April 21, 2021 - Day 4: Montgomery City, MO -- Kansas City, MO 品尝14种美国啤酒

We stopped by Boulevard Brewing company, where we sampled fourteen different drinks (yes, fourteen).

On the way, my mom saw billboards for “chocolate heaven” - so we went off the exit and landed at Ozarkland gift shop. It was quite disappointing. They had several kinds of fudge; otherwise they had only knock off moccasins and sweatshirts - typical gift shop material. However, my mom did find a small section of I Love Lucy merchandise and bought a coin purse.

We stopped by Boulevard Brewing company, where we sampled fourteen different drinks (yes, fourteen). My mom decided to try all their preset flights and the bartender looked at us with a strange light as he brought out three trays full of drinks, explaining in order which one was which. We liked exactly none of them; this is not a beer drinking family. The informational graphics were interesting and nearly got me excited to drink beer; who knew that they substituted beer for water in medieval times because of the prevalence of bacteria? I wished we had taken a tasting with an explanation; none of us knew anything about beer. So as we sat on the counter, my parents eating pretzel dogs and avoiding the fourteen glasses of beer under our noses, I scrolled through definitions of IBUs and IPAs and the difference between lagers and ales. The bright yellow billboard gave an accurate summary of the place: “WISH YOU WERE BEER.”

After awhile of driving, we made it to Kansas City and parked to eat at Blue Koi, where noodles were handmade and my vegetarian dumplings were green. On the way, I discovered a treasure; a bookstore with tottering piles of books up to literally the ceiling, with glass windows embedded in the wooden floorboards to peek at the warmly lit shelves of the lower level. I found a battered copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to take home.

We saw the international headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We walked around the pinnacle shaped like a giant horn, afternoon moon in the background. We walked around the labyrinth and among the flags of nations around the world. There, we ran into two men walking their dog. One had lived in the neighborhood before the building was built - over thirty years ago. They remarked on the performance of Handel’s Messiah every year.

Another surprise came at night in the RV. After a shower, my dad pointed to a small black point on the back of his knee - a tick. After pulling it out, my mom doused it in rubbing alcohol and wrapped it in the damp napkin while we tried to Google the type of tick. This tick would not die. Each time we unwrapped it, it was moving. My dad eventually had to squash it with his fingernails - an ordeal lasting several minutes - and then flush it down the toilet.

The world headquarter of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints:

This store is kind of a special one, that you can find lots of old stuffs, including the tv shows I like" I love Lucy"

A unique second hands bookstore:

Big amount of dumplings and noodles: