Good morning, Gram!
I slept well last night. I didn’t bring my pillow in from the car because I was afraid of forgetting it here, so I woke up with a stiff neck and regret, but I got up anyway. I’m worried about not staying fit as I travel, so I got right up out of bed and put on my workout clothes and drank some water. I started this morning with 20 flights of stairs. There was a hand sanitizer in the stairwell, and I knew how it felt… I did the math yesterday and determined that if I do at least 20 floors today, I’ll maintain my 40 floor average. Getting 20 floors in first thing assures that no matter what else happens today, I won’t fall behind on the stairs.
After that, I went out for my morning walk, feeling all proud and accomplished. But a few minutes in, it started drizzling and you know how much I hate rain. To the gym then! I did a little treadmill and elliptical, then used the bench and some dumbbells so I could know that I’ve put in some effort today. After the gym and a nice hotel breakfast, I decided to get in another 20 flights of stairs to keep up my average of 40 before heading back to the room. I showered, answered some questions from Claude about my website, then packed up and we headed out. I felt proud of having such an enjoyable and productive morning, and the day had just started. We were about 3.5-4 hours from KC, and the ride went fine. We stopped about halfway to stretch our legs and use the restrooms, then met Emma at her apartment building around 2:30. She got us into the garage, then showed us the apartment and building. She has great taste in decorating and has really made the place feel like a home.
After dropping off our bags, we all headed out to see a little of KC. We walked over and hopped on the cable car, then rode down to the WW I memorial and park where we had a nice view of the city. Emma and Abbey remembered our bike rides in Amsterdam, where they kept getting tripped up by the streetcar rails. Then we headed down to Union Station, awed at the architecture, and had a snack before checking out the model train display with lots of little details and working trains. It was fun looking at the little buildings and there was even a working traffic gate that closed across the street as the train went by. We checked out a few LEGO displays of a train setup and a soccer stadium. It was a much more interesting train station than I would have expected.
After that, we took the cable car down to check out the power and light area, full of bars and stages, before heading back to the apartment to cool off. It’s been a long time since I had to wrestle with that much heat and humidity! Gabriel came home after a bit and we all hugged our hellos and chatted for a bit before we agreed we were all hungry and walked down for some delicious local pizza. After dinner, we all watched Shawshank Redemption and felt nostalgic for that great American Classic. Then bed.
