The change that I’m experiencing this year is the need to follow my passion in person.  TV, radio, and the internet are no longer enough.  So I’ve decided to travel to a different sports mecca each month, soak up the atmosphere, and maybe even meet some similar personality types. Organizing my itinerary was the hardest part because there are so many different sporting events and so little time. So I assembled a calendar, listed all of the events taking place each month, and then literally pulled names out of a hat to ultimately decide where my adventures would take me.

I’m basically a small town rock from Central California, but when I complete this journey, I will have visited sites all over the continental United States and a few other countries as well.  My first stop will be here in the good, old USA in the Show Me State of Missouri as I roll into town to attend March Madness -- the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis.

I admit that it never crossed my mind to visit Missouri before.  Mozarkite, Missouri’s state rock with its pink to pastel swirly colors was a little too “pretty” for a jock like me. 
So while waiting for the Final Four to finally begin, I decided to find out what else the “Show Me” state had to show me.

I quickly discovered that aside from the Men’s college basketball championships coming to Missouri in 2005, there’s a host of other activities that tourists can visit year round.

Two Major League Baseball teams call Missouri home.  The St. Louis Cardinals in the National League play their home games at Busch Stadium, and the Kansas City Royals are Missouri’s American League representatives and play their home games at Kauffman Stadium.  Baseball is currently in the middle of spring training, so I’ll have to wait a few weeks for the season to start, but it looks like if I get a hankering for America’s favorite pastime, this state has given me some great selections.

The Super Bowl was over several weeks ago, so football is on the back burner for now, but I admit that my fires started to burn a little stronger when I discovered that Missouri also has two professional football teams – the Kansas City Chiefs and the St. Louis Rams.  Reminder – I’ll have to pencil in my day planner to make a return trip here in the fall to enjoy some great professional football.

Alas, the hockey season has been cancelled, so during my downtime waiting for the Final Four, I can’t take in any of the St. Louis Blues games.  Whoever heard of canceling an entire season of a sport?  What were the NHL executives thinking?  Oh, well, I digress.  Let me get back to exploring the venues that I actually can visit.

In case I forgot to mention earlier, I’m a golf fanatic, and I just stumbled upon a Missouri sports and recreation site that boasts of championship golf courses at the Lake of the Ozarks, and various other parts of the state.  There’s a golf practice range and 18-hole miniature golf course in Jefferson City, and there’s Bent Creek golf course in Jackson, located in the South Region which was given a 4-star rating by Golf Digest in 2004.

But that’s not all.  I just read through the synopsis of Branson Creek Golf Club, and I’m ready to reserve my tee time right now.  Branson refers to itself as the “Live Entertainment Capital of the World.”  Situated near the Ozark Mountains, GOLF Magazine and Golf Digest have named Branson Creek one of the top 10 new courses in 2000, the #1 Public Course in Missouri and #66 on the top 100 list of America’s greatest public golf courses.  That’s enough for me.  I can’t wait to tee off.

I’m convinced I’m going to have lots to choose from in the state of Missouri from the Great Plains to the Ozark Mountains.  Upon reading a little history note on the state, I was educated about the vast waterways of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, the abundant land and wildlife, and the quiet beauty of the limestone bluffs and winding rivers.  Limestone bluffs, huh?  Sounds pretty perfect for a Jock Rock like me.

I think it gets pretty cold in Missouri which could be a little rough on a native Californian rock like me, so I checked out the climate to find out what I might be in for before taking my journey.  The climate is marked by long, warm summers and the weather varies at other times during the year.  According to their tourism site, there are periods of almost constantly changing weather and the locals have a long-standing joke that when someone asks “What’s the weather like? The proper response is “Just give it a minute. It’ll change.”  I told you before that I’m a metamorphic type, so here’s a climate that changes just like me!  And yes, the winters are brisk and the average daily temperature in January varies from 25 degrees in the northwest to 34 degrees in the southeast.  March is shaping up to be unpredictable, so I guess I’ll just roll with it.

As I made my way from city to city, I noticed the numerous opportunities for outdoor adventures which are very enticing for someone like me.   In between sporting events I can canoe one of Missouri’s rivers, hike the rugged Ozark trail, walk through caves or visit Bonne Terre Mine, the world’s largest subterranean lake.  I can also spend time taking pictures of the many beautiful lakes, bluffs, rolling hills, and abundant wildlife.

After I complete my journey in March, I’m headed to Georgia for the Masters Golf Tournament in April at Augusta National.  I’m hopeful that Georgia will be half as nice as Missouri has been.
For Rock this World, this is Rock Jock traveling on.