Omaha trip? It’s a hit

by Darryl Wilkinson

The IRS and the Treasury Department will begin sending out the tax refund checks championed by President Bush. Individuals will receive up to $300; married couples $600 — and we don’t have to call, fill out special forms or do anything else to receive the check. All we do is open the mailbox.

Naturally, that kind of good news has every politician talking. Congressman Sam Graves enthusiastically endorsed the tax cut, pointing out that Missouri will receive the 16th largest share — greater than 34 other states. Democrat Sen. Jean Carnahan supported the tax cut compromise which, although less than what the President proposed, is still the largest tax cut in two decades.

Even state office hopefuls are talking. Candidate Jim Whorton wants to change state law to prevent Missouri from charging state income tax on refund checks. And there’s opportunity during the September special session already called by Gov. Holden for the assembly to address the cost of prescription drugs for senior citizens. Left unchanged, state tax collectors could siphon off $18 for singles who receive a $300 refund and $36 for couples who receive a $600 refund.

Now if that gets changed, what about the taxes on those lucky few who win the lottery?

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Here’s another tidbit from the “Did You Know?” category. More than 93% of the price of a gallon of gasoline is determined before it reaches the local gas station. Approximately 44% of the retail price pays for crude oil (a barrel for $12.50 in January, 1999, now sells for $28.50), then 30% goes for taxes, and 19% for refining. That leaves 7% for distribution, retailing and marketing costs. What’s left is profit for the store owner.

I didn’t even know there was such an outfit as the Missouri Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association …until this week when they mailed out this side of their story.

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We targeted last Sunday for our first trip to the College World Series at Omaha. Liz rolled her eyes at the thought of trying to coordinate a trip with my sister’s family for the first weekend after our family’s first wedding experience. But we talked her into it and made hotel reservations several weeks ago. We were leaving game tickets to chance.

How where we to know Nebraska would qualify for it’s first World Series appearance?

As we drove up to Rosenblatt Stadium more than two hours before the first pitch, we noticed a line of people in red lapping the outside of the stadium, then zig-zaging down the hill from the outfield wall. They don’t serve beer at these games. So, we guessed correctly that this wasn’t a line leading to the portapotties.

My first thought was how we wasted this year’s vacation to find out where to stay away from next year. S-T-R-I-K-E ONE!

Plan “B” was a trip to Freedom Park to crawl all over and through a submarine, a mine sweeper and a Navy landing craft. Then we tried what the pamphlet described as the oldest indoor go-kart association in the nation. We found it was housed in a new industrial building, where 20-year-olds pushed the karts up past 40 mph at prices measured in dollars per minute. Yes, it was something to see but all I saw were the sad, disappointed faces of the little guys in our group who didn’t even ask if they could try. S-T-R-I-K-E TWO!

An inquiry pointed us to a Fun Plex, a parking lot version of Worlds of Fun. We were tortured again over ticket prices. We settled for a round of miniature golf which was fun for our party of 11 despite the near 100 degree temperatures. A quick swim at the hotel pool followed by pizza as we watched the NBA finals together rebounded the little guys into good spirits.

It seemed even hotter sitting on the third base side of the Tennessee-Georgia baseball game the next day. But we were there — finally! The ping-ping-ping of baseballs hit off the aluminum bats assured that we were really there. We saw a grand slam home run, an inside-the-park home run, and a near miss on a triple play. The 19-11 outcome was more like a softball score than baseball. All the guys would have stayed for the USC-Miami nightcap but the girls (and thoughts of work Tuesday morning) won out. On the ride home most conversation focused on our delight in the walk-through aquarium at the zoo enjoyed before the game that morning. IT’S A HIT!!

I know some folks would hardly qualify this as a vacation. But if the best place to spend your vacation is just inside your income, we found it. In fact, we’d just left Omaha with a fresh trace of sunburn, and the kids were already talking about wanting to go back to the College World Series next year. Me, too!