Kansas City

As I've mentioned before, I've been doing ancestry research since last July. During the course of the research it became clear to me that I didn't know very much about my family, those living or dead. So I started contacting long lost brothers, aunts, cousins, you name it.

About three weeks ago, I contacted my cousin who lives in Kansas City. We'll call him, "The Hermit." The Hermit is my mom's oldest brother's oldest son, thus making him my first cousin. Got it? The Hermit is 60 years old, lived in St. Louis until five years ago and I never met him once. Sad, but true. We didn't know any of our cousins while my mom and dad were alive. I thought it was because of my dad's alcoholism until the 1980s and nobody wanting to deal with him, thus us, but according to The Hermit, the whole family was like that. That's just how it was.

We've been emailing genealogy info, photos and theories for the past three weeks or so and it's one of those cases where I felt like I knew this guy forever. So on Friday, May 15, I drove through a monsoon to Kansas City, Missouri to meet The Hermit and his wife, talk family and go to a Royals game. A quick aside...The Hermit's wife is African-American, which means that my dad was probably rolling over in his grave since he was so embracing of others. The mention of this aside will make more sense later. Anyway, we met up on Saturday morning around 8 a.m. and I spent the better part of the day scanning in photos, etc. that The Hermit had saved.

The Hermit's wife was dropping code about lunch starting at 11 a.m. and, as code seems to do, it did not register. Finally, around 2 p.m., the code was deciphered and they took me to eat "soul food" at Peachtree Restaurant where I partook of fried chicken, corn, mac and cheese, spaghetti, rolls and peach cobbler. Oh my god, it was tasty.

We headed back to The Hermit's cave, where I did a bit more scanning before we left for the Royals game. I've been to Kaufmann Stadium before, but they've spent $250 million renovating the place since October of 2007 and it looks great. It was also "Replica Stadium Night" at the ballpark, so I now have a mini version of the improved digs to add to the memorabilia collection. It really is like night and day compared to the old "K." Nice job, KC. I'm still bitter about 1985 though.

After the game, we went back to the cave and theorized some more and made some pretty cool discoveries. The Hermit and I work very well together, bouncing ideas and theories off of each other. It makes me wish he knew about my dad's side of the family, but I guess that's too much to ask. I finally left the cave around 2 a.m. and headed back to the hotel.

Upon waking on Sunday, I was greeted with an email stating, "DON'T EAT. WE GOT DONUTS FROM LAMAR'S." I obeyed and arrived at the cave to find a 6 x 10 foot box of donuts the size of human heads and arms. I ate a 5-pound apple fritter - two actually, but several hours apart. For lunch, they took me to Big T's Barbecue. Again, I was treated to tasty goodness in barbecued form. I partook of the Italian Sausage and it was reeeeeeaaaaaaaaaally good. Add the spicy pickles and it was pure joy.

We spent more time talking and theorizing and The Hermit shared some great stories from when he was growing up. I finally left around 5 p.m., but not without The Hermit and his wife creating a goodie bag of joy for the road. I had donuts, candy and "pop" for the drive home.

It was great to meet Mr. and Mrs. Hermit...they're like an old married couple. I look forward to our next meeting when we meet up in mid-Missouri for a research pow-wow.

Bonus Kansas City Hoosier Photo: