Living in the Scoot Utopia

This past Saturday (May 27) my friend Brandon and I spent the most of the day (about 15 hours) barhopping along Wornall and the Trolley Track Trail.

We met for breakfast at 9:15am at Sharp's [map] in Brookside. After filling up we made a stop at Brandon's house where we each kicked it off with a bottle of Wild Huckleberry Wheat Lager that he brought back from a recent trip to Montana. We then headed down to 89th & Wornall to start off our journey.

10:30am: Flo's Poke-a-Dot Lounge. [map]

Flo turns out to be a man... short for Floyd. This bar has a classic painting of a nude woman on black velvet hanging on the wall. We were the only customers under the age of 60. As we were close to finishing our beers, a napkin was suddenly slid in front of Brandon. Before I could look to see what was going on, Brandon leaned over to me and whispered "How fast can you chug your beer?" "Pretty fast," I replied. "Do it," he said. We chugged. Why? An old man to his left had just pulled out a plastic bag filled with 2 pounds of shrimp and started passing it around. Now I love shrimp, but I'm not going to eat it from a plastic bag brought in by some old guy at a bar. We made excuses about beeing full and bolted. As we started to back out of the parking space another old man knocked on the car window, holding a fistfull of shrimp. "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" laughed the old man, fleeing the bar in an unsuccessful attempt to escape the shrimping.

Who'd have thought the oddest event of the day would happen at the first bar we visited?
Beers drunk: Bud Lite (me), Bud Lite (Brandon)


10:50am: The Grand Saloon. [map]

This places has free BBQ on Saturday afternoons around 4:00. We discussed Ray Harryhousen and in particular The Kraken, and a special personal meaning of "The Wrath of Khan".
Beers drunk: Miller Light (me), Bud Select (Brandon)


11:15am: Walsh's Corner Cocktail. [map]

This place was decked out in an Irish decor but didn't have any Irish beers on tap. We were the only customers in the place.
Beers drunk: Natural Lite (me), Natural Lite (Brandon)

This is where we parked the car for the day and did the rest on foot. From here on out, we followed Wornall and/or the Trolley Track Trail north hitting up all the bars we saw.


11:25am: The Village Lounge. [map]

The movie "First Knight" was being shown on all the bar TVs.
Beers drunk: Michelob Ultra Amber (me), Miller (Brandon)


11:55am: Jake's Smokehouse BBQ. [map]

I can't remember if we went here with the intention of eating or just to check to see if they had any beer. Well, we didn't eat. :)
Beers drunk: Guiness (me), Guiness (Brandon)


12:20pm: DeAngelo's. [map]

This place has a cool split-level bar, with a big screen in one corner and a pool table in another.
Beers drunk: Miller Lite (me), Bud (Brandon)


Our next stop was Cash America Pawn [map], not because we needed more booze change but just because we wanted to have a look around.

On the way to the next bar we stopped at Taco Bell for some cold drinks to recharge ourselves and to use what could be the world's tallest urinal. (I'm 6'4" and almost had to stand on my toes.) [map]


1:00pm: Tommy Farha's. [map]

The place with the white hearse in front.
Beers drunk: Michelob Lite (me), Michelob Ultra (Brandon)


We then made a side trip into Waldo Pets to look at all the cool fish and reptiles. [map]





Drunken visits to pet stores rock.


Our next stop was the Berliner Bear. [map]
Now, we already knew before going in that they had lost their liquor license in part due to the fallout from an incident there in the Spring of 2005. But we played dumb and went in to ask for beer anyway, because we just had to go in and see for ourselves the place where this happened last year:



1:55pm: Lew's Grill & Bar. [map]
Beers drunk: Coors Light (me), Coors Light (Brandon)


2:30pm: 75th Street Brewery. [map]
Beers drunk: Muddy Mo Stout (me) Weed Whacker (Brandon)


3:00pm: Kennedy's. [map]
The place where the men's restroom is the entire second floor.
Beer drunk: Harp (me), Harp (Brandon) (I think)


3:30pm: Fin's Waldo Bar & Grill. [map]
All the TVs here were showing "The Patriot"
Beers drunk: PBR (me) PBR (Brandon) (I think)


