Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
He later served eight years as President
We crossed into Kandsas at 8:45 A.M. Lots of wind and chilly on the drive to Abilene, Kansas-hometown of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eaisenhauer- German spelling of their name; was born in Tyler, Texas then his parents moved to Abilene, Kansas when he was 2. He was 1 of 6 boys raised in that house which still stands today next to his Museum. His father worked for the MKT Railroad-Missouri, Kansas, Texas and they grew vegetables for just their family to eat.
At the time he graduated from high school there was only enough money for 1 boy to go to college. His brother chose Kansas Community college. Two yeards later it was Dwight's turn. He applied to the Naval Academy but he was 1 year too old. So he was accepted into West Point. Graduating with honors he was transferred to San Antonio, Texas, where he met Mamie, who was vacationing with her family family from Colorado. They were high society and it took a while for Dwight to feel comfortable with that. But on Feb. 14th they became engaged and married on July 1.They had a son nicknamed "Icky" who died at age 4 in Camp Meade, Md. from scarlet fever. He is buried between them in the chapel. They had another child a year later, John who married a Barbara Jean and then had 3 granddaughters and 1 grandson, David Dwight.
It has warmed up considerably- 2:15 P.M. 72 degrees and windy. We are off to Dodge City, Kansas. The drawer under the refrigerator fell out abd broke the runners. It needs to be fixed. Dodge City is a small town, very warm and we're staying at the "Gunsmoke" Travel Park. It looks like the movie set of Gunsmoke with a saloon, blacksmith shop, Chester's grave. The owner told us to eat at the Golden Pancake House. Time is 8 P.M. and the place closed at 2 P.M. This area is where a very large meat processing plant is with huge paddocks of beef awaiting slaughter. pROXAIR is also here making industrial gases. The air smells really bad; don't know which plant makes that smell.
We finally found an Applebees to eat at and then found a state owned casino- Boot Hill Casino- opened in December. Nice inside with all forms of gambling, good food, no smoke smell; and Jimmy won $200. in 30 minutes. They are building an addition that will triple their size. We wil visit Boot Hill where all of the gunslingers are buried with their boots sticking out of the ground tomorrow.
Monday, March 29, 2010
City Market, Kansas City Missouri
CIMG1659
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 28th, 2010
Harry met Bess in 1894 at the First Presbyterian Church around the corner from her childhood home. We went to their 11:30 church service on Sunday since we are Presbyterian and the people were so friendly. The church is rather small, but really beautiful with walnut ceilings laid out in a wainscotting effect similar to hardwood floors, stained glass windows on all sides, a 100 year old brass chandelier and a Baptismal font made from shell casings from WWII by a Korean. They have a new minister who had to read his notes. We forget how great Kevin is! This minister was not long winded though. We were out of church in 45 minutes.
We were at the National Trails End Museum when they opened. This was the point of embarcation for the pioneers going west on 1 of 3 trails, the Sante Fe, the Oregan, and the California. The pioneers gathered together to form the wagon trains going west. There is a stream here that was much larger then than now, in which the wagons, horses and cattle were washed before they left.It was 900 miles to Sante Fe and 2000 mles to Oregan. Thomas Jerfferson made the policy "Manifest Destiny" which was we had the destiny to cover the whole continent with democracy. The route was the Ohio River to the Mississippi to the Missouri to the town of Independence to the Blue River to the Platte to the Sweetwater to the Continental Divide to the Big Sandy to the Valley Green to the Snake River to the Columbia to Oregan. This was a long trip. I can't even imagine how it was in a wagon! no a/c, no cell phone, no bathrooms, no tv! So we are on our way to the Sante Fe Trail.
On the trail west the pioneers met a large Indian tribe called the Kansa or the Kaw. Thereby, the name Kansas became its name. We drove to Kansas City to see Union Station which has many stores open inside; great use of a beautiful building. The City Market is an ecletic mix of unusual shops and a farmer's market. I bought a container of strawberries that would have cost 2.50 minimum at Publix for 1.00. A 10# bag of potatoes was 2.00. I bought a huge head of romaine for 1.00, the strawberries and a bunch of asparagus for 1.00. And all of it just off the farm. Inside the market was a new shop called Bloom Baking Company, a cottage industry with the best baked goods. We bought an old fashioned iced oatmeal cookie and a bar cookie made of a rice krispie base with a peanut butter fudge layer then a dark chocolate layer. Very rich!
