Update on progress towards fulltiming

Although progress on getting the house ready for sale has been made it has been slow going since my last day on January 22nd; I cannot believe it has been almost 6 weeks already! Think about how fast time seems to go during Christmas break or vacations and then double or triple speed is how fast retired time goes!

It has been a little too cold to spend a lot of time in the basement which is the first really big task so we have concentrated on the inside of the house. We organized the pantry & cleaned out all the refrigerators and freezers. We worked on the filing in kitchen desk, office desks, computer desks with stuff ending up in the shred pile, garage sale pile, recycling pile and throw away pile. I think I have shredded more in these 6 weeks than while I was working and have recycled a lot of paper. With all of the stuff we have accumulated over the years we are going to have a huge garage sale as part of the subdivision garage sale weekend in May. I then organized our 7 years of receipts that we will have to maintain. For this we used the Ziploc large bags and crammed one year into one bag. That way I can get three years in a box that used to hold only one year. Each year I will then shred the oldest year and relabel the bag.

Other news of note since I retired. I am drinking less caffeine, doing more exercise and getting more sleep. One of my Lenten obligations this year is no sweets and I am dieting per Weight Watchers and the "Eat This and Not That" book resulting in an approximate weight loss of 8 pounds to date with a lot more to go. Our 22 year old furnace bit the dust last week so that was an unexpected expense but a brand new furnace has to be more appealing than an ancient one.

We attended the RV Show at Bartle Hall and was a little disappointed that one of the floor plans on our short list was not there but the other two were. There were also a couple others that caught our eye but right now our current leader (subject to change w/o notice, etc.) is the Carriage Cameo F35SB3. We will not be buying on until the house is on the market at the earliest so it could be a while.

The next two big tasks to tackle are the dreaded basement and yard work.

Kansas City is NOT boring (restaurants, sightseeing)

When I think back I became real serious about restaurant lists and well known for it when I was made aware of a comment quite a few years ago that Kansas City is too boring a location to have a complex-wide meeting. I developed this little travel guide, the world according to Baskerville as it were on KC and sent it out. After this I began to be looked at for identifying the best places to eat whenever I was on a business trip; sometimes asked about a location even if I was not going to the meeting. So without further adieu here is your travel guide (both restaurants and sightseeing) for KC. Please note I did add a vegetarian section in response to a comment.

Top things to see or do (in no particular order)

• Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, Home, and Farm
• Zoo
• Arabia Steamboat Museum (1850's steamboat sank in the Missouri River, tons of artifacts salvaged, restored, and on display)
• Local Theater (WSJ calls the New Theater Restaurant one of the best Dinner Theaters in the country, American Heartland in Crown Center, and others keep talent in the KC area - the shows are excellent!)
• Liberty Memorial (WWI museum)
• Union Station (restored to 1930’s glory, now has Science City and other attractions with good restaurants – connected to Crown Center via walkway)
• Professional soccer (indoor and outdoor)
• Professional baseball
• Professional football
• Nelson Art Gallery
• Crown Center
• Plaza
• Alexander Majors House (he founded Pony Express)
• Lyric Opera
• Gambling on River Boat Casinos
• more multiplex cinema houses than you would believe
• Missouri Town
• Kansas City Museum
• Toy and Miniature Museum

Here are the best places to eat (in no particular order)

Best BBQ - anyplace in town but the most authentic is Bryant's at 1727 Brooklyn and Jack’s Stack’s menu includes lamb and fish.

Best Steak - Hereford House, Majestic

Best Filet - Main Street Inn in Grandview

Best Mexican - Manny's or any place on Southwest Blvd. for authentic Mexican, but it is not New Mexican, it is Mexican.

Best Italian - Il Trullo, Lidia’s, Carmen’s, Milanos, Garozzo’s

Best Breakfast – Corner Café (local) or First Watch (chain)

Best Chicken Fried Steak - Stroud's

Best pan fried chicken - Stroud's

Best Sunday Brunch – Peppercorn Duck Club

Best Desserts – Andre’s (local) or Chocolate Bar at Peppercorn Duck Club (local) or Cheesecake Factory (chain)

Best Reuben - Pumpernick's

Best Pizza - D'Bronx

Best Mashed Potatoes - RCs

Best Salmon Patties - Family Cabin

Best French Restaurant - Tatsu's

Best German Restaurant - Rheinland

Best Chinese – Genghis Khan’s Mongolian Grill at 39th & Bell (local) or PF Changs (chain)

Best Mongolian BBQ – Genghis Khan’s Mongolian Grill at 39th & Bell

Best Seafood – Bristol (local) or McCormick & Schmicks (chain) or Bonefish (chain)

Best "joint" – Main Street Inn in Grandview MO

Best upscale – 40 Sardines

Best Tenderloin sandwich – Main Street Inn in Grandview MO

Best sport’s bar – Nick & Jakes

Best vegetarian – Bluebird Bistro (local) or Sweet Tomato’s (chain)

This is a lot to absorb so I'll summarize the things to do and places to eat for you.

Overall Top things to do

Truman Library

Steamboat Arabia

Zoo

Plaza

Nelson Art Gallery

Crown Center/Union Station

Liberty Memorial

Overall Top places to eat

Tatsu's

Bryant's

Main Street Inn

Stroud's

Il Trullo

Rheinland

Lidia’s

40 Sardines

Jack’s Stack

I know I probably left out some places to see or eat, but these are my personal favorites, others may have differing opinions, especially on BBQ

YMMV

Welcome!

I plan to update this blog periodically on our travels; updates will probably be infrequent as we are working on house selling portion of our plan. After the house sells and we begin traveling in our Fifth Wheel as a full-timer I will include sightseeing and restaurant information. Before that I will be adding my known restaurant recommendations.