Kansas City Chiefs Arrowhead Stadium Tour - 11/17/2015

Our retirement club toured Arrowhead Stadium on November 17, 2015 on a cold and rainy day.  There were nearly 40 people in our group.  We gathered  in the Pro Shop before the tour and as you might expect, there were lots of old people wearing Kansas City Chiefs red stuff before we all left that day.

A short video presentation was made before the walking tour.  The video highlighted the Chiefs history and the stadium.  We divided into two groups for the tour.

The Arrowhead Club is a huge area to eat and drink while watching the game from a gazillion different monitors.  You can stay warm while there.  Atmosphere must be worth something....otherwise, why would you go to a game, pay huge fees to park your car, pay even larger amounts to purchase food and drink, weave your way through 80,000 other people just to watch the game indoors on a big TV.

The Kansas City Royals Kauffman Stadium across the parking lot from Arrowhead.  The Royals are the reigning World Champions of baseball in 2015.

More Arrowhead Club.

Our tour guide was a Chief's Red Coater.  They are a group of super fans who volunteer for all kinds of duties at Arrowhead as well as all sorts of community activities and charities.  There are currently 75 Red Coaters in this exclusive club.

One of the private suites at Arrowhead near the 50 yard line.  The suite rents for $300,000 per year without food and seats about 25 people.  There are outside seats available for the suite owners if they want to join the throbbing masses of ordinary fans in the stadium.

The Hunt family, owners of the Chiefs franchise, have a 4,000 sqft, two story suite in the stadium.  Nice.

The view from the suite.

Another indoors food service area are similar to the Arrowhead Club.

A nice fireplace for a cold day but you have to share with 80,000 others.  This fireplace is just one of many in the stadium.

The food service equipment was so impressive that I had to take a photo.

The Chiefs organization has always been a large contributor to a kinds of community activities in the Kansas City area.  The players all get involved in one form or another.

Past Chiefs players who won the NFL Man of the Year award.

On the field....but you can't walk on the grass.

The Chiefs dressing room.

Jamaal Charles' locker.  Jamaal is out for the 2015 season with a knee injury.  He is on track to be the best running back in NFL history.

Sigrid at Alex Smith's locker all dressed out for the game.

You don't step on the arrowhead in the carpet.....hallowed ground in the locker room.

The Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Honor.  I have watched every one of these past great players while they were in their prime going back to 1963.

The NFL championship trophy from Super Bowl IV.

After the tour, we all gathered at V's Italian Restaurant for get warmed up and have some great food in our own private room.

The Seven-0 Cattle Ranch Tour - 10/13/2015

Our retirement group, the KCPL Power Partners Retirement Club, held their monthly event at the Seven-0 Cattle Ranch in Urich, MO on October 13, 2015. The owner of the ranch is also a retiree from KCPL.  He was a rancher before he was a utility worker.  The KCPL job helped keep the ranch afloat during hard times.  It isn't easy running a small operation.

Being small hasn't meant being behind the times.  Rod utilizes computerization to keep his records on his business and on his cattle.  We were amazed at the kind of data that is kept.  They breed and raise cattle for sale and they know which bulls are productive and which ones aren't.  Growth rates for the calves are closely monitored and feed composition is adjusted to keep development on schedule.

Branding the cattle is no longer just a single ranch logo.  Now the brand has numeric coded information on each cow's heritage.

The ranch covers 800 acres and the herd is approaching 200 cattle.

I couldn't resist a few photos of the cattle skulls.  I remember sketching one in art class in high school.

Rod has his own chuck wagon which we will use latter for a luncheon.

Rod and Kristi give us the history of the ranch before we start the tour.

We had about 30 club members make the one hour drive from the Kansas City area to the ranch.

Sigrid has the pink jacket.

The grandson of one of our club members.

This building housed the hydraulic cow press (not the right name but I am a city boy).  One by one, the cattle can be brought into the press which holds them in place for injections, castrations, etc.  It also has a weight scale built in.  All the data is collected in the small yellow device and then downloaded to a computer.

The grill is being prepared for the hamburger and all beef hot dogs we will eat later.

Most of us toured the ranch on the hay wagon.

The cattle are located all over the ranch.  Electric fencing is used in the pastures to control where they graze so the fields can be rotated.

We planned our tour to coincide with the berthing season.  There were a number of newly born calves in the pastures.

Heading back to the house.

A few of us rode in the Kawasaki mule when space ran out on the wagon.  Rod used to use horses to get around the ranch but now relies on the mule.

The food was great.  Rod provided the meats, buns, and beans.  Club members brought side dishes and desserts.

It goes almost without saying, but the hot dogs were all beef.

The weather was fantastic as was the food and company.  Another fun adventure in the books.