Feelin’ the love in KC!
All Star Game day started with a news interview with Matt Stewart of KCTV5 on the plaza in KC. We woke up bright and early to be on live where they were broadcasting from the red carpet for the All Star Red Carpet parade. It was great to be featured on the local news in KC. Matt Stewart had been putting weekly B4B updates from road on his morning broadcasts, so we actually got to have our smiling faces on the news in person on Tuesday. Thanks Matt!
From the plaza we took our bikes in to get some TLC while we didn’t need them for a few days. Our good friend Kyle hooked us up with 4 free bike tune-ups from the Bike Source in Leawood, KS. After 6,000 miles, our bikes were in desperate need of professional maintenance and Justin from the Bike Source was our guy! He was excited to hear about what we are doing and was more than willing to donate his professional skills. Huge thanks to Justin and the Bike Source.
The afternoon of the All Star Game, B4B went back down to the plaza for the All Star Red Carpet parade. We really had no clue what to expect the parade was. There was an actual huge red carpet down the middle of the road in the several blocks of the plaza, so it must be a big deal, right? The parade started with most of the mascots from the teams walking around being goofy and handing out goodies.
Kansas City Royals Hall of Famer George Brett was the “Grand Marshall” of the parade and he was the first one down the route in his convertible. He was followed by managers and players from both AL and NL squads each in separate Chevy pickup trucks. Talk about product placement. Most players had wives, families, and parents in the trucks with them, and a few players had their entourage of friends. Mark Trumbo was the only player with nobody in the truck with him. The poor guy looked sad with no family or friends. The biggest cheers by far were for Billy Butler and Carlos Beltran, but Melky Cabrera and Chipper Jones got good cheers too.
We watched the All Star Game from the comfort of Adam’s house with friends and family. Kauffman Stadium looked great on TV and we thought the Negro Leagues feature before the game was well done. The game itself was pretty disappointing. The 8-0 shutout was the most lopsided All Star Game since 1946 when the AL won 12-0. The AL may have dominated the Home Run Derby, but they only managed 6 singles, no extra base hits, and no runs in the All Star Game. Former Royal Melky Cabrera was the MVP of the game after going 2/3 with 2 RBI, 2 runs, and one home run.
The day after the All Star Game left us with the strange feeling of knowing there will be no baseball played today. All of the excitement from the All Star festivities is suddenly over and the national spotlight is away from KC. We started the day with an in-studio radio interview with KMBZ 980 in Kansas City. After the interview we headed to Panera Bread to get some work done when we got a call from KSHB 41 news in KC.
“Are you the biking guys?” the other end of the phone asked.
“Yes, we are.”
“Where are you right now?”
“Panera Bread in Mission, KS.”
“Ok, great! I’ll be there in 15 minutes.”
Um, okay. That’s how the conversation went. Over the course of the trip, we’ve found out that’s how the news works. It’s all about deadlines and getting the story when you can. So we sat at the table at Panera Bread and were interviewed while working on our laptops. It was an interesting experience.
The rest of the day was devoted to preparing for our Welcome Home party at Adam’s family’s house. Mama Kremers and Mama Higgins put in so much work in preparation of hosting over 100 friends and family, we can’t thank them enough. It was great to see so many B4B supporters in one place. A lot of people bought shirts and we had many friends and family give us reassuring comments and motivation for the remainder of the trip. We enjoyed the company of 100 B4B friends into the night before calling it a night. KC showed us the love!