Three tries and we're not out!

Campus RV Park
Independence, Missouri
Site #6--Back in

Bill and I gave it a third try.  The last year we were in the area to visit the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum and it happened to be Sunday when they open at noon and we had many miles to go, so  we couldn't wait around.  When we first arrived in Missouri last week we were towing the fifth wheel and stopped to tour the museum only to find it was closed for mechanical repairs.  Today was our third try and did we luck out?  

Look who greeted us!

The reason I say we were lucky is that we had a docent who volunteers on holidays.  In his former life he worked for a newspaper and was also a teacher.  There were 12 people in our group including one lady who was 95 years old.  He spent a couple of hours showing us around and telling the stories of Truman's life. Not one person left the tour early! We were lucky also because they have a special exhibit honoring the 70th Anniversary of WWII on the lower level.

I'm sure our visit would have been entirely different if we did the regular self guided one.  A good knowledgeable docent makes all the difference in the world.  

 The oval office looked exactly like this when Truman was in office.

We were allowed photos but I was listening to every word the docent said.  Consequently, neither Bill or I took very many photos.

I thought for sure I took a photo of the desk sign "A Buck Stops Here".  He received the first desk sign from a prison.  It means he makes the final decision and he's responsible for the consequences.  

He was elected vice president and 82 days later after Roosevelt died he became President.  He only met with Roosevelt twice, one of those meetings was a photo shot.  He was never told about the Manhattan project, or any other vital information that would have made the transition easier.  

In this courtyard is where Harry and his wife, Bess, are buried.  One thing the docent told us was that Harry in planning his funeral, wanted to be buried with Bess on his right.  He said she was always "his right hand man."

Truman's office after he left the presidency was in a newer wing of the library.  There were funny videos of him on TV with Jack Benny.  

The 70th Anniversary exhibit was well done, but we missed our well versed docent.  

I found it interesting that no one knows why he always wanted a license plate with the numbers 369.  Other than his first car he always had Chrysler products.  

We had talked about taking the Prairie wagon tour of Independence, but we were so tired, we didn't even go and check to see if they were operating for the holiday.

We'll be back, there is so much to see and do in this area.

Happy Fourth of July.

Turtle Safely......

Independence for Independence

Independence, Missouri
Campus RV Park
Site #6

Yesterday we drove about 15 miles to Campus RV Park in Independence. It's the perfect place to be for the 4th of July weekend thus the blog's title.

This park is the most convenient place we've stayed.  Within walking distance are four or five historical attractions.

I know sometimes people say we do too much in a day.  I might agree with them today, but it was so much fun to see such different attractions. 

Our first stop was to get our tickets for the Truman House at the visitor center.  We chose a noon tour.  Right next door to the visitor center was the 1859 Jail and Marshall's Museum.  It's a good thing we didn't get tickets for the 11 Truman tour because we would have been late.  I thought looking at a jail might take 15 minutes.  Not so.  

The two story jail was attached at the rear of the Marshal's house.  

 We toured through the house and then entered the jail.

Did you notice they had RV mattresses back in 1859?

This was Frank James' cell. There was a plaque that read "Outlaw Frank James spent six months in this jail during the fall and spring of 1882-83, while waiting to be tried for train robbery and murder.  He was treated more as a guest than a prisoner.

Frank James is living about as comfortably as any feller in the state.  His cell is furnished with an elegant Brussels carpet, the walls are decorated with pictures, and such furniture as he has room for, it the best sort.  He sits for hours at a time conversing with his friends...."

The house is a two story brick and completely furnished and the jail was on both stories but you could only walk through the first floor ones.  On the other side of the jail was a museum with stories of the time period.  There was also a school house on the site.

Five blocks away was the Noland Home.   This was the home of Harry Truman's cousins.  Bess lived across the street and the courtship started when Harry walked across the street to return a cake plate.  We didn't spend much time in the Noland Home as it was time to take the Truman house tour. The park service recently opened this home.

Unfortunately, you couldn't take photos inside the Truman Home.  

The park ranger did a great tour.  There were 6 other people in our group tour.  

One thing the park ranger didn't point out was this house across the street.

After the assassination of Kennedy, the secret service was assigned to this house as presidential protection for him. Thank you, Jim Collins, for that tidbit of information.  

Clinton's Soda Fountain was our next stop.  This was where Harry Truman had his fist job at a salary of $3.00 a week.

I suppose I should mention that they had great sundaes and many different flavors of phosphates.  It looks like Bill is being good, but there's a chocolate sundae with butterscotch topping which was Harry's favorite hidden behind me.  

Across the street was the Jackson County Courthouse where Harry Truman had an office.  We didn't have time to tour it.

Jim also told us they have a nice tour at the Community of Christ International Headquarters.  Once again there wasn't time, but we did stop to get a photo of the building.

It's quite unusual looking.

Our next stop was the National Frontier Trails Museum.  I thought this would be Bill's favorite.  The museum advertised that it is the only museum in the nation that interprets five of these trails--Lewis & Clark, Santa Fe, California, Oregon and Mormon Pioneer.  How could we go wrong?  We've followed these trails across the country and while they talked about  Bent's Old Fort, Baker City, Clapstop, Mandan, and Santa Fe, we've been there.  For someone who hasn't seen anything on these trails it would be great, but for us it was a compressed view of each of the trails. 

