As we left Kansas City, we drove across the Missouri River. Denisa snapped a picture of the river we will be following as we head north looking for cooler weather. Just like Lewis and Clark, we are following the Missouri River as we explore areas of the United States new to us.
We have a short drive, as we want to stop to visit friends we met this past winter in south Texas. Joel and Michelle invited us to park our motor home on their property when they heard we would be spending time in Kansas City with a new grandbaby. We were so glad to see them again!
The Missouri hills around Kearney are green and lush, and the view from our motor home was a slice of the peaceful country-side. We found our friends had welcomed us, even though their schedule was full today. They were taking care of their beautiful two-year-old granddaughter during the day, and they had a family potluck planned for the evening. We were delighted when they invited us to participate in both!
We were also delighted that we were going to Joel's brother and sister-in-law's (Larry and Pat's) home. We also found that Larry had a 1926 Model-T in the garage. He seemed as happy to give rides as we were to get one!
We've seen cars like this in museums with signs that read, "Do Not Touch!" We were so excited to not only touch, but also to get a ride! Larry and his wife, Pat, trailer the Model T to different parts of the country for organized group rides. They often drive 100 miles each day in search of covered bridges and historical sights on these tours.
We learned a lot about these historical cars. We had no idea they have three pedals--one to brake, one for forward, and one for reverse. The throttle and the spark are on hand levers on the steering wheel. The complicated shifting process involves the different hand levers that are like nothing you see in a modern car. Larry doesn't have to worry about someone stealing his car because most people would have no idea how to start it, much less drive it away. We read one source that explained that driving a Model T is like "trying to do the Charleston while loading a musket after a big night at the speak-easy." There are no gauges, and the only way to check the fuel level is this numbered stick he carries to dip into the gas tank.
Larry drove us all the way to Watkins Woolen Mill State Park. The Visitor Center was closed for the day, so we didn't get to see the wool mill that is still intact. But we could walk to the mill school. The children in this mill town had a beautiful hexagon-shaped building where they learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. For some reason, the men in this group noted that naughty boys would have no corner to stand in this school house.
The mill church was also locked, but is still in great shape from its hey-day in the 1870's. The mill closed in 1898, so it is remarkable that these buildings have been so well preserved.
After our deluxe Model T tour and history lesson, we returned to the party. We got to meet three of Joel's siblings, and many nieces and nephews. It was a great evening topped off with a delicious pot-luck meal. What a delightful day! It feels like we have grown from acquaintances to good friends! The next morning we were heading down the road again, but not before Joel and Michelle loaded us up with fresh vegetables straight out of their garden. Thank you so much for such a warm welcome to your Missouri hills home! It was a one-of-a-kind Model T start on our new road trip.
In our last week in the Kansas City area, we explored the urban areas with our son and daughter-in-law, and of course--our granddaughter, Carter. They took us for a round of golf, that even duffers like us can play. Jordan is teeing up at TopGolf, situated among the trees on the edge of Kansas City.
Denisa had never played TopGolf before. But she learned that being high above the targets will allow for even her poorly hit golf balls to sometimes dribble into the targets far below to score points. Luke, on the other hand, was more likely to make well hit shots into the center of the targets for more points.
In between shots, we took turns holding Carter. She was enjoying some fresh air while being amazed at the prowess of the golfers around her.
Or maybe she was just amazed at the ability of non-golfers to have fun playing this game.
Jordan remembered that the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum hosts a Third-Thursday Festival every month, so we strolled the 1.6 miles from their house to see what was going on. We checked out the food trucks that were lined up beside the museum, sampling Poppy's ice cream.
Mark got in line for a free t-shirt, given away to the first 50 people to arrive. He got to watch as they screen printed the t-shirts while he was in line.
Jordan now has a new "Summer Solstice" t-shirt, compliments of our Third-Thursday Festival.
