No that I believe in any of the crap, but it was still Friday the Thirteenth when we left so, you know, it did maybe add a bit of an edge to it.

I was ready to go before I told Shannon I'd call, so I sat down and played some video games and caught up on my email and comics and etc. So I called Shannon around 10 and she wasn't quite ready, but I headed over so that she could pack some things into the second half of my suitcase (pillow, video camera, beauty products, etc).

So we headed out...and while we were on our way out, Shannon realized she forgot her sunglasses so we ran back to get them. I forgot a comb, so we stopped at Drug Town and picked up a comb for me and drinks for us. And then we were on the road.

The music started off with Bandits by Buck 65 cause I hadn't finished rating a few of the new stuff that I had gotten. And we went on from there. For the first part of the drive, Shannon studied for her Vet Tech Boards (for Iowa, she's passed her Nationals), and I drove along. At around noon we stopped off at a Subway by the interstate and had a nice lunch. We also just beat a huge rush that followed us in. The parking lot of the subway was under construction and large chuncks of it were torn up.

So for the next part of the trip, we played 20 questions...until Shannon got a bit tired of how I was answering the questions (yes I admit that it was a bit misleading). And by that time we were just outside Kansas City. So we took I453 around the city and headed to our hotel in Overland Park. this is quite far away from her friend, but it was very centrally located for the other places where we wanted to go. At the hotel, there were Geese chilling in the road and grass around the hotel.

We Checked in.

We took all our stuff up to our room on the 3rd floor. The bed was firm (too firm) the couch wasn't the most comfy. The thing that kinda bothered me is that they had free wireless access and here I was without lappy. Oh well...I guess it's ok to get away from the computer from time to time.

So the first place we headed was Country Club Plaza. The directions we had there were a bit confusing and we did get lost on the way there, but once we found it, it wasn't too bad. We parked and then we headed to look at the stores. We wondered back and forth taking pictures of the buildings and art work. We'd ocassionaly go into stores to look around. We even went into a few stores where I don't even think that we could afford anything in them. They even had a Bang and Olufsen store where I drooled heavly. We also looked at crystal figureines and other things. It was nice. At around 5 or so we headed back to the hotel so Shannon could get ready to meet her friend Penny.

After a bit we took the short route over to Gates BBQ. Even leaving what I thought would be late, we were still early, since the place was so close to our hotel. We got there, took some pictures and then walked around to see an Animal hospital around the bend. It was a nice walk. We headed back and eventually Penny and her Fiancé showed up. So we went in and after waiting a bit in line, we were greated by a very loud "MAY I HELP YOU!". So I ordered a Turkey Sandwhich and Shannon had beef, and I moved a long and got the 3 types of sauces that they had.

So dinner was good, and the sauces were good. Shannon and Penny caught up and her fiancé and I pretty much sat around and listened to them talk. I kept an eye on the line to see if It died down, so I could buy some BBQ sauce, but it took a long time for it to do so. So when the line finally died down, I jumped up and bought some sauce, only to have a mass of people that wanted to order show up and get in line to order. They did a quick business all night long.

So the Food. The food was pretty good. The meat was pretty well cooked and tender. The fries were crisp and still had the skins on (which I like) and the suaces were yummy. And it was all relatively inexpensive. So I'd go again.

Penny told Shannon to be expecting a wedding invitation, and noticed the glum look on my face where, trying to convince me that I wanted to go, she mentioned beer (meh), and then brought out that it was gonna be a redneck-mexician wedding (her words not mine), and that, in and of it self, has convinced me that it would be worth going to just on the mere possible entertainment factor.

So after Shannon and Penny were all caught up, we said our good byes and they headed off and we headed back to the hotel. We stopped on the way back at the Dick Clark's American Bandstand Bar and Grill to have dessert. We had this brownie ice cream tower thing (I forget it's name) and between the two of us, we devoured it pretty quickly. I picked up a shot glass and we again started to go back to the hotel. On the way there, Shannon wanted to head off a headache and some aches and pains, so we headed beyond our hotel and ended up at a Wal-Mart to buy some Ibuprofin.

We finally made it back to the hotel and we got ready for and went to bed.