Falling for Kansas City & Our Inspirational Fall trip with One Day Tours

Conversations Across the Garden Gate is happy to announce a new monthly voice joining our newsletter this month. Sherrie Ortiz is a Belton, Mo local, woman entrepreneur who loves the Kansas City culture and helping people discover our vibrant, culturally diverse and historical city with her business “Just One Day Tours!” She will be highlighting our enchanting city with her historical stories and providing interesting places to visit in KC every month!

We’ve cleared out a corner of our digital workspace for Sherrie Ortiz to highlight the beauty that is our city and help bring some local inspiration to you, dear readers. I hope you will all check out her article about the history of the Kansas City River Market. As interesting as her depth of Kansas City knowledge is, she is so much more fascinating. Sherrie used to run a commercial bakery until Covid made her reinvent herself. She spoke to me about memories of her childhood and accompanying her grandmother on senior citizen bus tours. Admitting how much fun she had and how she had considered becoming her own bus tour business in her youth. She pivoted to bus and walking tours after Covid restrictions were lifted and has been utilizing all of the nuggets of research and history that she does at the K.C. Central Library to help tourists and locals discover KC. I actually got to go with her to the library and while there we stumbled across an amazing display of black out poetry, utilizing the Declaration of Independence to bring new truths and meaning to our country's sacred document. It was so inspiring to see a fresh perspective on the author Jose Faus’ interpretation. We were there to access a grant database to help Sherrie on her journey to publication.

Sherrie, is not only one of our newest collaborating business partners but is also a writer as well! Sherrie dreams of publishing a Kansas City tourism journal that showcases all of the amazing historical, artistic, delicious and beautiful scenic spots in the city and the metro area. She is currently looking for a tourism grant opportunities to help make her publishing a marketing book come true.

Patricia Hartman and I got to sit down over a delicious Ethiopian meal at the Blue Nile Cafe to talk about why she loves Kansas City and its history. “I love how culturally diverse our city is. The City leaves each culture’s mark on the architecture, community, and its history.” Kansas City History is full of Native American, French, Italian, Irish, German, Scottish, Hispanic, and Black history.

“I love how culturally diverse our city is. The City leaves each culture’s mark on the architecture, community, and its history.”

A Town made of Immigrants just trying to better their lives and build a community where everyone could thrive. Our history may not always have been as accepting and friendly as it is now, but we have the opportunity to embrace our cultural heritage and differences and appreciate the diverse and beautiful society that Kansas City has been growing towards. Sherrie’s historical tours really showcase the hardships and notoriety of KC. She offers mafia, gangsters, and prohibition tours as well as art, garden, historical, and architectural tours. I really appreciated learning about some of the history Sherrie shared over a meal, being from an hour south of Kansas City and from a small agricultural town.

We also discussed a collaborative opportunity between Midnight Garden Publishing, Xiero Studios, and One Day Tours to plot an inspirational course through Kansas City this fall on October 3rd. Our scheme is to tour artists and writers through a 7 hour tour of Kansas City. Starting at 9:30 at Union Station we will begin our inspirational adventure highlighting Kansas City and its beautiful art, gardens, and history. We will stop at the River Market for our group to have lunch and wander the River Market taking in the sights, sounds and delectable smells of fresh spices and the mouthwatering smells coming from the multitude of restaurant options. Feel free to wander around, have lunch or pack a picnic to enjoy.

After lunch it's back on the bus to see some murals, a local castle, learn about some local history covering brothels, gangsters, and local Black History. We will end the day at the World War Museum and take a ride up the tower to take in the beautiful city views. Riders will be given an hour to wander around the museum before Sherrie will be back at the bus to provide rides down the hill to Union Station to drop people off at their cars at 4 pm. People interested in lingering longer in the museum will walk down the hill to the Union Station parking lot at their own leisure.

Please remember to bring your cameras, journals, sketch pads and art supplies. Anything you may need to capture the inspiration you get from her One Day Tour. Packing a picnic lunch is also an option if you choose not to purchase lunch at the River Market. Her bus is handicap accessible as well, please let her know in advance if you require this option.

Creatives interested in enjoying a staycation inspirational tour click here to purchase your early bird tickets, before they are offered to the general public!

https://book.peek.com/s/b9889a7a-bae8-43b0-8109-ecb2173071d9/8WpLV

Lets fill this bus with our local KC creative community and spend a day becoming fast friends! Please invite your friends, writing organizations, illustrators, and graphic artists to join us for a fun day networking with writing prompts, inspirational views, history, and a wonderful experience discovering our beloved Kansas City. Tickets are capped to 55 seats and will become publicly available in July, so grab your seat now before they are gone!