Grand Island, NE June 24/North Platte, June 25

We said goodbye to Kansas City about 10:45 a.m. and headed north and west. We were fortunate that the humidity and heat of previous days had abated, and so the trip was quite pleasant. Our original plan was to dry camp at the Cracker Barrel in Lincoln, NE but we arrive much too early to get off the road, so continued to the Wal-Mart parking lot in Grand Island, NE. Generally we don't like to camp at Wal-Mart, as truckers also stop there, and they don't turn off their trucks and so are quite noisy. We weren't disappointed -- there were at least 12 semi trucks in the parking lot, as well as 6 of us RVers. It got so noisy that at 11 Jack jumped in the truck and moved us to the other side of the parking lot so we could sleep!

June 25 we continued west and stopped at the Harold Warp's Pioneer Village in Minden, NE. Spent about 3 hours there. There were 26 buildings and 50,000 items in the various buildings. We got to North Platte Holiday RV Park at 5 p.m. and have been busy sight-seeing ever since!

Saturday we toured the Scouts Rest Ranch, the 1886 ranch built by Wm. F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) and the Lincoln County Historical Museum. Today we went to see the Golden Spike Observation tower at the North Platte railroad yards. The Union Pacific's Bailey Yard is where east meets west on the Union Pacific line and where an average of 10,000 train cars are handled each day on 2,850 acres of land stretching out eight miles! The tower is 8 stories high and enclosed; there is also an open observation deck on the 7th floor for those who want to take pictures.

On Tuesday we'll head into Wyoming to Cheyenne where we'll camp until July 5.

Kansas City East KOA June 21-23

We found another Hy-Vee, so had breakfast there a few times, also Einstein Bros. Bagels. Not as good as Brueggers! We did everything Harry Truman -- his home, the Presidential Library and Museum, and the drug store where he held his first job. We enjoyed his home - all furnishings are original to the home, and while we could only see the first floor, it was definitely the home of a common man! He said the only reason he put up an iron fence with a lock around the place was because he was warned that previous presidents lost even the doorknobs to souvenir seekers! His library consisted of an area on his youth and life after the presidency and an area on the time he spent in Washington. There was also an exhibit on the Korean War. The Trumans are buried at the library, including their daughter Mary Margaret Truman Daniels and her husband. We spent about 4 hours there.

Had lunch at a German restaurant and enjoyed it, but the staff was definitely running crazy, as General Patrias had spoken in Independence to Korean War vets that day, and they all seemed to come there for lunch!

Also toured an 1852 jail, and two homes. But aside from the Truman tours, the one we enjoyed most was the Steamboat Arabia which sank in the Missouri river before the Civil War. 5 guys from KC decided to dig it up and came up with tons of pre-civil war dishes, hardware, food, clothing, etc. which they have put into a museum in KC. It was fascinating!

Had trouble with our AC on Tuesday. When we came home the temp in the trailer was 105! The temp outside wasn't much cooler. Handy Jack switched circuit breakers and it eventually cooled off. Whew!

Today we drove from KC to Grand Island, NE where we're sharing a Wal-mart parking lot with several VERY noisy trucks! There are probably 6 trucks and 3 of us RV folks at one end of the lot. Tomorrow we'll go on to North Platte, NE. Stay tuned!

Kansas City East KOA

We arrived at the KOA which is actually located 25 miles east of KC on highway 70 about 12:30 p.m. As we drove up to the office to register, the tornado siren started and the camp ground manager had the restrooms unlocked as a tornado shelter. At first we thought this was where we'd be spending our time. Then there was announcement indicating that there was no tornado, but there was the danger of high winds and heavy rain for the next half hour. We got registered and escorted to our site and no more than hooked up the electricity when it started raining. We were tucked between two huge coaches, so didn't feel the wind at all. :-) Finished setting up after the rain was over. It was a beautiful evening with cool breezes and low humidity, so we sat outside and enjoyed the evening.

Today we came home from breakfast and Jack decided to level off the area and redistribute the gravel, as it had washed away and piled up in some areas, leaving bare ground (MUD) in others. We moved the picnic table under the canopy so it was in the shade and while Jack was working one of the KOA work-campers rode up in his golf cart to say that the owner of the campground called the office to have someone check on what was going on at site 51. She thought Jack was going to steal the gravel! He was embarrassed that he had to come see what was going on, but gave us some good hints on things to see in the area, and thought Jack had done a great job on the site!