4:00pm: Bobby Baker's Lounge. [map]
At $4 a draw this was the most expensive beer we bought all day. Unfortunately for Brandon this fell on his turn to pay.
Beers drunk: Guiness (me), Guiness (Brandon)


4:20pm: Tanner's. [map]
We took a little bit of a break here and had some lunch.
Beers drunk: Flying Monkey (me), Flying Monkey (Brandon)


5:45pm: Back at Brandon's house to watch some TV and get our second wind.
Beers drunk: Wild Huckleberry (me), ?? (Brandon)


7:00pm: Governor Stumpy's. [map]
We spent a lot of time here playing bar trivia.
Beers drunk: Stella Artois (me), a Margarita (Brandon) (ok, technically not a beer)


Bye-bye, BrandsMart...



8:40pm: The Gaf. [map]
A bartender told us on a prior visit that they may start serving tapas here soon. Our bartender today was a recent transplant from New Zealand.
Beers drunk: Smithwick's (me) Strongbow (Brandon)


9:10pm: The Brooksider. [map]

Beers drunk: Bud Lite (me), Bud Lite (Brandon)


9:35pm: Charlie Hooper's. [map]

Beers drunk: Miller High Life (me), Miller High Life (Brandon)


We were now pretty hungry and worked out way towards the Plaza. We first went to The Peanut [map] only to find it way too packed, so we used the restroom and then slipped out the back door. We continued on to The Plaza. Our next attempt was O'Dowd's [map] but they had a cover charge and neither of us like to pay just to buy beer. Next try was California Pizza Kitchen -- closed. We then tried another place and it was closed too. Finally we tried Pizzeria Uno, success!


11:05pm: Pizzeria Uno. [map] Important note: they are open until 1:30 and never stop serving food. We got our supper here.
Beer drunk: None -- we tried and tried and just couldn't get any more beer into us.


Brandon's wife picked us up at midnight and took us back to their house, where my girlfriend arrived a moment later to take me back home.

STATS:

Total bars visited: 19 (but only drank at 17 of them)
Total beers consumed by each: 19
Men's room visits: Too numerous to count
Questionable shrimp avoided: 2 lbs.

My beers:

• Wild Huckleberry (x2)
• Bud Lite (x2)
• Miller Lite (x2)
• Natural Light
• Michelob Ultra Amber
• Guiness (x2)
• Michelob Lite
• Coors Lite
• Muddy Mo Stout
• Harp
• PBR
• Flying Monkey
• Stella Artois
• Smithwick's
• Miller High Life

Brandon's beers:

• Wild Huckleberry
• Bud Lite (x2)
• Bud Select
• Natural Light
• Miller
• Guiness (x2)
• Bud
• Michelob Ultra
• Coors Lite
• Weed Whacker
• Harp
• PBR
• Flying Monkey
• ??
• Margarita* (not technically a beer but we'll count it)
• Strongbow
• Miller High Life

It was a great day and a lot of fun. Amazingly, no hangover! Pacing ourselves helpedf, as did actually eating some food this time, drinking lots of water, and not adding any hard liquor to the mix. I'm looking forward to doing it again!

Posted by ScooterJ at 06:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Last night I went to see the annual Memorial Day Fireworks at Union Station/Liberty Memorial. It was the first time I went to the actual site to see them, before this year I'd always watched them from another building or hillside. Here's a couple of pictures, click on them to enlarge them:

On a side note, there were an estimated 35,000 people at this event. Attending was a last minute decision and I missed the last MAX that could get me there in time so I had to drive. I arrived 15 minutes before the fireworks started, parking in a lot only 2 blocks away that had plenty of open spaces. When it ended, though there was a lot of traffic, I didn't get stuck in any at all and was back home about 12 minutes after I got into the car. So though it's a dead horse, so much for all the naysayer claims that traffic in and out of the Truman Sports Complex is way easier and that Downtown's street grid can't handle a large volume of traffic.

