A breather

So I didn't quite make it to KC last night but hey, I'm retired and can make my own schedule. About midnight last night I made an online reservation here at a downtown hotel (pricey even before you add in the parking and Internet charges). I'm here to get me some live jazz.

On the way down from Nebraska City I spent an extra hour and a half trying to get to where I could see and photograph the Big Muddy, the Missouri River, since until today I'd seen it only near its end where it flows into the Mississippi above St. Louis. In Nebraska City I could only glimpse it through back yards on 4th St., then reached a park where big signs warned that vehicles without a county permit were prohibited. A random rural road I took off I-29 in Missouri led nowhere. I wandered lost for a long time near the waterfront in St. Joseph but found freeway ramps and large industrial buildings blocking access and even views everywhere.

Here in KC I started walking down Broadway St., as it's redundantly named, through increasingly pedestrian-unfriendly passages until I was within 50 feet of the river - and there was a "Private property - keep out" sign. An old guy passing by - well, maybe younger than I but with almost no teeth left - told me where to find the pedestrian path along the river from the foot of Main Street.

So here's a photo of the Missouri up close, taken with my phone so the quality isn't very good. Still, you can see the violence of the current and the size of the tree trunks, mats of vegetation, and other debris rushing downstream (from left to right in the photo).

I wish I could also have gotten images and sounds of the Canada geese that were flying around noisily everywhere, as they were yesterday in eastern Nebraska. A Nebraska public radio program this morning was discussing the huge flocks of migrating geese and cranes around Lincoln right now.

And did I mention rain? For one exciting moment on I-29 Penny had a shadow, but the cloud cover was solid and it rained more often than not on the drive and as I've walked around downtown. More of the same is forecast for tomorrow, so my drive this weekend may just follow this large storm system all the way home.

Here's another photo from my exploring, in front of a building near my hotel. I saw a smaller version of this sculpture and video at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park outside Boston with Charline and Aine. The video came first, on a computer; it's a figure made entirely of huge human fingers and smaller-scale legs that dances around creepily. The sculptor then built solid figures to match some of his computer-generated poses. Added Friday evening: The sculptor is Michael Rees, a KC native. The building where I saw it is the Kemper Museum at the Crossroads (corrected 3/22).

After a long consultation with the concierges (yes, it's that kind of hotel) I settled on the Majestic on Broadway St. for jazz tonight. They have live jazz every night, including a trio Friday and Saturday nights that I'm assured is excellent. I already tried them out at lunch and the food was excellent and moderate-priced.

I'll post this now in case I get back too late and tired to blog tonight. Then I think I'll take a nap to recover from my hilly walk and the tasty local beer (Boulevard Pale Ale) I had at lunch.

Odds 'n' ends

But first I want to list a few random thoughts that come during the hours I've spent at the wheel over the last four weeks. Mostly they don't come back when I want them for the blog, but I've hung onto these. I would have done this last night but was just too sore to type anymore.

• I can't tell you how glad I am that I'm making this trip in my size car. I was told an RV or camper was the way to go, but that would have been a nightmare to drive over snowy mountain passes or in yesterday's wind, and it would have been a serious inconvenience in L.A. and here in KC. Penny is the way to travel!
• Almost every day has at least one "aha" moment of delight, laughter, or sometimes disgust (usually with the way some folks drive, but we'll leave that out of this blog). Here's today's: I had just crossed the bridge from Nebraska City in Iowa and I-29 was in sight when I saw a sea of flashers in the oncoming lane. When I got closer I saw it was a convoy of six oversize loads gathered on the roadside with their accompanying vehicles, ready to cross into Nebraska. Each was easily 100' long and resting on two sets of wheels, one attached to the semi tractor and the other just trailing along behind. They were single gracefully curved monstrous propeller blades, apparently destined to be attached in sets of three to the towers of wind turbines. I'd passed several large wind farms in Wyoming and western Nebraska, but the enormous scale of these windmills isn't obvious from a distance.
• On I-80 between Ogalalla and Lincoln yesterday afternoon I saw traffic for the first time in days, with a brief exception in Salt Lake City. I spent most of the 1,300 or so miles from Sacramento to eastern Nebraska either alone on the road or in the company of 18-wheelers driven in predictable ways (especially in Nevada, whose "Badge on Board" program seems to make everyone behave better). Yesterday afternoon saw the return of drivers cutting close in front after passing, speeding up when I try to pass, and other risky and annoying stuff that I can expect from here on home, I suppose, though the worst driving of this sort was along the Gulf Coast and in Texas. I also hit my first rush hour since L.A., heading out of Lincoln on Hwy. 2 at 5:30, but fortunately it was over in about five miles - apparently there's not much suburban sprawl in Lincoln, at least not to the south.

8:30 p.m. P.S.

I'm back from the Majestic, not too tired to write but not motivated to head for the 18th and Vine jazz district through the rain. The jazz trio was brilliant, entertaining, and a great ensemble who really connect to each other. The food was fantastic.

But I feel let down, probably for the wrong reasons: the guitarist and drummer are my age as was most of the small crowd in the downstairs bar where they perform; the pianist/accordion player is younger. Everyone in the room was white. Is this the KC jazz scene or an entertainment for folks from the burbs? Next visit it's the Blue Room for me and maybe I'll get the answer.