Jordan's parents are in Italy now, and Florence was one of the stops in their itinerary. So they were pretty surprised when we sent them a picture of the five of us eating our gelato in front of the gold Baptistery doors of Florence. They suspected photo-shop, but it's actually a life-size replica of the doors from a display at the art museum.
We also checked out the free photo booth, where it was appropriate that Jordan had a pacifier-on-a-stick to match Carter's. It's a picture of a picture, but we had to include it.
We've had some storms since we've been visiting Kansas City, including some lightning that sounded like it hit very close to their house. When we went to play pickleball at a nearby park, we found where the lightning bolt had hit. It took off a strip of bark from the top of the tree clear down to the base.
We're going to miss this fun family, but after two months it's time for us to hit the road. We've spent a lot of time with Carter Lynn, watching as she turned from a newborn to a smiling 8-week-old. We're going to miss them when we're gone!
We spent much time looking for a good place for a month-long stay around Kansas City in order to spend time with our new granddaughter. Then we stumbled onto an RV Park in a strangely-named town. Peculiar Park Place Campground in Peculiar, Missouri, has a great monthly rate for a full-hook-up 50-amp camp site, and it is only a 25-minute drive from our son and daughter-in-law's house.
The spaces are pretty close together, and the scenic view is of the busy Interstate 49 traffic. But we have found that we aren't spending much time in the park. With four trips back to Oklahoma while the motor home was parked here, we ended up staying for two months. So this little campground is tied for our longest stay since we started this journey three and a half years ago.
We could tell stories about the Peculiar grocery store where we shop, or the Peculiar church we have attended. But we try not to succumb to such cheesy and peculiar humor. So in an attempt to edify our readers about all things Peculiar, we attended the Peculiar Sesquicentennial Festival. (We found out that's a fancy way to say 150th anniversary festival, for this little town born in 1868.) We started off with the morning parade, which was led by the Peculiar police and fire deparments. It also featured a float from the Peculiar Elementary school.
The Peculiar Meat Company also had a float. From the looks of the cow throwing candy to the crowd, their meat might indeed be peculiar.
We had to find out where this town got its peculiar name. Below is a letter about the situation in 1868, when the town was asking the state postmaster to approve its name. When they found that "Excelsior" and their next two choices were already taken, they sent another letter with yet another list of fine names. Since this process was taking so much time, they added that if these names were already taken, could be postmaster assign them a "peculiar" name. He obviously had a sense of humor, and the town of Peculiar, Missouri, was born.
The Peculiar Lions Club was running a mule-powered trolley during the festival, to take visitors from the parade grounds to their meeting house. During the day, they served up free pancakes for breakfast, free hamburgers for lunch, and free watermelon in the afternoon.
When those peculiar mules took a bathroom stop on Main Street, the crowd noticed a peculiar smell before the clean-up crew got out to accomplish their peculiar duty. (Notice the little boys looking on with interest, while the little girl in the background was holding her nose.)
After the parade, we walked through the vendor kiosks and found some peculiar animals at the petting zoo. This is a Highlander calf. A bull from this peculiar breed will only grow to about 3.5 feet in height, but will weigh in at a peculiarly large 1,800 pounds.
It was peculiar to see a baby camel in town,
as well as a Missouri kangaroo.
The llamas are more common to this area, but this guy had a peculiarly funny face.
We have driven the interstate between Peculiar and Kansas City dozens of times by now. We couldn't help but notice the water tower in Belton, Missouri, about ten miles north of here. When we saw that this was home to Tate Stevens, we had to google to see why he was "living in dream."
We found that Tate was actually Stephen Eatinger, when he was raised in Belton, Missouri. His music career was launched when he won Fox's X-Factor competition in 2012. The title included a $5 million recording contract, and instant notoriety that has made the water tower in Belton proud.
After touring across the United States, he was happy to come home to the little peculiar town just ten miles from his home town. He pulled his red Prevost bus into town, and parked it under the Peculiar water tower.
It was a big crowd for the free concert, the climax event of the Peculiar Sesquicentennial celebration. But we were still able to get a good picture of Tate Stevens performing on the stage.
