Saturday

Uneventful flights here.  Our flight was out of Ontario at 6:15am, so we got an early start.  First stop was in Vegas where we had a plane change and about an hour and a half layover.  Had a quick breakfast, then relaxed a while before our flight.  Next flight had a layover, but no plane change, in Omaha.  We finally landed in St. Louis at 2:55pm and had our rental mini van by 3:45.

Drew's laptop had a major screen crack a few months ago...luckily we had full accidental damage coverage at Micro Center and they gave us a gift certificate for the what we paid for the laptop originally.  Our first stop while in St. Louis was at the local Micro Center for a new laptop.  Unfortunately on the way Josh noticed an Arby's so we had to have that for dinner (should have had some great BBQ instead since we were in St. Louis!)!  Finally checked into our hotel around 5:30ish...ate and went into the pool for a while before crashing hard at around 10pm.  Long day!

Sunday

Slept in and had a late hotel breakfast then went to Walmart for snacks, water, soda, and some movies for the road trip.

Went to the River City Rascals game a few minutes before the 4pm start time.  Got there and found out it was a scheduled double header...both games 7 innings.  The boys were getting a little tired by the end of the first game and wanted to leave.  I told them if they were able to get 2 Frontier League baseballs for the collection, then we would leave.  They don't sell the league balls so we had to get game used balls.  Drew went and asked one of the players and he gave them both a baseball.  So, back to the hotel for us for a little more pool time and then to bed.

Monday

Got a late checkout and then drove over to Pappy's for a great BBQ lunch.  By great I mean the best BBQ that I've had, hands down.  To get in you stand in a line to stand in a line to order...yes, 2 separate lines. Then you sit down at a table and they bring you your food.  Not too long of a wait from first arrival to food on the table, about 30 minutes.  It was worth it.  We ordered the Adam Bomb, named after Adam Richman from The Travel Channel's show Man vs. Food.  It consists of a full rack of dry rubbed ribs, 1/4 smoked chicken, 1 beef brisket sandwich, 1 smoked turkey sandwich, and 4 sides, plus a Hot Link Frito Pie.  I can't imagine a single person eating the whole thing (we had leftovers after the 3 of us pigged out), but people have done it.

After lunch we drove for 3 1/2 hours to Burlington, IA for the Burlington Bees game.  Got there at 5:30 for a 6:30 game.  It was $1 Monday, so everything was cheap.  It cost us $4 to get in ($2 for me and $1 for each of the boys) and canned sodas, hot dogs, pizza, and popcorn were $1 each.  My program had a stamp on page 5 which meant I won something...it ended up being a free order of hot wings at a local sports bar and grill.  We went there after the game and had hot wings (obviously), nachos, and mozzarella sticks.

Then it was back on the road for a 2 1/2 hour drive to our hotel in Des Moine, IA.  Pulled in at 12:30am and found the parking lot completely full...not a single spot besides the handicap spot in front and a no parking area near the end.  Quite a few cars that were taking 2 parking spots...aholes!  They had me park in the no parking area for the night which ended up being really close to our room.

Finally fell asleep around 2am.