On the way home we stopped at movie theatre . Didn't know any of the movies and just bought a ticket for "Crazies" It was actually a very good movie.
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Saturday, March 27, 2010
In Missouri 70 west is rolling hills of crops and pastures with evergreen trees as wind barriers. At 0959 it is 42 degrees with showers and 12 mph winds. We passed a pickup truck with a tarp covering the bed and Daddy called it a "covered wagon" heading west. Our destination is Independence, Missouri just outside Kansas City. Independence was the jump off spot for the families going west in the covered wagons and the three main trails were the Oregon trail, California trail and Sante Fe trail, we will visit several of the spots tomorrow that try to characterize the life and times of this period in our history.
Once we found Truman's Library we rode around the parking lot to find the spaces RVs are allowed to park. Harry Truman grew up in Independence, Missouri alongside of Bess Wallace. She was born into a prominent family that were part owners of the Queen Pantry Flour Company and lived in a large house at 219 N. Delaware Street which her Grandfather Gates built around the time Lincoln was assassinated. It is very Victorian-looking with the gingerbread trim around the porches. But Harry was born into a farming family. He had extremely bad vision so he avoided the playground to prevent his glasses from breaking. Instead he spent that time at the library reading biographies and history books.
At graduation Harry's family had no money for college, so he worked on the family farm for at least 11 years. His first job outside of the farm was in Clinton's Drug store where he made $3.00 a week. We walked in this drug store and signed our names in their book, added a thumb tac for the city we live in and bought ice cream cones. Next to this is a store called, "Wild about Harry" which had ecletic paraphenalia, antiques and trinkets about Truman. The owner remembered attending Harry Truman's funeral. He said Harry and Bess still lived in the same house even when they left the White House and were still down to earth unpretentious people. He walked all over the town and didn't want the Secret Service around him. When WWI broke out he entered the Army and to his surprise he did really well as an artillery captain. Once the war was over Harry and his friend, Jacob, from Kansas City opened a dry goods font made from shell casings from WWII by a Korean.
On arrival in Independence, Mo the first thing we did was go to the Truman Library. Truman was a very important president in our history and many of the decisions he made still impact our lives today. We spent over 3 hours looking at his exhibits and films on his life because this is his story and his body is buried in the courtyard.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Friday, March 26, 2010.
March 25, 2010
7:35 St. Louis here we come to see the Gateway Arch to the West and the Mississippi River.
8:41 Kentucky line and the roads are terrible. For over an hour now the RV has been shaking really bad! Found out it was our levelers in the RV, so we learned something else and how to avoid it from occurring again. The RV is now riding smoothly. Now the only problem is the deluge of rain.
12:51 We are driving down the streets of Paducah, Kentucky instead of the expressway. On 615 Jefferson Street they have the National Quilt Museum, a three floor collection of the most unimaginable quilts. The talents of the creators are amazing. Jan, dream away! While Daddy ate tuna fish, I walked 1 1/2 blocks in the rain to the Quilt Alley, a store that sells all quilt supplies and other sewing paraphernalia. What a great way to de-stress!
1:11 crossed the state line to Illinois, the Ohio River and casinos. We are 1 1/2 hours(supposedly) from St. Louis and the wind is blowing us all over the highway. The gusts must be 30 - 40 miles per hour.
3:34 Just passing Shiloh and a pick-up truck with a cannon in the truck bed.
6:38 pulled into the campground in East St. Louis- full of mud and it's still raining! There was some confusion about the map and where we should pull in. The woman is yelling at us from her car. Daddy told her "I don't like you or your services. Refund my money!"
7:00 we are pulling into WalMart shopping center. We're staying here for the night;at least it isn't muddy. It's 36 and raining and very windy outside. Talk about cold! But at least we can stop driving. The highlight of the day is the casserole I put in the oven from Costco. Delicious! Oh! On the very bumpy ride one of the bottles of merlot wrapped inside the quilt under the bed broke. Now the carpet and quilt are purple and the bedroom smells like merlot! We clean it up and now will wash the quilt at a later time. IT was the good Cuvaison Merlot that we bought in Napa maybe 6 years ago that broke, what a shame such a good bottle of wine is gone.
