Up and at ‘em at 7:30 am. It was pouring and there was thunder and lightning. Perfect weather for a day at the water park… We had bought tickets the night before knowing the weather forecast, which said the bad weather was meant to be done around 11 am. We left at 8:15 to get breakfast at Dagwood’s café, a small breakfast place that was one of the few open on Labor Day. I got an awesome and very filling breakfast burrito, and sampled some of Cory’s massive chocolate chip pancake. We got back in the car to head Schlitterbahn in the pouring rain around 9:15.

Before getting to the park, we stopped at some nearby hotel to change and use the facilities (poop, badly). We had to go really badly, so Cory and I used the ladies room (yes, I finally actually used the ladies room). We got to the park around 9:45, which was shortly before they opened at 10 am. “Fuck it.” We gathered our towels, “waited in line” behind the 5 other idiots that went to a water park on a truly stormy Monday, and entered the park right on time!

After an hour or so it had stopped raining. By the end of the day we went on every single ride at the park, which included about 8 or so water slides, the longest tube chute in the Midwest (forgot the name of it), and….VERRÜCKT – THE WORLD’S TALLEST WATER SLIDE! That was the first thing we did. We had to get weighed in our mini group before heading up – Cory and I just made the weight limit (*sigh of relief*). We walked the almost 300 stairs to the top of the slide. It was MUCH higher up than it looked. We were informed of safety procedures, weighed again, and given a description of the ride – we would go down in a mini boat thing at around 60 mph at a 60 degree angle and the ride would take about 12 seconds. I was at the front of the boat, nervous, and staring down the deep drop that lay ahead. The green light went off and Cory and I screamed our heads off! But it was so much fun!!! And it was another step in conquering my fear of heights. Cory, Alex, and Gill went a second time at the end of the day. I was content to watch.

We left the park at 2:30 to check out the Hollywood Casino a short distance away from the park. The women who checked our IDs, Valerie, was super fun and impressed that we had traveled all the way to KC from our big cities of Miami, DC, and New York. We walked around a bit with our complimentary fountain sodas and attempted the check out the casino’s main restaurant, which unfortunately we closed. We did, however, take a walking tour of the buffet. The cashier’s offered us 2-for-1 prices, but skinny Gill said no way. So Cory, Alex and I are never hanging out with him again. Lelchuk picked a slot machine for Gill to play. He put in $1…and won $7.15! What a large cashout for the prince.

We were supposed to go to Joe’s BBQ for “lunner,” but it was closed for Labor Day. Cory was super bummed because he had been hyping this as the best BBQ in KC all weekend, so we made some calls and landed on Jack’s Stack for dinner. Before we dined we went back to the apartment, got changed and grabbed Megan.

“Lunner” was around 4:30 pm. We had told the greeter and waitress it was Gill’s birthday, which it wasn’t, so we played on that all meal. I got BBQ chicken, pork ribs, briscuit, cheesy corn bake (unreal how good that was), and fries. And because it was Gill’s “birthday” we got carrot cake and some gooey fudge brownie dessert for free! Let’s go America! After we stuffed our faces we walked across the parking lot to Union Station, which was an old railroad station that turned into a science center / movie theater / ballroom. We raced coins in the vortex, jumping dimes and quarters over the little ramp, and got kicked out of Inside Out by some a-hole who clearly ratted on us.

Next was Up/Down, another bar with an arcade. Cory was super nice and paid for 12 game tokens for us. Pinball, Ninja Turtles, NBA Jam, Super Pac Man, and Mario Kart on N64 hooked up to a big projector (for free!). What an evening. We spent about an hour or so there before returning to Cory’s. After the long day we chose to relax. We watched some of the US Open (go Isner!), watched Top Gun, and called it a night around midnight.

Tomorrow we leave KC around 12:30 pm. Hopefully Gill’s bad flight karma doesn’t impact our journey. It was an awesome trip and we were so happy we were finally able to go to Cory’s side of the world and see what life was like over there.

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