We enjoyed his music, and it was fun to see the grain elevators in the background of our concert pictures. We found ourselves on the edge of the crowd, sadly close to the cigarette zone where people came to smoke during the concert. There seemed to be a peculiarly large number of smokers in this crowd--our only complaint of the day's activities. The good news is the fog in the picture below was from the mist machine cooling off the stage--not a cloud of cigarette smoke.
Part of the sesquicentennial festivities was digging up the time capsule that was buried during the centennial celebration in 1968. In church, the pastor read the letter found in the capsule that was written by the congregation's pastor fifty years ago in 1968. He talked about the tumultuous times that Peculiar was facing, with unrest in race relations and the Vietnam War. He was hoping that the young people of 1968 would lead this country to a better time. As we looked across the congregation at the white-haired members, we realized that they were those young people. We also realized that we are still living in peculiarly tumultuous times.
As we come to the end of our peculiarly long stay here in Peculiar, Missouri, we think that we will return some day. It's a great location for visiting our family here in Kansas City, and we have come to enjoy its many peculiarities.
When looking for things to see around Kansas City, it didn't take us long to find that Harry S. Truman is one of Missouri's favorite sons. This state's only U.S. president, he was raised and lived most of his life right down the road from us. We had planned to bike to the family farm, but the hilly terrain didn't complement Denisa's biking skills. (That's a nice way to say that Denisa wasn't tough enough to bike up all those hills.) So we made the drive to the farm house--cruising over those hills was easier in the car. Harry Truman wasn't raised here, but he lived on the farm for eleven years, starting when he was 22 years old. He moved back into this house with his parents and grandparents to help run this large acreage.
Now in the middle of the city of Grandview, Missouri, this farm house has a Sonic drive-in right across the street. All but 10 acres of the 600-acre farm have been sold to become retail and residential space. This 10-acre plot has been preserved as part of the Harry S. Truman National Historic Site, including the house and these stone corner fence posts.
We don't miss many national monuments and historical sites, but this one has no visitor center and the house is locked. It would have been a two-minute stop if it wouldn't have been for the audio tour available through our cell phones. The light-hearted host on the audio tour gave many insights to parts of the farm and the eleven years that Harry Truman lived here. For example, one dark night he went outside and ran right into the black water pump, knocking off his iconic glasses. He painted the pump white the next day, and it has been easier to see at night ever since. It's that kind of on-the-farm common sense that made him a good president.
We also made the trip to Independence, Missouri, where young Harry often visited the aunt and uncle that lived in the house pictured below. Displayed inside are many more Truman artifacts, and is another part of the national historic site. The most important point about this house is its location--right across the street from where Bess Wallace's family lived with her grandparents.
Bess and Harry's courtship would begin when he made the trip across the street to return a cake plate. They courted for nine years, which included the years that Captain Harry S. Truman served in Europe during World War I. They married when they were more than thirty years old, and came to live in this house with Bess's parents and grandmother. President Truman was the only U.S. president that didn't own his own home. But this house came to be called the Truman "white house" because he came back here to live after his presidency.
We always enjoy learning about the personal aspects of a president's life. Independence has a nice downtown that includes a walking trail that points out interesting places associated with President Truman's life. Denisa is sitting in front of Clinton's Soda Fountain, where young Harry once worked. He earned a whopping $3 per week, opening the store at 6:30 a.m.
When we took the Truman house tour, the very enthusiastic guide told many stories about Harry S. Truman. He was known for his honesty and integrity, and the gracious way he treated a domineering mother-in-law. Young Harry had seen action in World War I, but he is most famous for ending World War II with his presidential decision to drop the bombs on Japan. He made it clear that the crew on the military airplanes should take no responsibility for the destruction it caused. He personally pointed out to them the famous slogan on his desk, "The buck stops here."
