Today is our second day staying in Independence, Missouri, Our plan for today was to make it to a 1130Am church service at the Presbyterian Church about a mile away and then to go to the National Frontier Trails Museum which happens to be about a 1/2 mile away, then drive the 10 miles to Kansas City and go to the city market and eat lunch/dinner and then explore Kansas City sites that we want to see. Tomorrow morning we will leave at 0800 and head to Abilene, Kansas which is 165 miles and depending on how long we are in Abilene will go on to Dodge City, Kansas but that decision will be made tomorrow after we visit Abilene.
The campsite we are staying at here in Independence is owned by the Church and is really nice, concrete pads thus no mud and good cable TV. My satellite TV has worked great so far this trip but we will utilize the cable when the RV park offers it in the price. Generally the RV parks are costing about $30 a night. We really dont need to stay in a park every night because the RV is completly self contained and we can stay at a park or a Walmart parking lot with no problem. The generator gets run all night in this case because of the temperature and it burns a bout a gallon of diesel fuel every 2 hours. The RV is operating perfectly, the only problems have been ignorance by the owner. Jan's closet door handle broke but I was able to repair it. Each of the RV parks usually have a laundry and showers but we utilize the nice shower in the camper. The car gets filthy, as you might expect and we put it through a carwash today. The Magellan GPS is great and we are glad we invested the money in it. Jan will now go through some of the details of today's activities.
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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