Posted by ScooterJ at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I've meaning to post this for quite some time but I only just now got around to it. This post is about the single coolest experience of my life (so far, but will be very hard to top). (Sorry for not using the proper Portuguese character set, I don't know how to on this forum.)

Back in 1999-2000 my best friend and I did some pro-bono web site work for a Brazilian orphanage for HIV+ children. You can still see that work today here, though unless you can read Portuguese it'll probably be lost on you. Smile

In return, the doctor running the orphanage (named Sociedade Viva Cazuza) invited us to Rio de Janeiro for a week so that we could learn firsthand about what they do and see their city. We left for Rio on August 11, 2000 and returned to KC on August 18, 2000.

For the remainder of the story and lots of photos, please continue on to my full post, which includes panoramic photos too wide to display here.

Enjoy!

Posted by ScooterJ at 02:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

(I didn't post about Urban Walk #3 -- that was last weekend where I did an 11-mile loop walking the Urban Living Tour.)

Sunday, May 14, 2006

As I hinted late last week, I decided it was time to do something extreme. So, at 10:48 this morning, I was dropped in the parking lot of the Bally Total Fitness at 119th & Strang Line in Olathe, KS. 7-1/2 hours and 42,900 steps later I arrived at my home near the City Market in Downtown Kansas City, MO --
completing a 22-mile walk.

Before I get on with the pictures, a few notes about walking in Johnson County:

1. I was able to find sidewalks pretty much everywhere. There were a few small gaps but nothing major.
   
2. The exception was Mission Hills. I never saw a single sidewalk in Mission Hills.
   
3. Every crosswalk I eencountered required a button to be pushed to get a walk signal.
   
4. While crossing Quivira at a crosswalk I began speedwalking as soon as I got the walk signal and I still had 2 more lanes to cross when the cross-traffic got their green light. There's no way an old person or a family could possibly get across.
   
5. While crossing 95th near Oak Park Mall the crosswalk displayed "WALK" and "DON'T WALK" simultaneously. Then, 3 lanes into the crossing, both displays shut off altogether. I did a quick 270-degree scan then dashed the remaining way across.
   

I'd also like to say a little bit about the walk itself. Not since my teens have a felt as good, physically, as I do now at the age of 36. I've said it before and I'll say it again, it could very well be that getting caught with diabetes -- and doing something about it -- has been the best thing that has happened to me. The thing today that really brought that home was that part of my route took me along an old walking route I used to use 10 years ago when I lived near 85th & Switzer. That particular walking route used to wear me out back then. Yet, on the map above of today's walk, that route barely even registers as a blip just to the left of marker #7. Amazing.

Now, on with the pictures!

Looking back at my starting point...

The first of many parking lagoons I'd cross...

Crossing I-435 at Quivira...

Arriving at Oak Park Mall, where I took a short break...

Crossing US-69 (Overland Parkway) at 91st...

Taking a break in a part at 85th & Switzer...

As I approached 83rd, the homes all took on a funky '50s look...

New roundabout under costruction on Santa Fe
at the south end of downtown Overland Park...

Overland Park Farmer's Market...

The gallery that burned dowwn a couple of months ago. :(
You can still smell the soot...

Massive amounts of flowers landscaping a yard
on Tomahawk just east of Nall...

The most pedestrian-friendly thing I saw in JoCo:
Pedestrians get a nice bridge, cars drive down into the creek...

Brush Creek...

Prairie Village Shops...

This sign completely blocked the sidewalk at the entrance
to Mission Hills. Just beyond the sign the sidewalk ended.
I never saw another sidewalk until I reeached KCMO.

This is the closest thing Mission Hills has to sidewalks,
a painted white line reserving the curb for pedestrians...

Pretty much all of Mission Hills was under construction...

Looking north on Belinder at Tomahawk...

Roundabout (or traffic circle?) at Belinder, Tomahawk,
and a couple of other streets...

Meyer Circle Fountain...

The Church of the Rich Christian...

Filthy stinking rich...

Arriving at Loose Park, and various Loose Park shots...

Civilization! Heading north on Wornall towwards the Plaza...

New tower...

Another new tower... this one north of the Plaza...

43rd & Washington...

