Kansas City Kickoff: Concert, Hotel Stay, & Nashville Bound!

Carrie and John in Hotel

Carrie and I had the opportunity to get tickets to the Chris Stapleton concert in Kansas City on Wednesday, June 12. Carrie had a friend she knew that was selling tickets and we jumped at the chance. This was the night before we were scheduled to leave for Nashville, so we decided to get a hotel in Kansas City for the concert and so we would be set for leaving for our trip on Thursday.

We stayed at the Hotel Indigo in downtown Kansas City where we had stayed before. It worked out great as it was within walking distance to the concert and then a short drive the next morning to the airport.

Drinks Before the Concert

We stopped by the hotel bar before the concert to have a few drinks. Nice bar and beer was ice cold which was good on a hot late afternoon before heading to concert. It was fun sitting at the bar as we could see people walking by and we knew where they were headed in their cowboy boots, hats, and attire. No country dress up for us, but we were ready for the concert.

We made it to the concert and ready. The concert started at 7 with two opening acts, so we were a little late getting into see the first act. Not bad with good energy. The second opening act was really good. Marcus King and Allen Stone were good. Fun sound and got the crowd ready for the main event. We had a good time listening to them and watching T-Mobile Center fill up for the main act.

Selfie with Robin, Amber, and Crew

After we bought our tickets from a friend of Carrie, Carrie was talking to another friend of ours who was also planning to attend. Found out they were going to be sitting right in back of us. What are the odds? Robin bought her tickets through a web site and here we are sitting right in front of Robin and Amber. Too funny! Robin and Amber hooked us up with some free drinks from the T-Mobile VIP space where they were at when we arrived at the concert. Brought back a number of drinks for us to enjoy throughout the opening acts.

Chris Stapleton Stage

Chris Stapleton came back on for an encore and played two more songs. He puts on a fantastic show. The sound was excellent plus the video production of the video board above the stage and on the sides were excellent with interactions to what he was singing tied into visual effects on the screen above. It was fun!

Following the concert, we walked out of the T-Mobile Center toward our hotel. We immediately smelled amazing smells as we exited. There were food vendors everywhere and of course we had to get some for our walk back. We got hotdogs covered in veggies. Now, for $10 a piece, we probably would normally not have stopped to buy one, but after beer, music, and fun, we forked over the cash and carried them back to our hotel to enjoy in our room. Great way to end the evening. 

The next morning, we got up, had breakfast in the hotel bar which was really good, and then headed to the airport. A great time in Kansas City before our trip to Nashville. So glad Carrie found the tickets for the concert.

Changing Cell Providers After Being with #Sprint for Twenty Years and Going with New Option on the Market for Cheaper Monthly Price #Tmobile #MintMobile #Options #blog

Much like my dad used to be, when I find a brand I like whether it is food, a product, or a service, I tend to stick with that brand until I am forced to leave or become unhappy with the service. After twenty years of being with Sprint for my cell phone service, we are making a change. 

I will first say that overall, I have been happy with my Sprint service and unlike others that I have spoken to throughout the years, I really do not have a lot of issues with signal within the city limits or really when traveling. Yes, there are some areas where it is impossible to get signal (i.e. northern parts of Kansas, Nebraska, etc.), but it has not caused a lot of issues.

Carrie and I leased iPhones from Sprint two years ago at a Sprint store in Dallas, TX and we still have our phones. As we were reviewing what to do for our service on whether to get new phones through Sprint, make a change to T-Mobile (T-Mobile now owns Sprint), or make a jump to a new service, we decided to make a switch. Again, I have been happy with Sprint through the twenty years of being with them, but thought it was time to change. 

In the back of my head, I have this nagging feeling I am letting down Sprint because I have been with them for so long. I wake up at night after we made the decision to change thinking what if the new service does not work? What if we are unhappy and service is bad? Well, sometimes it is necessary to make a leap and try something new. If nothing else, we hope this change will save money. One thing we had to do was either buy new phones to make the change or buyout our lease with Sprint so we could use the phones on another service. 

After twenty years with Sprint, it is time for a change. Which cell provider have you used the longest period of time?

We opted to buyout our leases so the phones can be used on a new service provider. We still owed a considerable amount for both phones, but figured we are happy with our phones and why not continue to use them. I have the iPhone Xs and Carrie has the Xs Max. The only reason we would really consider changing phones (i.e. upgrading) would have been to get the newest iPhone which has a much better camera, but the camera we have is fine, so did not see the need for making the change. The other consideration was the ability to use 5G service which our current phones do not support. Again, we did not see that as a need to get all new phones.

We thought about going to T-Mobile since they bought out Sprint, but Carrie came across a deal for three free months of Mint Mobile. If you have not heard of Mint Mobile, it is a cell provider that is much cheaper than Sprint or at least the deal we found is going to be for us. Yes, Ryan Reynolds owns Mint Mobile. 

For one, you take your own phone to their service. Previously, we were paying a little over $200 a month to Sprint on our service and leasing of two phones. Granted, if we had bought our phones outright and not been leasing, our bill with Sprint would have been around $130 a month. With Mint Mobile, we were able to lock in a holiday rate to get service for six months at about $150 for all six months. The deal we found on their site allowed for signing up for three months and three months free. Basically, comes out to we are paying $28 a month for this new service.

This will allow us to test out the service and see how it works. If service is not good, then we will consider going to T-Mobile or other options for our phone service. We are excited for the change and savings in monthly bills for our mobile service. The fact that we are not getting updated phones is not an issue for us as our phones are new enough as mentioned earlier, but that will also help on our monthly bill not be paying for a "new" phone.

In the end, I enjoyed having Sprint for my cell provider the past twenty years. I will miss them, but probably good to try new things and check out how service, cost, and support work with a new service. I will update in a few weeks, or months, on the status of our change.

A side note, we also contacted Cox Communications to check on lowering our monthly bill and we were able to knock off about $17 from our monthly bill for the next two years. So, it was a good day of making changes as we made a decision to change cell providers and knock some money off of our monthly home internet costs.