As usual, I forgot a few things when packing to leave for our trip. This time it was my computer. I didn’t really need it; of course, but I wanted to bring it along so I could blog along the way and do my normal reading of baseball and other news (OK, just baseball news). I realized this about 4 miles down the road, so we could’ve turned around, but I figured I’d find some computers along the way. If not, I could always try brief-blogging (I just made that up) from my super cell phone.
Strike one – forgot my computer
Strike two – no computer available at our hotel near Branson
Strike three – my phone stops working on Thursday morning
Anyway, so I’ll try to remember the events from the trip. Wednesday started out with a drive from Council Bluffs down to Kansas City. With the choice of driving around the interstate loop or taking the downtown route to get to the Kansas City Royals/Minnesota Twins game, we chose the downtown route and of course, ran into a traffic jam. Nonetheless, we made it to the game on time and we negotiated with an independent ticket reseller (sxcxaxlxpxexd) for 4 tickets about 20 rows up from the Royals dugout. As we settled in our seats, Becky headed up to get a nutritous lunch of hot dogs and nachos. The guy who shoots T-shirts into the crowd was just about to take the stage on the field. Since there were only a handful of fans at the park at the time (ok, maybe 2,000), I yelled like crazy to try to get a shirt to come my way. Well, the 5th T-shirt out of the gun was headed my way. I made an over the head catch (a la Willie Mays) and landed my first ever T-shirt at a game. I can now cross off the list one of the 10 things I wanted to do before I died. The shirt’s message was pretty creative – it says "I caught this shirt at a Royals game." The game was a bit of a downer, with the Twins putting up their typical pathetic offensive display and we left about the bottom of the 6th. The girls seemed to enjoy the park – they shot off fireworks before the game and whenever a Royal hit a home run (twice) and the water fountains in the outfield captivated Amelia.
After the game, we made our way towards Branson, and we stopped in Springfield, MO for supper. Our book about the Ozarks recommended Incredible Pizza as a great place for kids. They were right – the place was great. It was like $16 for the four of us and they had a buffet filled with everything (even mac & cheese). After dinner there was an arcade area where the girls could jump around and play a few games (the dollars for tokens machine wasn’t working, so I only spent $1 – bonus!).
I missed a few turns on the way to Kimberling City where our hotel was – I didn’t realize how far away it was from Branson itself. Becky got nervous, but we eventually found our way to our home for the next 4 nights. The rooms was outdoor entry and not that great, but it worked for the rest of the trip.
That’s it for Day 2; I’ll try to keep the entries coming so I can get through the whole trip day by day.
Eric's space 
When we pulled into the hotel in Kimberling City I had a sinkingly feeling. The hotel looked a lot more like a motel than a hotel. It had one of those offices where you drive up to the office, register, get your key and then drive over to your room. All of the buildings looked like they had been there a long time and when we got to our room it looked no younger than the outside. At this point we had spent the previous night in a dive and now we\’d be spending the rest of our vacation in a dive. When we went outside in the daylight I understood why the hotel had been chosen for the reunion. The hotel overlooked a gorgeous lake, it had an indoor and an outdoor pool, an 18 hole miniature golf course, and a boat ramp. At that point my spirits brightened and I looked forward to whatever the Ozarks had to show us.