Independence, Missouri, is also known as the starting place for many settlers heading west. We didn't take the horse-drawn wagon tour of town, but it looked interesting. The wagon master was in costume and in character. He commented that Denisa looked like a sturdy woman that would be a suitable partner for the trip west. That's what every woman yearns to be called--sturdy.
Independence, Missouri is also known for being significant in the eyes of more than one religious group. This massive building is part of the Mormon religion.
In fact, we were standing on a hill right across the street with a marker that explained we were on the temple site. In 1831, Joseph Smith Jr. dedicated this hill for the temple in the city of Zion, "where this church believes the Lord will come to His people in the Last Days."
In the same neighborhood, we drove to see this interesting building with a swirly top.
We could see that unusual spiral for miles, and we kept driving until we found it. This is the world headquarters for the "Community of Christ"--formed when there was a split among the Mormon followers.
So our day's trip to Independence, Missouri, turned up many interesting places. We enjoyed learning more about this little town that holds such significance for many--including a well-respected true man, known as President Harry S. Truman.
The title of our blog is "Wandering His Wonders." That is our best description of the beautiful natural places that we try to seek out in our travels. But we also think another wonderful wonder God created was the family. We can't help but see that our new granddaughter is a miraculous wonder. We've spent a lot of family time in Oklahoma and Kansas City this year. We are growing comfortable with accessorizing outfits with fashionable over-the-shoulder burp cloths as we spend much time with baby Carter.
Mark has great skills in calming a fussy baby. He has brought back some of the inventive holds he used with our sons when they were the same size.
We have also spent time playing games with our kids, passing Carter around the table like a game token.
Even with hours of holding baby Carter, we're still trying to sneak in some exercise. With unseasonably warm temperatures, we find our best chance to be outside is in the early morning. We have discovered a map of Kansas City area bike trails, and we've tried several.
This is the Blue River Trail, complete with many bridge crossings as it snakes around the river.
But we really love the sections that wind through the wooded areas. You can get a sense of how tall these trees are when you find the tiny dot on the trail that is Denisa on her bike.
The entire trail was smooth concrete as we rode until it connected to Indian Creek Greenway.
This day we rode all the way to another state! We had ridden seven miles when we hit the Kansas/Missouri state line. Then our trail became more urban, so we turned around to pedal back towards the car.
Even though we are in the city limits, it feels like we are miles away in the country. We saw a deer and some rabbits, but we almost missed the wildlife hiding in the pictures below.
A walker on the trail pointed out a woodchuck, blending in with the tree that he was climbing. We were cracking "how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood . . ." jokes for the rest of the ride. [Just for your edification, according to a Cornell University study, based on the size of the average burrow, the answer is about 700 pounds.]
When the trail split, we took a ride over the big pedestrian bridge for views over the Blue River. Plenty of lovers had strolled over this same bridge, as it seems to be the best place to "lock your love."
Each padlock represents a couple that has ceremoniously locked their love at the Blue River Bridge. When throwing the keys into the river became a water quality issue, boxes were installed to store the keys. The keys in the boxes are to be used to make a decorative fish statue later. After 37 years, we didn't figure we needed a padlock to symbolize our love. Living together in a motor home seems to be a good symbol of our lock now.
After a 15-mile ride, we put the bikes back on the car and walked a trail down to the river.
Another friendly hiker--this one five years old--pointed out the wildlife on this trail. There was a huge moth in the middle of the trail.
We also found an iridescent green beetle scuttling among the sticks on the trail.
As the foliage got thicker, we were wishing for our good camera when we spotted something in the trail in front of us.
When Denisa tried sneaking up on the raccoon on the trail, he darted off into the thickets. But he was obviously keeping an eye on us as he popped his head above the bushes. We were really wishing we had the good camera with all these wildlife sightings today!
So even though we're spending lots of time trailing behind this little girl in a stroller . . .
and our wildlife sightings usually involve a big golden doodle watching squirrels out the window . . .
we are occasionally getting out to see other parts of Kansas City. From what we've seen so far, we are really impressed with how easy it is to get out of the city for some time on the trails seeing wildlife.
