day one: kansas city

sooo...i get that kansas city is not actually in europe, but, i'm here anyhow. for me, my trip starts and ends here. i'm traveling with kelli, a long-time friend that i met at work years ago before she moved to nashville and then, well, kansas city. i'm also traveling with her friend, erika, who does not live in kansas city, but whose trip also starts and ends in kansas city.

at the risk of losing my life, i took a couple of candid pictures of these lovely ladies...they will shoot me, but it's a risk i'm willing to take. after all, i'm their "protector" for the next few weeks. anyhow, meet kelli...the mastermind of this whole thing. well, not really, but her mom and step-dad have a bell choir, which is going on tour from amsterdam to paris. she informed me that she wanted to have some fun people go. for me to go, though, i was not willing to just travel this tour with a bell choir for nine days. for me to go, the trip had to be elongated. for me to go, she did what she had to do, swindling erika into a pre- and post-trip and, voila!, here we are.

anyhow...here's kelli. all dolled up and ready to rock.


and here's erika...it's not the first picture that i took of her, but we made a bargain that she would distract kelli while i took the picture above, so it's the "agreed upon" picture. anyhow, it's what you get, so, deal with it...


now that we're a big, happy family, let's get on with it, shall we? this morning began way super early, my mom gently laying her hand on my shoulder, telling me that it was time to get up. (i think she's a little gun shy after i punched her in the face waking me up one morning when i was kid - no, not out of spite, i'm a deep-sleeper, 'k?) i hop up, get dressed, and we head to the airport. she drops me off and after waiting through the :30 security line, i pop through to the now-loading gate.

kelli's husband, dan, picks me up from the airport. we get gas, a couple burgers from hardee's (it's phoenix's version of carl's, jr.), and get to the house. then we grub, load up the horses, then go for...pedicures! i figgered that, since we'd be walkin' all of italy the next week, a pedicure wouldn't be all that bad. it wasn't - for me...i wonder what the girls think of this:


just in case you didn't get that...


that's right: go big or go home.

we're getting these pedicures, and i'm asking sam what color i should get...she texts back, "slut red, something sparkly...but maybe black or blue - more manly." luckily there were some some college girls in there to pick out my colors...perfect!

kelli looks down at the nail-doer-upper-lady's nails and blurts out, "you should have her do it like hers!" that's where i got the stripes.


after that, we go to walgreen's. some dude in line tells me, "you're so big, dude, i can't crack any jokes." and so it begins.

then we run some more errands, get take out, and enjoy some kc bbq. can't hate. i'm watchin' the tube with dan and the girls are clangin' downstairs. tomorrow: detroit, then rome...rome!

i'll be offline 'til monday. have fun. be safe.