Kansas City stuff, family, skipping Missouri
August 21, 2009

I would never have believed it - 9 a.m. & 66 degrees. Most pleasant weather, especially because I expected to be sweltering. We haven’t used the a/c for days. Of course there’s that small matter of rain and lightning, but last night and today are clear and beautiful.

We grilled and played outside last night at the home of my former brother-in-law, Bob, and my littlest sister Christie’s kids, Mary and Jamie and grandkids, Hailey and Mason, two of the most darling children you could ever hope to meet. Mary dined us beautifully with fancy hamburgers, crab-stuffed mushrooms and fruit pizza for dessert. It was fun seeing them all and meeting Jamie’s girlfriend, Nicole, at dinner out the night before. Speaking of that, I have to express delight at being back in the country where they know how to prepare green beans - with bacon! Don’t cringe; it’s the only way to go and southerners know how to do it.

Bass Pro Shop . . .

Between two evenings of family visits, we two rubes from the country ventured into Kansas City: what a handsome skyline it displays. Our destination was to see the steamboat Arabia, more later, but first about the bumpkins and the Bass Pro Shop, our first time in one of those places. That’s not a store; it’s an experience, and I wasn’t the only one snapping photos. The wildlife mounts in two-story-high natural settings amidst creeks and waterfalls with live fish and ducks were eye-popping. Also astounding was Bess, the 103-pound catfish swimming slowly in circles looking like a baby submarine among her otherwise large companions in an 8-foot-tall tank.

The place even sports (pardon the pun) a lifelike shooting range with actual life mounts that move, jump up or down, howl or otherwise acknowledge hits on the targets. If not for dinner plans, I’d probably still be there plunking in my quarters and being sure I could improve my score.

Because I had lost our last rooster tail after catching four trout with it in Utah, we stocked up on lures, replaced our soft-sided tackle box that somehow went missing at home and otherwise assisted the economy in Oak Grove. No, we didn’t get very far from Topeka, just had to stop here to see the folks, and very glad we did.

The steamboat Arabia . . .
Now the Arabia - a steamboat that hit one of hundreds of snags in the Missouri River in 1856. It was a treacherous waterway at the time; hundreds of boats disappeared beneath its waters, and most remain where they went down. The Arabia, however, was discovered and excavated in 1988 from beneath a cornfield a half-mile from the current (oops, there’s another one) river course. Five gentlemen with lots of curiosity and nary a sense of failure found the boat 45 feet under the frozen ground surface. They managed to excavate and retrieve its 200 tons of cargo, a veritable treasure trove of shipping boxes containing everything from fine china and beaver hats to rifles, cosmetics and pickles, virtually everything a person of that time could want. The merchandise was bound for the various river ports. The goods were beautifully preserved by the thick silt at river’s bottom. The displays and films were more than worth the trip, definitely a must-see.

Harry Truman, GPS . . .
Last summer, we thoroughly enjoyed and were enlightened by our visit to the Truman presidential library/museum in nearby Independence, but had not been able to tour the Truman home there, so we remedied that this time, walking the five blocks from the visitors’ center to the house, just as President Truman would have. The more I learn about Harry Truman, the more I admire his forthright manner, honesty and modesty. What an amazing, intelligent and innovative man he was. “The buck stops here”, he stated, accepting all responsibility. Seems as if that’s something sorely missing in today’s political scene, perhaps a reflection of modern society in general.

While we were off the turnip truck in the big city, we made note of the vast amounts of traffic. I could just hear Dad wondering aloud, “Where are all these people going?” That was his constant query any time we ventured out of Chino Valley and sometimes even there. We both miss calling him every day to recount our adventures.

Oldest son Darren has been after us to acquire a GPS. He’s having so much fun with his that he’s sure we would do the same, although we remain unconvinced. Another GPS aficionado, our neighbor last night, Beau Gardner, finds his to be invaluable on his interesting sojourn that he’s chronicling on Facebook.

KOA, Missouri . . .
Again, we stayed in a KOA, seems this trip, we’ve utilized them more than other commercial parks. The Oak Grove facility has a nice woodsy, parky appearance, lovely to look at, but the never-ceasing roar from I-70 on the other side of those trees is a bit harsh. Oh well, we were seldom in the place. I did enjoy seeing these tree faces and again wondered where to acquire such. I spotted some in Prescott once and thought they would look fine on some of my trees.

Uncharacteristic for us, we are hopping across my well-loved Missouri on the Interstate with nary a stop of significance, the intention to be landing a few days in Cahokia, Illinois. Never having heard of the place before, I discern that it’s an unusual destination; however, Chris has decreed it to be the best place with internet access near some Ezra Owen family research we’d like to do.

We’re traversing Cooper County, Missouri, one of our favorite ancestral homes, of John and Hulda Chilcoat, and wishing to spend even more time here. Last year, we did lots here and elsewhere in Missouri and visited many cousins and friends around the state. Odd that even with this much travel time, we continue to wish to take it slower. I am definitely going to want to have a Missouri fix on the way back west.

While verbalizing that I would love to spend a whole summer in Missouri, I continued with wanting to spend a whole summer in each: Arkansas, Tennessee, and Colorado. Chris piped in with Utah and Wyoming; it was then that we realized it will require at least 50 additional summers to get the job done, knowing full well that we’d still be missing things we want to see. Geez, maybe a summer at home would be nice, too.

Rowdy was alarmed when we stopped at this sign, happy that a buyer was not found.

Best weather observation: In response to my phone inquiry if he was getting rain in Florida, Darren informed me that it was “pouring down sunshine”.