Relaxing at the Westport Sunfresh...

Southwest Trafficway, around 38th...

Penn Valley Community College...

31st just east of Broadway...

First full view of the skyline...

From here on out I didn't really take any more pictures because
it's all stuff that's been seen before on my previous walks.

However, I did take this shot to show that the facade of the
Bartle expansion is now going up...

Finally, the best walking shoes I have ever bought...

Posted by ScooterJ at 12:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (1)

A couple of weeks ago someone asked me why I haven't been updating my weight loss progress on here lately. I brushed it off but now I can reveal the reason. When the doctor took me off my diabetes medication, one of the side effects was a sudden increased appetite. Until my body readjusted I could not stop being hungry and I gained 8 pounds in only 2 weeks. I've been working ever since to undo the damage.

As of yesterday I've now officially succeeded -- and then some. I've successfully lost the 8 pounds I gained, plus one more for good measure. That puts my total weight loss at 41 pounds.

I'd really like to lose 18 more by the end of the year... so I'm going to have to step up the pace a little. I may have to do something drastic. Maybe on Sunday. Hmmmmm.

Posted by ScooterJ at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

With the weather warming up, the panhandlers are back out in full force. Now that I've lived downtown for 3 years they don't really bother me any more, they are just an occcasional nuisance slightly below junk mail and telemarketer calls in irritation level. (The only thing that bugs me about them any more is when I see them pester suburban visitors, because visitors don't realize how harmless the vast majority of them are.)

Unlike some of the more aggressive panhandlers, today I had a pretty laid back experience with one who was relaxing on a bench that I passed within about 50 feet of as I was walking home from work. He never got up from the bench nor even flinched from his relaxed pose.

Panhandler: How's it goin'?

Me: Having a nice day, How about you?

Panhandler: Just fine. Say, can you help a brutha with any spare change you have?

Me: Sorry, not today.

Panhandler: That's cool. Have a good night, bro!

Me: You too!

Posted by ScooterJ at 12:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last Friday, Cinco de Mayo, the long-awaited Dos Hombres in the River Market finally opened.

We arrived around 8:15pm to find that only 2 of the 3 dining rooms were being used and there was a 45-minute wait. So we put our names in and went across the street to Vivace and had our appetizers there.

We returned about half an hour later and sat at the bar, where I got my Guiness and my companions ordered the house peach margarita. We were then seated promptly at 45 minutes.

My companions each took a sip of the peach margarita and found it to be bitter, watery, and completely lacking in peach flavor. It's a frozen drink but instead of being made with slush it was made with crushed ice, whicch made it difficult to drink and likeely contributeed to the wateriness.

The bar... and the offending drink...

The waitress took the drink away and returned with a sangria instead. One of my compantions throught the sangria was excellent, the other thought it was so-so.

Chips and salsa came quickly and frequently, and I liked that I was able to mix the salsa to my own prefered level of hotness.

We all ordered fajitas. There was some confusion at first because the menu doesn't offer combinations and I wanted chicken & shrimp while my companions wanted chicken & beef. Everything worked out though. The fajitas were rather good -- the meat was plentiful, tender, juicy, and flavorfully seasoned. My only complaint was that the rice was somewhat mushy. (Plus, I hate corn in my rice -- luckly it was sparse enough for me to pick out.)

It was clear they were not prepared for as busy as they were, and from other reports that I have read about how lunchtime went, closing the third dining room was probably a good idea. Once we got past the initial wait for seating our service was good. I'm hoping the bugs with the bar work themselves out with some time -- the experience was satisfactory enough to be worth trying again to see how things improve after they settle in.

The dining area.... and the aftermath...

Posted by ScooterJ at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This past Tuesday my buddy Brandon and I took the afternoon off and decided to go barhopping at various dives up north.

STOP 1:  We began the journey in Riverside at The Jockey Club, where we sat in an empty bar for about 3 or 4 minutes before the proprieter came in through the back. Beer selections were limited to what bottles he had in the big tub of ice on the bar.