St. Joe, June 17-18

We've been surprised at all there is to see in St. Joseph. We went downtown to tour the Twin Spires Cathedral (formerly the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church). When the congregation got too small and old to support the expense of the church, the diocese sold the church in 1992 to a couple from California who were buying up old buildings in St. Joseph. The church has beautiful stained glass windows, and the statuary was impressive - especially the stations of the cross. The owners turned it into a wedding chapel, and weddings are held all year except for Dec - March when it is too expensive to heat the church. The basement is used as a banquet/reception facility.

From the Twin Spires we went to see the oldest house in St. Joe. It was built in 1843 by the founder of St. Joseph, Joseph Robidoux a French Canadian fur trader who named the city for his patron saint. The house was originally about 10 one-room apartments which were rented to people moving west who arrived in late fall and wintered in St. Joseph before their wagon trains went west. Mr. Robidoux lived in the one end of the house until his death. Many of the furnishings were his.

On Friday we toured the Wythe-Tootle Mansion which has been made into a museum. The parquet floors are beautiful throughout the main level. Because of the economy the house is in need of exterior and interior repairs, but there is little money to accomplish it. It's located among all the mansions we saw as we walked on "Museum Hill" yesterday.

Today 5 Airstreams pulled into the campground. Jack and I were eating lunch when there was a banging on our door. A member of the group came over to invite us to join the Wally Bynum Club. Jack visited with them after lunch and we learned that they were on their way to the Airstream Rally in Gillette, Wyoming and were meeting up with their caravan in Sioux Falls the next evening. Tomorrow we leave for Kansas City East KOA, about 75 miles south and east of here.

St Joe, June 16

We went downtown and toured the Pony Express Museum and the Fire Fighter's Museum. The top picture is of us putting mail into the rider's mantilla. At the time of the first ride in April, 1860, a 1/2 ounce letter cost $5.00! And we thought today's mail was getting expensive! By the time the Pony Express ended in 1861, lighter paper had been developed, and the cost was down to $1.00 per 1/2 ounce. Each rider rode 80 miles, changing horses every 9-15 miles. When a rider had completed his 80 miles (about 10 hours in the saddle), he would stay at the station and meet the rider from the opposite direction and take the mail back to his home station. Tradition has it that there were two young ladies on the trail who waited for the express riders and gave them cookies. They put holes in the middle to make them easier to grab and hold as the rider raced by, and the story is that that was how donuts were invented....fact or fiction?

At the Fire Fighter's Museum we toured Engine Company No. 5, which was manned by 4 men on 24 hour shifts. They had two ladder trucks - a 1948 and 1952. We learned that the pole that firemen came down was invented by the St. Joseph, MO firemen. It was discontinued when it was decided it was unsafe for them to come down the pole; at that point fire stations started being built on one floor.

We went for a walk on Museum Hill, where all the rich had their mansions. It's sad to see that the majority of them are in disrepair, many are boarded up, and others have been made into multiple apartments. Their architecture was really impressive, and I can imagine what they were like when they were owned by the original families who built them.

The second picture above was taken in the grand ballroom of the Patee House Museum yesterday. Couldn't resist the chance to dance! We also learned at the Museum yesterday that newsman Walter Cronkite was born in St. Joe, as was actress Jane Wyman.

Tomorrow we plan to see the Twin Spires Cathedral (formerly Immaculate Conception/Queen of the Apostles Church) in downtown St. Joseph. It's only open on Tuesdays and Thursdays for tours. Also plan to visit the founder's Robidoux Row Museum.

ST JOE, MO!

Wow, it's Tuesday, June 15 already! Time is really going fast. We left Alma, AR at 9 on Saturday and arrived at the Beacon RV Park in St. Joseph, MO about 3:30 in the afternoon. THERE ARE NO REST STOPS BETWEEN ALMA, ARKANSAS and KANSAS CITY!!!!! We finally found a little town about 12:30 on Route 71 that had a big enough area that we could pull in with our trailer and get diesel and then sat out a heavy rain storm and ate our lunch in their driveway. About 1:15 we left and continued on our way. We were pulling through Kansas City and I saw a billboard for Hy-Vee, a wonderful grocery store chain out of Des Moines, IA. We were excited! It's our favorite hang out when we're in the Midwest. We were hoping to find one in St. Joe. It would have been a 50+mile to commute back to KC for breakfast -- not likely!

