Night of the Twisters

Haven't posted for awhile on here so thought I'd tell you a little bit about a trip I did on my own back in 2008 to the "City of Fountains".





Ok now you are thinking Rome but its actually Kansas City not the Italian capital I'm talking about, apparently of the two places Kansas has more fountains.

To be honest its not the most interesting city I've ever visited and not too much comes out of the memory bank about it. The people were friendly, nothing wrong just not many places of interest to visit for a tourist.

Do remember a good museum dedicated to the Great War but not much else.



As for nightlife there seemed to be three main areas, the Power & Light district which to be fair I only visited at daytime as it was a fair distance from my hotel and needed a bus or taxi to get there. Think it hadn't been open long but there seemed to be plenty of good bars, clubs, restaurants so imagine it would have been fun.

Walkable my hotel (Best Western) was another modern area "The Plaza" and although i found a couple of ok Pubs when I tried it was mainly restaurants (and shops) so much better for singles and not solo travellers.

Also walkable from my hotel was Westport which for those that don't know the old part of town, a few Pubs and bars, bit rundown but much more to my liking. As I said earlier the locals were very friendly and I met a good few caractors up here.
The history of the area was also of interest to me (been a western fan) its where the wagon trains split for three great routes west (Sante Fe, Oregan & California trails).

Well one night I'd got ready and was walking up the hill to Westport I noticed the sky had gone real dark and what i thought was an air raid siren started sounding. When I got there I visited a Pub and asked about the Sirens to be told "Tornado Warning" and advised to find somewhere safe.

Well found a cellar bar and fortunately they had a live group performing (whom had arrived). Now think it was to do with the imminent weather but was only about 10 people in the place but the band played anyway.
They were called "Project Chameleon" and played on and off all night while we sheltered from the weather and tried to drink the place dry.
Because so few people in the audience got talking with the front man and his wife (who sang) strange thing he also played the flute and only other group i recall with one in was Jethro Tull.
They did Rock covers and were quite good was an enjoyable night, asked if any of us in the audience wanted to get up and sing. I declined (cant sing) but one American cha did and sang "mary had a little Lamb" not the nursery rhyme but the Stevie Ray Vaughan classic. As SRV is one of my favorite acts it pleased me.

Eventually think about 5am made my way back to my hotel for breakfast, apparently the twisters had hit north of the city and we had just had a bit of wind, still turned out to be one of them unexpected great nights.