I have to say I was really tired by now with information overload.  Next door to the Frontier Trails was the 1879 Chicago and Alton Depot and across the street was the Bingham-Waggoner Estate.  We only had time for one before they closed.  Jim and Linda had both recommended the estate, so across the street we went.  

Our tour guide took us through the carriage house and we knew we made the right decision to tour the estate.  It was also very nice that it was just Bill and I on the tour.  

The estate has 26 rooms and we saw all 26 on three floors.  The amazing thing is that we could walk through the rooms.  There weren't any roped off areas and we were allowed to take as many photos as we wanted.  

 This home had three bathrooms.  Can you see the handle on the toilet seat so men didn't have to touch the seat? Very modern for the time period.  Bill wanted to know why don't they do that today. 

Ninety percent of all the furnishings were in the home before restoration including furnishings, linens and clothes.

This Zimmer toy baseball game is one of only six known to exist in the world and was valued at $45,000.00.  

We packed a lot into today knowing that tomorrow is the 4th and most of these places would be closed.  We are planning to leave on Sunday, but know there is a lot of things to see and do when we return someday.

Tomorrow we are hoping the Pioneer Trails Adventures is open.

Saw our first lightning bugs tonight since leaving the southwest.  

Turtle Safely......

Tornado

Lee's Summit, Missouri
Longview Campground
Site 73

How do I put today into words?  I'm not sure where to start.  
Last evening Ray Warner called to say they were in Independence for a day and wanted to know if we wanted to go out to eat.  It was hard to decline, but we had already made plans to spend the day with Linda and Jim Collins.  

We had some horrible storms last night around 2 am with heavy winds, rain and lightning. The satellite was out when we got up. It took awhile but we got it going.  After my shower, I just started to dry my hair and the hairdryer sent out sparks and quit.  Bill opened the basement door and the strut came loose.  

Jim and Linda came by shortly afterwards and we warned them that things hadn't been going well.  They said that didn't matter they were going to spent the day with us.  

Things went uphill from that point on.
  

Jim spent a lot of time in Kansas City in his working days.  He knew all of the neat places to see.  One of our many stops was the Kauffman Memorial Garden.  

The gardens were beautiful and tranquil.

One thing I noticed was that Kansas City has a lot of beautiful fountains.

Bill and Jim showed us the alcove where the Kauffman's were buried in the gardens.

There are flowers baskets everywhere in this area.  I believe this was called the plaza.

Jim told us that Kansas City is famous for its barbecue and suggested Fiorella's Jack Stack Barbecue for lunch.  What a great place!  Our service was excellent and the food was awesome.  I can't believe I finished it all.  I usually take a photo of the food, but I enjoyed the meal so well didn't even think about capturing it with a photo.  

We really enjoyed the lunch and the visiting with Jim and Linda.  

We waddled back to the car and Jim drove over to the National WW I Museum and Memorial.  Bill and I were happy to know that Jim and Linda had never been here and we had the opportunity to share it with them.  

The Liberty Memorial tower is 217 feet tall and the memorial covers 4 acres.  We could have gone to the top by elevator and then up 47 steps but our lunch was too heavy and didn't want to carry it that far.

Just to give you an idea how large it is, they issue a two-day admission ticket.  Out of 35,000 museums (no we haven't seen them all) this one is listed in the top 25 by Trip Advisor.  

I'm going to post a couple of photos and you'll just have to see this one for yourself.  

  

Here's a Bayard gun.  Our brother-in-law's name is Bayard David and we took this photo for him.  It's a 1908 Belgian pistol cal. 7.65. 

You should see the tiny slit they used to see out.

The docent showed us these papers.  Someone joined up in the morning, and was discharged seven hours later as the war ended.

Jim definitely knows his city.  He knew the names of all the buildings.

I believe he said Western Auto building was the largest in the world.

At this point we were all on overload.  You just get to a point that you can't take in anymore.

 Can you say "overload"?

I saw this KC Barbecue Tours bus and had to take this photo.  They really do take barbecue serious in this town to have tour buses.  

We stopped in Planters Hardware store.  Note the date on the building says 1880.  What a wonderful store and has stayed in the family since.

They had all kinds of seeds and spices.  I bought some spices and if you ever had a hard time finding one, it would be here and very inexpensive. 

Jim was such a good tour guide, he even stopped at Walmart so I could get a hair dryer.  The funny part about the hairdryer is, we've always carried two with us.  I finally said, we've carried this second one for 7 years.  I'm going to lighten the load and just take one.  

Jim and Linda left and we just relaxed for a short time before Linda Ward called and asked if we were okay.  I said we were fine.  She mentioned that Lee's Summit was under a tornado watch.  We talked a little bit and then someone knocked at our door.  It was the park host advising us to evacuate to the bath house.  You didn't need to tell us twice.  We heard sirens going off.  I don't know how long we were in there, but they did move us to the storage area room in between the bath houses.  

The park ranger stayed with us and he had his radio on and reported the activity.  He said a tornado hit about a mile and half from us.  We had about 3 inches of rain and a little hail.  After a few hours, we were told we could leave.  

The TV has had storm reports on for hours.  We're due to pull out tomorrow.  Looking at all the flash flooding and damage I'm wondering what kind of adventure that will be. 

Jim and Linda really showed us a great time but we could forget the tornado adventure.  

Turtle Safely......