Barbecue and Drivin' part deux

At the end of our recording day, we had to drive back to Kansas City and it was my turn at the wheel. I tried not to think about it too much, telling myself when I did that I had done it before, and just because this time it would sneak into night time, there wasn't going to be a difference.

This time the drive was faster since I wasn't so afraid to hit the gas pedal. I chose my "buddy," a small truck that  looked to be heading in my direction and just stuck with him, and that helped a lot. Jackie was also helpful in letting me know when to change lanes and why.

Happiness didn't last long though - there was more traffic on the way in than out, and when we entered Kansas City itself things were moving a lot slower for me. To boot, night sort of creeped up on us, and having never driven at night time I totally freaked out: I couldn't see the cars behind me, all I saw were two points of light and they blinded me, and I couldn't see the actual lane lines. So I pulled out as soon as I possibly could, did some very dangerous driving in the process, and handed the car to Jackie, who I assume was okay with it since she wanted to remain alive.

As a reward for a long day we went for some BBQ at Oklahoma Joe's. The place is a legit restaurant, but it's also a gas station, with novelties for sale out front. There's no table service, and it was nice and crowded thanks to the presence of a filming crew - apparently some kid who had accepted a football scholarship was having some BBQ in front of the cameras.

I didn't mind one bit. I went ahead and chose the beef brisket with a side of creamy slaw and some white bread toast.

Although the brisket was a bit cold, it was quite delicious and I didn't hesitate on dispatching that rather quickly.

After, we headed over to Brookside on Naomi's recommendation, to have some custard at Foo's. We had to drive around quite a bit, and we were lucky that we arrived just as the owner was reopening the doors.

It being November the place wasn't crawling with people, but we were lucky to have somewhere to sit and eat. We were lucky that we had the chance to get the history of the place from the owner, a woman in her 50's, who was quite nice and friendly. I had the Butterpecan Concrete.

She added cookie dough and it was perfect. If you go to KC, you should always make stopping at Foo's a priority.

When in Kansas

While driving out of the base, Jackie and I spied a shooting range. Even though we're both hella liberal and conscientious and crap, our first thought when I said the words out loud were "Let's go shootin'!" We made a U Turn as soon as legally possible and headed to Godfrey's.

Inside we immediately let them know that we hadn't even looked at a gun before. (Well, I did once, but I barely remember the occasion.) In any case, the helpful girl behind the counter didn't even bat a lash and just gave us the gun "with less recoil." We bought a pack of a 100 bullets, got some protective eyewear for Jackie (I didn't need any thanks to my glasses) and we headed inside.

Thankfully the range was pretty empty, and there was an employee that was nice enough to show us how to safely load the gun and hold it to minimize the recoil. Here's me being badass:

Here's the gun, which Jackie and I shared. I don't remember the kind, to be quite honest.

Turns out I'm a good shot:

It was a pretty surreal experience - it was almost like playing a video game. Although the gun felt heavy in my hands and I was aware to always point it forward, when pulling the trigger there was no feeling of the significance of what I was doing. It would be as easy to shoot a person as it is to shoot a piece of paper (movement-wise) and that freaked me the heck out. The fact that this is why there's so much death in the world - because this is so easy. It can even be fun - I delighted upon hitting the target where I wanted to hit it. I don't know. I don't see myself trying to do this ever again, but I'm glad that we tried it.

After we went for a walk to a Korean restaurant down the road. I can't remember the name and frankly have no desire to search for it, because the food wasn't that great. I usually love Asian food in general, but Korean is not one of my preferred types.

I had three kinds of kimchi, some fried dumpling, and beef fried rice (except it wasn't called that.) Meh. Though not a bad night for our last night in Kansas.