Found Beacon with no problems, got checked in and escorted to our site -- very end of the row, by the exit to another street. Good points: SHADE!, clean bathrooms with showers, nice laundry, close to everything! (Only 6 blocks to the HY-VEE grocery store!!!!) Bad point: It's downhill, so when they forecast flash flood warnings on Saturday night, we were more than nervous, having just read about the flash flood in Arkansas! Found a church a mile away so headed to Mass, then to HY-VEE for Saturday night dinner.

Sunday found us awake and reading at 5:00 a.m. as the severe storm they had been predicting was hitting -- it thundered for an hour non-stop. No flooding here, but there was some in Kansas City and in Oklahoma. St. Joseph must be taking care of St. Joe, MO! We acquainted
ourselves with the town, checked out the mall, and planned our Monday.

We toured the St. Joe Museum, which had exhibits on the plains Indians, a Black History of St. Joseph, and the Glore Psychiatric Museum which described mental illness, its treatments and its perceptions, as well as how treatments have changed over the past several hundred years.

Today we visited the Patee house Museum which included the Pony Express headquarters of 1860-61. It's a fabulous museum! We were there from 10:00-2:30 this afternoon. Besides the usual displays, there's also a 1941 carousel and the last home of Jesse James. He was killed in the livingroom of the house. So much to see! Stay tuned!

Thursday, June 10

On Tuesday we drove up to Fayetteville, AR to tour Bill and Hillary Clinton's Home Museum. They were both teachers at the U of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and married in their livingroom. The house has been turned into a museum, and contains a replica of Hillary's wedding dress, early pictures of their lives together, Bill's campaigns and a video of his campaign ads. The director told us about Pea Ridge Civil War battlefield only 25 miles north, so we headed up there to see it.

The picture is taken on the Elkhorn Tavern's front porch. The tavern was utilized as a field hospital during the battle. The battlefield itself is 4000+ acres, and has a welcome center with a good movie of the battle. The Union won the battle, which is billed as the biggest battle in the western area.

On Wednesday we went into Fort Smith to the Fort Smith Historic Museum and spent about 3.5 hours learning more about Fort Smith. The museum covers two floors and was thoughtfully planned to take a person from early civilizations through to the present. I particularly enjoyed the drug store with working soda fountain and Jack's favorite was the central office, showing the step telephone equipment he worked on when we lived in MN and he worked for CenTel. We both enjoyed learning about Fort Smith's favorite son, William Darby, who formed the famous Darby's Rangers during WWII. I wanted to go to the FT. Chaffee barber shop museum to see where Elvis lost his famous duck tail, but when I called the number on the brochure, I got a wedding chapel! OOPS. Never did find the place!

Today we went back up to the Fayetteville area to see the Arkansas Air Museum and the neighboring War museum. I enjoyed seeing the first plane that Sam Walton purchased. After the Air Museum we drove up to Bentonville to see the very first Wal-Mart which has been made into a Welcome Center. We were disappointed that we couldn't see it -- it closed on June 7 and won't reopen until year end. Meanwhile, a temporary site is being set up, but that won't open for another three weeks. BOOO!

Next Stop - St. Joe, Missouri! Stay tuned!

Fort Smith/Alma/Van Buren AR

We arrived at the KOA in Alma Saturday afternoon about 2:00. With the help of our friendly KOA hosts, we found a church in Van Buren (about 8 miles away) for Mass. Also checked out Alma which has a population of about 4,000. It has 3 grocery stores, 3 pizza places, a Cracker Barrel, McDonald's, and a few gas stations and post office. Alma is about 20 miles from Fort Smith. The KOA is small, and tends to have mainly travelers who are only staying one or two nights....we're here a bit longer. They have a pool, but can't open it until the Health Department inspects it. Perhaps on Tuesday. They have DUCKS! They're big moochers and come around the trailers looking for food. We noticed that there was another Airstreamer in the campground. VERY unusual.

Sunday we made our first excursion into Fort Smith -- to find a Panera Bread Co. so we could have one of their delicious muffins or danish for breakfast...a nice change of pace. Success! Also found diesel for $2.85/gal. Nothing was open to tour until 1, so came back to Alma and went back into FS at 1:00. First stop was Miss Laura's Social Club, Fort Smith's official visitors center was the first bordello to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the only one of the seven houses of ill repute that remains. It's been magnificently restored to Victorian splendor and besides having info on FS, also offers a tour of the house. Very interesting! Enjoyed the tour.

