was no place to pull over and snap a shot. Hopefully I'll have more today.

Cheers,

-Graham