Wednesday, July 4th – Day 24 – Miami to Kansas City

Woke up pretty early, but fell back asleep for a bit. By the time I got out the door, I had about 50 minutes until my flight left. The shuttle I hooped on stopped twice and I rushed through the airport rigamarole. I got incorrectly directed, costing me about 10 minutes, then had some really nice people help me and hurried through security, cutting some others like the late guy you always see in the airport. I got to the gate about 1 minute late. The plane was physically still there, but the walkway was being retracted and they wouldn't let me on. I was put on standby for the next flight and waited 2 hours more. There were 11 people on standby and I was the first. They kept saying the flight was pretty full. By the end of the nail biting wait, I was the only standby they let on. Whew! Lucky break. Another 2 hour layover in Dallas, and into KC. Arrived about 430pm and Kalie and Matt picked me up. We stopped home then went out to the river to Riverfest for July 4^th. Got some beers, hung out by the river, listened to some live music, then went to get some BBQ. I really wanted Oklahoma Joe's b/c it's the only one of the major KC BBQ joints I haven't been to, but they were closed for the holiday, so we went to Jack Stack, my current favorite. We all enjoyed a really nice meal, then we drove up to a lookout to watch the city's fireworks. Then we headed back home for an early night.