Jesse James Museum & Farm

Today we traveled to Kearney, MO where the James family had their farm and Jesse was born and raised.  The original 1820 farm house is the structure on the left, the taller structure on the right was added on after Jesse James was killer.  The Pinkertons were tipped off that he and his outlaw brother Frank where there visiting their mother and snuck up early (12:30am) and threw a flaming ball into the house which exploded and blew one of his mothers arms off and killed Jesse's young step brother.  To the local loyal southerners The James were heroes and to the Union sympathizers' they were criminals.  The James brothers were not there at the time and were quite upset, 3 months later Frank killed the neighboring farmer, a northern sympathizers, who they suspected tipped off the Pinkertons that the brothers were at their mothers home that night.

After Jesse was shot his mother buried him on the farm so she's be near him and protect the grave site.  A few years later when she was considering selling the farm she had his body moved to the Kearney cemetery.  The above tombstones at the farm are new replacements as souvenir hunters chipped the originals away.

This just one of many displays in the museum next door.  The boots on the bottom left were the ones Jesse wore when he was shot.

 Here's the James family plot in the Kearney cemetery.   He's next to his wife Zerelda.  This also his mothers name, his wife was his first cousin and she was named after her aunt, Jesse's mother.
The last picture is Archie's grave, he was Jesse & Frank's young step brother killed by the Pinkertons fire bomb.

Harry Truman Museum & Library

                     Today we spent a few hours at the Truman Museum & Library in Independence, MO.

                                Here's Judy exiting the Truman oval office under a large mural.

                                                Again, no flash pictures were allowed.

                                          Judy thought Harry was short but he's still taller!

Harry & Bess (along with their only daughter and her husband) are buried in the Museum/Library courtyard.

It was a very interesting visit.  we started with a 45 minute video of Truman's life, from the son of a bankrupt farmer, to bank clerk, to WWI artillery officer, to clothing store owner, to local politician, to senator, to VP to president.  One of his goals, unfulfilled, was national health care, sound familiar?  It was quite interesting that all the political crap going on today is not new.  This leads me to understand politicians through history are all crooks.  Seems to me they have had way too much practice and experience.  

WWI Museum and Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank

Behind the monument tower is the Kansas City skyline.  You can take an elevator almost to the top and then 45 stairs, we passed.  The museum entrance is under the tower, this is an excellent museum and quite large, more than we expected.

                                                 Here's KC from behind the monument.

                                       I didn't want to use the flash so the pictures are dark. 
                               It was quite interesting and we learned quite a bit about WWI.

                            Across the street is the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, our next stop.

The gold bar is worth almost $591K, unfortunately I could not figure out how to get it out of the case.  We were not allowed to take pictures of the employees actually working with stacks and stacks and stacks of bills.  There were automated carts (names Huey and Dewy) moving between the rooms and a warehouse with racks and rack of pallets of bills.

Lees Summit, MO

Today was a short travel day, 91 miles, to Lees Summit, MO; SW of Kansas City.  We leisurely got up and packed, went across the street to McDonalds for breakfast and it started to rain, it's now 4pm and still raining.  We are in a very nice & roomy Jackson County Park that use to be a Corps of Engineers park.  When you leave the CG you are in suburbia and the big city outskirts.  Inside the park it's like being in the country and peaceful.  I suspect it will change this weekend when the locals fill the place up.

Warm Springs Ranch & Budweiser Clydsdales

Here we are in RV Express in Boonville, MO beside I70 next to the gas station, Subway and McDonalds.  Such as exquisite RV park and all for the low price of $25 a night!  A bargain!!!
There were 4 of us squeezed in here last night; tonight 1 large motorhome pulled in, ran the power pedestal and water spigot down it's side, said a few choice words, took 1/2 hour to get away from the utilities, and after Judy quickly got our truck out of their way then pulled right back out.

Here's the Clydesdale's ranch house, nice setting.  This is where all the Budweiser Clydesdales are born, it's the Clydesdale production facility.  The Dalmatian dogs are not kept here, there are only 3 of them, one for each hitch (the big red wagon).   There are 106 Clydesdales here, 5 are studs, and they have 40 babies a year. 

                                              Here comes the welcome committee!

                                                  Judy is REALLY happy to be here.

Here's Duke, he's 12 and has a slight heart condition so has been retired.  He's in the wash room, each horse gets washed daily we were told.  When we first walked up they were blow drying the long white hair on his legs!  The trainer said he's so soft now he breaks out in a sweat when he just sees the hitch (a big red Budweiser wagon).

 

This little fellow is only 4 days old and has not yet been named.  The foals stay with mom for 6 months before they start to separate them.

This little one is almost a month old.  The babies are normally born between March and July but the ranch manager is experimenting with late year births.

                        As you can see after the hour and a half tour they break out the free Budweiser!

                                                                      Chow time!

After touring Warm Springs Ranch we stopped at the Isle of Capri Casino in Bonnville.  Judy was a happy camper today with our two stops.  We won about $40 so off we went to lunch, we tried 3 local places, all closed at 3pm so we ended up at KFC.

Lincoln Museum & tomb

Today we drove 45 minutes north to Springfield the capitol of Illinois to visit the Lincoln Museum & tomb.

You are limited to taking pictures inside the museum so this is all you get.  The above picture of Lincoln reading by the fireplace was taken without a flash in a dark log cabin.

Abe in buried behind and ten feet under the marble stone.  In the 1870 thieves unsuccessfully tried to Lincoln's body for a ransom and the release of a friend in prison.  They ended up joining their friend in prison.

 This statue in the entrance to Lincoln's tomb was made 6 years before the same sculpture he made for the much larger statue in Washington DC. 

Judy said she was rubbing Abe's nose for luck but I think she's picking his nose.

This was the tomb's caretakers home built in the 1870s but used as office space today.  It looks like a small castle to me.

Litchfield, IL and Abe's aching back

Yesterday we made the 247 mile trip to Litchfield, IL.  We have been to this membership park several times and being a long drive we got an early start (8am) because of the HOT weather here, it got up to 95 today.  This is a quite park in the middle of the Illinois cornfields.  The AC's are getting a good workout the last few days.  When we arrived we set up, fired up the ACs, came inside, and crashed for the day.

Today we drove to Hillsboro (10 miles) and had lunch at the Cozy Café and checked out the statue of Honest Abe.  It's in honor of his visit to the city when he was running for senator.  Darn it's hot, suppose to cool down to the 80s tomorrow, hope it rains.  We are planning on staying in Litchfield at Honey Bend CG for 5 nights.