A Little Time in the City

When the opportunity is right, we plan to visit friends and family as well as see the sites in cities along our path.  This past week brought us to just north of Kansas City, MO to what was promoted as an “RV Resort”.    We had made plans to see our dear friend Laura Packer perform in the Kansas City Fringe Festival as well as to get a little time in a more urban environment.

We stayed at the Basswood RV Resort in Platte City, MO about a half hour drive from KC.  This is an older RV park and I am sure in it’s heyday it would have been seen as a resort but now it is a bit worn.  There are 3 small fishing “lakes” (read ponds) but two of which are covered in green slime, you know the kind, where at any moment you expect the monster from the Black Lagoon to start climbing up onto the bank.  There were lots of nice amenities like the pool and amphitheater but we saw gazebos and pavilions that were not being used and had seen a better day.

Basswood Resort General Store

Our coach just behind the bathhouse

Very nice pool and playground

We reserved a deluxe site, which turned out to be two sites, as the water connection on our site was broken and they gave us an extension hose so we could connected to the site beside us.  This was very fortunate for us as the sites were very close together and in other parts of the park they were packed in like sardines.

Packed in like sardines!

Very cool to get a double site

On both sides!

Having the extra room enabled us to spread out alittle and set up our chairs, grill table, and pop-up awning too.  The only problem was that the site was right next to the bat

h house which meant we had people cutting through our site frequently to take care of business.  One other issue was that the park is in the direct flight path for KCI Airport and we had planes flying over frequently.  Since we lived under the flight path of

the navy flyers for so many years in Pensacola they really didn’t bother us but it could be an issue for others.  The campground was pleasant enough and as the weather cooled down we were able to enjoy walks each evening and we met other full-timers, Bonnie and Fred, and had a nice chat with them about adapting to this new lifestyle.  They have been on the road for 10 years and truly enjoy the experience.

One of the activities we have always enjoyed is going to the minor/independent league baseball games.  They are less expensive than the major league, you can get better seating, and they have lots of fun activities during the game.  As we researched things to do in the KC area we found the T-Bones were scheduled to be in town so we bought tickets for the Wednesday night game.  The forecast was for rain but it looked liked they would still be able to play so we battened down the campsite and headed into the city.  After a great BBQ dinner at Famous Dave’s and a little shopping at the largest Cabela’s we have ever seen (besides the enormous selection of outdoor gear, they had a mountain inside covered with full size taxidermy animals from rabbits to bears to lions to elephants as well as an aquarium, conference center and restaurant!) we headed over to Community America Ballpark. We had great seats right behind home plate but unfortunately the rain continued and they had to call the game.  We ended up driving back to the campground at 40 mph on the highway in a monsoon rain.

The next day we headed back into the city for a walk along the KC Heritage trail and we picked up a bit of fresh veggies at the City Market.  Laura was able to meet us for tea at the market and we were able to catch up on our lives and what has been happening in the storytelling community.

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Our last event was to see Laura perform The Adventures of Crazy Jane and Red Haired Annie at the Fringe on Friday night.  We took time to visit the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and had dinner in the Country Club Plaza area of KC before going to the performance.  As always Laura did a fantastic job bringing her new fairy tales to life.  She intertwines people and events from her life into stories about menacing Faerie Queens, wild women, and butterflies.  Since we have know Laura from our days in Boston (she is Joanna’s mentor and teacher) we were able to see the glimpses of Brother Blue and others in her stories giving us an even more connectedness to the the tales.

Saturday we did a bit of grocery shopping at the local market (finding the BEST peaches) and started packing up getting ready for the next leg of our journey.  We are off to the cornfields of Nebraska for a week before heading to Wyoming for the state fair and eclipse.

Till next time!