Day 13, 14 and 15: Major League Baseball Trip.

DATE: Friday, September 13, 2013. Day 13.
LOCATION: We left Pittsburgh at 8 AM and drove 681 miles to Anamosa. We saw a lot of corn and soybean fields as we drove through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. It took us 12 hours - we stayed in Anamosa. Ruth Ann was happy to see us.

DATE: Saturday, September 14, 2013. Day 14.
LOCATION" Anamosa to Overland Park, Kansas.
We left Anamosa at 9 AM and  headed to Overland Park, Kansas, which is a suburb to the west of Kansas City. Our destination was the home of Rusty and Angie Russell Rusty was a good friend of Brad's from their UP People Days in the 1980s. We arrived at 2:30 - we spent the day watching football in Rusty's Man Cave. Iowa beat Iowa State 27-24 and Alabama beat Texas A&M. Angie had  a wonderful dinner prepared for us. She had two of my favorites - Iowa chops and broccoli salad. They have a beautiful home in a very nice neighborhood of Overland Park.

DATE: Sunday, September 15, 2013. Day 15.
LOCATION: Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Chiefs.
Rusty and his brothers have four season tickets to the Chiefs. He excluded his family this time and let Brad, John and me use them. We got to Arrowhead at 8:30 and set up the tailgating stuff. I started visiting with the couple next to us. The conversation went like this:
Pete: Where are you from?
Neighbors: Iowa.
Pete: What city or town?
Neighbors: Anamosa.
Pete: I can't believe it. I'm from Anamosa also. My name is Pete Bungum.
Neighbors: Oh, my gosh. Your granddaughter Alexandra and our daughter Kelly are the best of friends. When Alexandra was an exchange student in 2008-2009 they became best friends. Alex was at our home many times.
Pete: Brad, get over here, There is somebody here that you know and want to talk to you. (And the conversation continued....)

It is really is a small world sometimes. There were 76,000 fans and thousands of cars at the game.  What are the odds that something like this could happen? They are mighty slim. Their names are Linda and Neal Vaughn. She is the principal at the Middle School and he works for the Iowa Department of Agriculture. The reason they were at the game is their son works for the Chiefs, doing video stuff.

The Chiefs beat the Cowboys 17-16. The stadium was solid red - it looked like everybody had a Chiefs red jersey to wear. I was impressed with the enthusiasm of the fans. They were really into it. The Chiefs only won two games last year and now they are 6-0. Why the difference? As Rusty explained:  "We got a new coach (Andy Reid from the Eagles) and a new quarterback (Alex Smith from the 49'ers). That's the difference."  Rusty was ready to give up his season tickets after last year. But he said if they get a new coach and a new quarterback he'd give it another year. They did, so Rusty kept his season tickets.

After the game John and I wondered through the Chiefs Museum inside Arrowhead. Of course, I wanted to the see the head statue of Eddie Podolak, the former HAWKEYE AND CHIEFS RUNNING BACK from the 1970s. I saw it. Eddie now does the color commentary for Hawkeye games with play-by-play guy Gary Dolphin.