From there we went to the Fort Smith National Historic Site which includes the remains of two military posts built to keep peace on the frontier. The barracks later housed the courtroom of "the hanging judge", Isaac C. Parker. The courtroom has been restored, and the site also includes a reconstruction of the gallows.

We've also toured the Trolley Museum and rode an early 1900 trolley. I personally enjoyed the calico, tabby, and gray cats that live at the museum. They were fun to pet and sooooo happy for the attention!

We're currently enjoying a break from the 90+ degree heat and humidity that have plagued us since we left home. It was nice to be able to turn off the AC! I understand we're going to have more heat building back in tomorrow! YUCK!

Recap of Hot Springs/Little Rock

It's hard to believe it's been a full week here in Hot Springs, AR! It's definitely been a busy week! Here's a recap of where we've been this week:

1. Bathhouse Row
2. Fordyce Bathhouse (National Park Service Visitor Center) See previous blogs for info
3. Bus tour of the city
4. Gangster Museum - See previous blogs for info
5. Garvan Woodland Gardens - The best part of this site was the Anthony Chapel and the chimes - loved them
6. Bill Clinton's boyhood home and High School
7. Ansel Adams: Early Works at the Museum of Comtemporary Art which is located in a bathhouse on bathhouse row.

In Little Rock we toured:

1. Clinton Presidental Library and Museum (and gift shop). That's where the above picture was taken. That was awesome! So much to see and read. I was especially awed by the monthly binders which contained his daily schedule. Unreal! He seemed to have meetings every 15 minutes ALL DAY!
2. MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History - which is housed in the ansenal building where MacArthur was born. There was a good film on the MacArthur/Truman issue, and there were rooms of pictures and exhibits from all the wars starting with WWI through the Vietnamese War.
3. Old Statehouse Museum where Bill Clinton announced his decision to run for president which had an interesting exhibit on Badges, Bandits and Bars - Arkansas Law and Justice. I especially enjoyed the inaugural gowns of the first ladies.
4. Historic Arkansas Museum which included the tours of three original homes build in the 1840's. There was also an exhibit on guns, knives, and a large exhibit on the Indians of Arkansas.

It's Friday night at 8 p.m. and the RVers are starting to roll into the campground. We've had a quiet week with only 5 other RV's in our section. It was great -- quiet, and the showers were always available!

Tomorrow we're off to Fort Smith!

Hope everyone had a great Memorial weekend! The campground was crammed with visitors. We started touring with a trip to the Visitor's Center in Hot Springs and discovered a FREE shuttle to take us to some of the points of interest in town. Our next visit was to a bath house which had been converted into an art museum on Bathhouse Row. They had an exhibit of photography by Ansel Adams, and so we went in and really enjoyed it. All his photographs are in black and white, and the clarity and definition was awesome! I almost felt as though I was standing right beside him looking at the mountains.

Our next stop was the National Park Service Visitors Center which is located in the restored Fordyce Bathhouse. They provided a map so that we could tour the bathhouse. Very interesting! The men had separate (and MUCH nicer) facilities than the women's side. They had marble benches, several statues, and glorious skylights with figures, dolphins, and flowers. There was an area on the roof which allowed for nude sunbathing on the men's side; the women's was in the shade, as it was unfashionable to get tan! There was also a music room, a game room and a gymnasium. We walked to an open stream behind the bathhouse and I put my hand in the water. OUCH! That water is hot! They say that at that particular location it's "only" 134 degrees.

Sunday we took the free shuttle and rode to the top of both the east and west mountains, and enjoyed seeing the various sites that we could enjoy from the comfort of our bus and the AC! It was 94 degrees -- not exactly the weather I'd want to be in for long. That night we enjoyed BBQ pork sandwiches at the pool patio in camp and then at 8:30 I put on my pj's, grabbed my KOA card, and money and headed to the office where they had an "almost midnight" sale. For my efforts I got 25% off on my purchases.

Monday we went back downtown and visited the Gangster Museum. Seems Hot Springs was quite the mecca for crime's big bosses. The sheriff and the courts turned a blind eye to what was going on -- gambling, prostitution, and bootlegging. In the 40's when the soldiers came home they worked to clean up the city. Al Capone had a year-round hotel suite at one of the big hotels. There was an underground street with a bowling alley that the crime bosses used as well as their attendance at the various bathhouses on bathhouse row.