Farewell to Kansas City and the long road back to the Lehigh Valley

FROM KEITH GROLLER

We left Kansas City on Thursday morning and began the long -- and I do mean long -- ride home.

The "Ultimate Road Trip" is nearing its conclusion. And I think we're all fatigued. Final 011

Ok, some of us can at least keep our eyes open, unlike the legendary Carl Breininger at the Yankees-Final 013 Royals game on Wednesday night (see photo above).

But yes, it has been a very busy, wonderful, but tiring trip filled with memories that I will never forget.

Now's the tough part. Going home.

Sadly for me, we left Missouri and made our way through Illinois and into Indiana today.

I took a picture (left) from the bus as we crossed the Mississippi River one last time.

We ate at a Cracker Barrel near St. Louis where I was able to pick up one last copy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to read about my favorite teams.

And, I got to meet one more nice person, a waitress, who thought I was a rose among the thorns -- a Cardinal fan in the middle of about 36 or so Yankee fans. She got an extra buck from me for a tip at a Cracker Barrel on I-70 just north of St. Louis just for giving me a pat on the back for rooting for the Cardinals.

We wound up this day in a hotel near Indianapolis where we stopped at a Steak 'n Shake (great burgers). Final This seems to be a midwestern chain. I wish they'd come to eastern Pennsylvania.

As you can see, I am not losing any weight on this trip and today was not one for trimming down since we basically were on a bus all day and only took breaks to eat. My son Chris and I did get in a short swim at the hotel pool before they closed at the end of the night, but that was about it for exercise.

With one day left on this great trip, it's time to start looking back.

I hate to say this, but I think everybody on this trip had a much more favorable opinion of Kansas City than St. Louis on this trip.

Now, the Yankee fans did get to see their favorite team in KC unlike the other stops where they had no Final 014 rooting interest. And I think our seat locations for the three games in KC were much more desirable than in St. Louis.

However, I do have to agree with them that KC went the extra mile to please. When we did our Kauffman Stadium tour on Wednesday, a tour guide (left) even got into uniform to recite "Casey at the bat."

The KC and Cincy tours were more impressive than the one in St. Louis for one big reason -- Cincy and KC had impressive Hall of Fame displays and the Cardinals did not. Very disappointing.

Evidently, when the old Busch Stadium closed down, so did the Cardinals Hall of Fame. There are plans to open up another Hall of Fame in the planned, but often delayed, Ballpark Village complex in St. Louis which would be adjacent to the stadium. That future plan did us no good on this trip, however.

Plus, the Reds gave everybody on the tour a Johnny Bench bobblehead and the Royals gave everyone a baseball cap.

The Cardinals gave nothing.

Perhaps they're saving every penny to re-sign Albert Pujols.

Before the KC tour, we were standing on the bricks outside the ballpark entrance and one member of our party spotted a brick for Coopersburg's very own Jim Schaffer. Final 015

Jim was the bullpen coach for the 1985 championship team an is still a fixture at Limeport Stadium and a great guy. He loved KC and I bet they loved him, too.

After touring three ballparks, it was nice to tour a football stadium and we got a great inside look at Arrowhead Stadium on Wednesday as well. It holds about 76,000 people and unlike the Royals, my bet is that the Chiefs draw well.

It's a big, bright colorful stadium with yet another Hall of Fame. And when you went into that Hall of Fame you remembered all of the great defensive players the Chiefs have had over the years -- Buck Buchanan, Willie Lanier, Emmitt Thomas, Derrick Thomas, Bobby Bell, etc.

When you go through all of these stadiums, and we toured four on this trip, you got a chance to see how the other half lives. We got to see some very elaborate, plush suites in each venue that go for much more money than I can afford.

Of course, we also saw four press boxes and I think everybody on the tour thought that where we work in the media is a pretty cool place as well and we get paid to be there rather than selling out thousands of dollars for the privilege.

The Chiefs tour, like the one of Kauffman Stadium, was tiring, but very worthwhile. Outside late Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt welcomes people to his stadium while looking over at Kauffman (see picture). Final 001 That's also a diagram of the famous "65 Toss Power Trap" play that won Super Bowl IV for the Chiefs back in 1970 in the pavement behind the Hunt statue.

I like the fact that the Chiefs recognize the high school state champs in both Missouri and Kansas with nice displays (see photo below) on the concourse level

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/2011/08/farewell-to-kansas-city-and-the-long-road-back-to-the-lehigh-valley.html