It was another early day, and another travel day for us. I awoke before my 5:15 AM alarm and got my day started. Shannon also woke up before 6 AM, although she had planned to be up at 6:15. I went down to the hotel breakfast and had some eggs, biscuits, and sausage patties, as well as half a cup of coffee. I took back to the room for Shannon a toasted bagel with cream cheese, a strawberry yogurt cup, a couple sausage patties, and a small blueberry muffin. We filled our water bottles, checked out, and climbed into the Uber I had pre-reserved to pick us up at 7.

Our driver Stephen loaded our luggage into his Infiniti QX-80. I gave him a 5 star rating and a 20% tip, which may have been excessive, now that I’m back in a place of having to think of money as real and not as pretend like it was in Europe.

We met up with a friend from our trip group at the train station. She is taking the train also, but only as far as Warrensburg. She’s actually asleep laying down in her train seat right now.

The train departed on time, and we’re again enjoying our ride across the state. I’m grateful not to have to drive, and I’m glad we didn’t have to pay to park a car at the airport.

On the train, Shannon got me a jimmy dean sausage egg and cheese biscuit and a coffee. She had a hotdog, pretzels, and a coke.

When we arrive in KC, Shannon’s parents will pick us up, and we’ll go get some BBQ. I’ve been having a hankering for lemonade, so I’m going to have to get some before the day is over.

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When we arrived at the station in Kansas City, the elevator was broken, so we had to lug our very heavy suitcases up long flights of stairs to get back to the level of the terminal from the tracks. Shannon’s parents had driven our Jeep down to pick us up, and with 4 people, 2 large suitcases, one small suitcase, 2 backpacks, and my day bag, we were barely able to get everything loaded into the car.

We had lunch at Smokehouse BBQ in Gladstone, and I was able to get the lemonade I had been wanting. Also had brisket and sausage with fries and ranch. First time I’d had ranch since leaving the country. We got started telling Shannon’s parents the tale of our trip, but there’s definitely more to cover. I’m glad I have notes to organize everything into these blog posts.

At home, we organized the souvenirs based on what we were giving to various family and friends for whom we had made purchases. The dogs were extremely happy to see us and Greta could barely stop licking. They re-adapted to their normal routine quite quickly. We later found out they immediately guilted the house/dog sitter into letting them sleep in the big bed every night, which was funny.