Day Three Explained

Bourbon to Steak

With little time to spend in Kentucky, we went to the local horse track that Carrie advised us to see. For a compound that’s big enough to be its own small city, it was impressive and impeccably manicured. There were even members only seating by name. It reminded me of my days working on golf courses. High maintenance and unnecessary. It almost makes me want to see a horse race. If only animals weren’t being whipped and held captive to make people money, it would be appealing.

From there the four of us drove to St. Louis, Missiouri, where we would leave Sierra to meet up with her family. Along the way we saw an insane amount of porn/sex stores advertised from the roadside billboards. It would be hard to believe that another state has more. For a long stretch of road the only thing that was being advertised every 300 yards was a porn store. It was crazy. This is the part where I say that I wish that I went into one. Who knows, maybe they are worth it, or perhaps everyone there is so bored and deprived, that these store are their only outlet.

In between the capital cities, there is strictly farmland. So, if you were to grow up on a farm, or work on a farm, what is your outlet for fun or entertainment? Judging by the stores advertised on billboards, they really like their guns, porn/sex, fireworks, and liquor. Fulfillment of such primitive needs seems impulsive, but if you’re going to slave all week at the farm, you’ve got to make your downtime count, right?

But there are several miles between other towns, and they are separated by just farms. I was thinking about how people meet each other and have relationships in these parts of the states. It must be impossible to find someone. Prehaps, schools and church? Although, I have to say they do seem to have a lot of town events. We almost went to a town party that we heard on the radio where if you were one of the lucky 300 people to show up first, you would get a free hotdog. We were tempted to see the outcome of such a thing but we were on a tight schedule and hotdogs are not enough incentive to get me to do anything. Maybe if you were to pay me to show up and eat a hotdog, but even then we’d go back and forth bouncing numbers around until I could deem it worth it.

Kansas City, half of which is located in Missouri and the other half obviously Kansas, was the first real urban city that we’ve seen. St. Louis seemed a bit urban as well, but KC seemed a bit bigger. Kansas is apparently the place for BBQ so we stopped at a place called The Woodyard in the suburbs. That Anthony Bourdain guy went there so it’s got to be good, right? It delivered in expectation. We all got an awesome plate of meat. Ribs, sausage, brisket, all great. The Woodyard legitimately has a woordyard in the back where disgusting shirtless guys were chopping wood and there was a view of the freight train railroads. We were all overdue for a big meal since we’d been picking on fruit and nuts for the first two days. So, a plate of meat and a beer was enough to put us in champion mode for the night.

After a great meal, Peter, Tyler, and I drove a bunch of hours over to Omaha. On the way we stopped for gas and enjoyed a road beer by the bluffs in the dusk and it was majestic. We stood by three separate closed fireworks stores overlooking the sparely ridden highway and eventually snapped out of it.
Omaha was a fun night with our couch surfing host Erin and her housemates. A night we were all too tired to live out was more of a party than we expected. But we survived the night to see Omaha in the morning. It was a beautiful small city with large important buildings and a taste for art and creativity. We stumbled upon an art fair that had showcased some well crafted stuff. Even the things that I would never bother buying seemed to have true effort put into them. This was here and this was here.

So, that was Day Three.
I'm falling behind on this, due to internet access and living my life. So, be patient.