As you can see from the photos above, the Jockey Club looks as prestigious as it sounds. Fact is, it's not really a club and we didn't see a single jockey. It did kinda smell like horse. --Brandon

STOP 2:  After 1 beer each (total cost, $3) we moved on to The Runaway.

At first glance, the name Runaway almost sounds like a warning. But for those of you who are willing to ignore this foreboding sign and belly up to the bar, you will find cheap beer and a wall covered in pictures of drunken bar patrons. That's just good advertising. --Brandon

Another beer down each. I forget the cost but I think it was $4 total.

STOP 3:  Then we went to Shooter's, home of the $4 pitcher. So we committed our first violation of our 1-beer-per-place rule and got the pitcher.

The bartender at shooters was incredible. We ordered a pitcher of Miller Lite and she gave us a pitcher of Coor's Light. How did she know we really didn't care what kind of beer she served us? Amazing. --Brandon

STOP 4:  We then went across the street to Moxie Bar & Grill, where we got a beer each for a total of $4.

The Moxie- "Home of the Big Red Ashtray" (it's on their uniforms) --Brandon

STOP 5:  Moving south into North Kansas City, our next stop was Pat's Pub.

We love Pat's because they have condiments right at your fingertips. For those of you who like a little Worcestershire with your beer - you are home. --Brandon

And here's Pat herself!

I forgot to take the phone off camera mode and went to go use the bathroom. While in there I checked to see what time it was and as a result have one additional picture from this place that I will not be sharing.

STOP 6:  After we left here the alcohol was really starting to kick in. Our next stop was Bar 12, which I thought was centered when I took this picture but is actually to the left.

This was the fastest bartender we had all day. This picture was taken with a Canon EOS-1D Mark II with 8.2 megapixel CMOS Sensor and 40 frame JPEG image burst capability. As you can see, she's still a blur. We called her "Flash"; she seemed to really take to it. --Brandon

From here on out I can no longer say for sure what was had at each place. Neither of us ever paid more than $2 for a drink though, and we found $1 draws and $4 pitchers at several places.

STOP 7:  I am not sure what this place was, it was slightly further south on Swift:

There was a little mop dog walking around inside, and this was the kind of place where when I tried to tip the bartender for the beer, he was dumbfounded.

By this time we started getting a little tired, so the bartender let us take a nap in his camper. --Brandon

STOP 8:  Our next stop was over on Choteau at a place simply called The Bar.

As you can see above, The Bar is the home of "Great Bucket Specials". We saw one of the buckets, and I'll have to admit, it was pretty nice. --Brandon

This was probably the busiest of our stops today.

STOP 9:  Next door to The Bar was Harry's TS Corner Bar & Grill.

Harry T's is located right next door to The Bar. The sign on top states that they have "Daily Lunch Specials". As you can imagine, the closeness of these establishments has led to a lot of tension between the two. The argument of the "Great Bucket Special" versus the "Daily Lunch Special" continues to this day. --Brandon

STOP 10:  After here we went to a town I'd heard of but never seen before, Avondale, where we found Depot Saloon.

With a name like "The Depot Saloon" we knew there had to be some great history tied to thebuilding. We figured it must have been an old train depot at one time, so we asked the bartender and she replied, "I don't know." So, that was pretty interesting. --Brandon

STOP 11:  Our final stop was back in North Kansas City at River Aces, where we succumbed to the temptation of another $4 pitcher.

The crowd at River Aces enjoys cold beer and Wheel of Fortune. It's a team effort, so if you think you know it, go ahead and shout it out. If you are too drunk to read, then just shout out anything that comes to mind. --Brandon

We then went bowling (last night of league night this season) where I bowled horrifically, stumbled over the ball return, and was slipped a tequila shot and a gin & tonic.

The night finally ended at Harry's Country Club, where I sipped on water and ate the first food I had had all day. Not eating on the day of a planned pub crawl was dumb. :)

Amazingly, I got to work on time the next morning!

At the start of the final bowling league meeting, which I accidently missed: Seth: Wait, where the f**k is Scoot?!? Andy: I think I saw him coming out of River Aces. All: (laughter) Andy: No,... I'm serious!

Posted by ScooterJ at 07:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)