The RV generator kept the RV nice and warm all night, we tuned in the satellite TV and watched "Criminal Minds" but Jan was very tired and went to bed early. It was a long day with all of the weather and the wind blowing the trucks and our RV back and forth put us both on edge. Glad that drive is over.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
March 24, 2010
The plantation was fully supporting growing its own corn, hunting and the horse trade bringing in the wealth. It housed 136 slaves that were given their own gun to hunt and a carriage to borrow when they turned 25. On the present day land is the original cabin, the mansion, dairy, one of the slave cabins, the mausoleum(that originally had 23 Harding-Jacksons buried),the gardeners house, smokehouse, carriage house and stables, the dollhouse that was a playhouse for the young children and a winery.
The mansion is huge with a fireplace in every room, all antiques throughout, bathrooms with hot and cold running water in the 1880's , which is definitely the top upper class. The chandeliers which are electric now were lit with methane gas made from manure-which they had lots of. It is 3 full floors with a basement and the kitchen is housed in a building next to it connected by a breezeway.
Belle Meade Plantation provided each horse with its own 20 acre paddock and when it died, it was buried in its paddock. Since Belle Meade Plantation is only 30 acres now, most of these paddocks are under housing developments. Therefore, some people have horses buried in their yards. There were a couple favorite horses that were given honors-Bonny Scotland- their first horse which died in 1880, Iroquois, the first American-born and bred to ever win the English Derby, who died in 1896, and Enquirer, who has a monument(larger than our cemetery gravestones) erected to him outside the stables. When Iroquois died General Billy Jackson was so devastated he cut off his hooves, sent them to Tiffany's in New York to be mounted in silver and placed them on his desk where they remained until he died. They are now in the bookcase in his library for all to see. No pictures were allowed inside the house but you can see all of the others I took.
Tonight we go to Nashville Nightlife Theatre dinner show presenting songs from Hank Williams Sr, Patsy Cline, Conway Twitty, Shania Twain and Garth Brooks.
March 23, 2010.
Middle Tennessee is full of bright green rolling hills on both side of the highway with daffodils blooming everywhere! The grass in even growing inside the woods. We are 30 miles outside of Nashville and the road is a newly paved 4 lane highway each way. Forsythia is in full bloom. Our campsite is #128 in Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park. It's 70 outside and found a
Costco in a new Target shopping center on the west side of town that is huge!
Tonight at the Grand Ole Opry we saw Jimmy Dickens, Jack Green, Trace Adkins and 3 new groups that were handed their awards for the best new groups- Luke Bryan with 'Do You?', Joey and Rory with a bluegrass flavor to their music, and Glorianna-an extremely young hip group.
March 22, 2010.
5:30 A.M. feels like the middle of the night! Neither of us slept well because of sore muscles from loading the RV. Both of us had trouble falling asleep due to our minds being in "the checklist" mode, mentally checking off our embarkation list ensuring we haven't forgotten anything.
0 miles at 6:28 A.M.- Emigrant, Montana we're on our way! First stop is Chattanooga, Tennessee. It's been a slow chilly rain most of the day. The Welcome Center for Georgia just south of Valdosta was a walking break . 80 miles later it's green grass and huge dogwood trees in full bloom! They certainly do not grow St. Augustine grass because it would be dead! We stopped at Smyrna, Ga to fill up on diesel, get coffees and change to warmer clothes. These are the foothills of the Appalachians with lots of dogwoods blooming in the woods. Lookout Mountain KOA is actually in Ringgold, Ga not Tennessee and is literally 300 yards off the interstate. It's a nice campground; don't hear the highway, but there's a large doberman in the Phaeton RV beside us barking all of the time! Chattanooga has a well kept National Cemetary with WWI, WWII, Korean, Vietnam and Persian War casualties. Just beside this is a James R. Mapp State Office Building.
James R. Mapp used to also work for the railroad. Warehouse Row has an old Knitting Mill turned into an Antique store. We bought 2 old books.
It is now "early to bed, early to rise" to get on the road again.