Post 2 of 17
Day 5: Kansas City to Springfield, Missouri - 312 Miles
Another kinda journey of discovery again today. We'll go through my wife's paternal grandmother's birth place, among other things.
I had been to KC a couple times, but only on business and only saw the insides of a hotel. A friend of mine said we should wander through the nearby area of Mission Hills and check out how the other half lives. OK - we always like doing that stuff.
He was not wrong. This neighborhood is quite substantial, all the houses are on giant lots, it's very leafy and they all look like this. Well, most actually seem bigger.
First up is the World War I Museum site just south of downtown. It opened in 1926 and eventually became the country's official WWI museum. (Not my aerial pic)
Sadly, the 140 flags planted here represent the number of US Veterans lost to suicide - in a week. That's 20 a day - every 72 mins. That's unreal.
The Memorial Tower stands at 217 feet tall.
Unfortunately, it didn't open until 10 and it's only 8:30. Next time.
The memorial overlooks a nice view of the iconic Kansas City Union Station and the city skyline.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is right around the corner. One of just 12 in the country.
We drop down to the train station and have a look see. Amtrack still goes through here. A very grand space and a cool place.
Back in the day
Since there are two Kansas Citys, we have to go over to the other one. We cross the Kansas River where it feeds into the Missouri River and everything changes. Kansas City, KS is definitely more of a hard scrabble town than Kansas City, MO. We tour about a bit and don't stay long. Our time yields one picture of the grain silos down near the Missouri. Lewis & Clark came through here 220 years ago.
We head back over to Missouri and drive around the other downtown. Way more commerce going on here.
We finish up and trek 9 miles east to Independence, MO - home of Harry S. Truman - and head to his Presidential Library.
Truman was born in 1894, raised in Independence, MO, fought in France in WWI, became a judge and was elected senator in 1934. During the 1944 presidential election, Franklin Roosevelt dropped his incumbent VP (Henry Wallace) in favor of Truman, a more moderate democrat, who was less likely to alienate Southern conservatives and labor unions. The VP was still selected independently at the convention back then. They won. In a landslide.
Truman was given very little to do during his vice presidency. He only met with Roosevelt twice and was kept out of most meetings regarding WWII. He became the 33rd president when FDR died, only 82 days into his 4th term.
It was only then that he learned about the Manhattan Project. The war in Germany ended shortly thereafter and by August he had decided to use two nuclear bombs on Japan, hoping to forego a land invasion. The world was forever changed. Truman oversaw the creation of the United Nations and enabled the Berlin Airlift in 1948. He ran, and won, re-election later that year - although the Chicago Daily Tribune got their headline horribly wrong.
Bess & Harry
Also in 1948, Truman approved a down to the studs rebuild of the White House. I guess it is ok to remodel the White House a bit. The family had to move out for nearly 4 years, returning in March 1952.
He decided not to run for re-election in 1952. But he still basically had 8 years.
The Buck Stops Here
The Presidential Library grounds
Their graves
The man himself. A very nicely done presidential library.
The home where Harry and Bess lived is nearby
How 'bout that? Some real Golden Arches
We head south as we leave Independence, but quickly arrive at a major sports complex.. The home stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals. The parking lot is massive. There is a Royals game today, but they let us go in to grab a few pictures.
Arrowhead Stadium - Chiefs house, for a little while longer....
Kauffman Stadium - Royals house
Getting out is now very confusing. Exits are blocked, cones are up. I ask a parking attendant and she's waving her flag and saying go up there, turn right, then left, then come back around over there........... Just then a guy in a golf cart floats by. He yells out, "Where y'all going?" I tell him I want 435 south toward Joplin. He says, "I got yo ass. Follow me." We get the VIP treatment between the two stadiums and about 90 seconds later we are on 435, headed south. Awesome.
We eventually tie in to I-49 and have an uneventful drive for 90 mins before pulling off at Nevada, MO. The wife belongs to a philanthropic organization called P.E.O. that helps women get college scholarships. They can use them anywhere, but the organization also owns a college located here.
The town itself seems to have been passed by.
Vernon County Courthouse
The P.E.O.'s school is Cottey College, a small liberal arts college for women, with an enrollment of around 250.
Back on I-49, it's about 45 minutes to Jasper, MO - the birthplace of my wife's paternal grandmother. Man, she's got kin all over tarnation out here.
Jasper is a small farming community of around 1,000. Not much going on.
At least the Dairy Cream is open.
It's only another 30 miles to Joplin, MO.
Joplin got it's start as a major 19th century hub for lead and zinc. It's also a well known stop on the historic Route 66. Unfortunately, we don't get much time here.
Its getting toward 6 o'clock now - but, we're THIS close to Oklahoma (and, we've never been). We could get on I-44 and drive in to Oklahoma, but there doesn't seem to be anywhere to quickly turn around. I spy a casino on the map, just over the border with Kansas. I determine I can get there on backroads. In the next 1/2 hour we are in Missouri, Kansas, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and back to Missouri. Got 'r done.
Downstream Casino Resort
Springfield is still 80 miles away. We snag a Cracker Barrel after we get back to Missouri and drag into the hotel after 8:30. Yup, the mileage is getting shorter, but the days are getting longer.
Springfield, Missouri
Total Miles: 2,383
Daily Avg: 477 Miles
Day 6: Springfield to St. Louis, Missouri - 280 Miles
The day dawns sunny and warm. We will basically transit through the heart of Missouri today.
The first target is the Ozark Mountains and the iconic Lake of the Ozarks - only about 90 miles away. The lake was created when Bagnell Dam was completed on the Osage River in 1931. 1,150 miles of shoreline was created and as such, is now home to thousands of homes and an equal number of boats and many resorts. Party on.
Next up is Jefferson City, the state capital., only 50 miles away. We're there by 11:30. Jefferson City is on the south bank of the Missouri River and roughly midway between to state's two power centers of Kansas City and St. Louis. We explore a bit and find the train station.
Missouri State Penitentiary 1836 to 2004 - right in the heart of town.
It's noon on Sunday and downtown is quiet. We find some hot dogs at a street fair attended by maybe 100 people.
We wander over to the governor's mansion
The capitol looks like a splendid building. Too bad it is closed.
We cross to the north side of the Missouri and head down Hwy 94 through several farms that were probably in the wide flood plain back in the day. We pass through another Portland and after about 50 miles we cross the river again and reach the quaint little German town of Hermann, MO - population about 2,200. It is near the center of the Missouri Rhineland. It is in wine country and very touristy. A nice stop, full of shops and eateries.
City Hall and such
Hermann is also the seat of Gasconade County
We must turn our backs on Herman. It is 2 o'clock and we want to get to the St. Louis Art Museum - we are still an hour and a half away. They are open until 5 pm - and closed tomorrow. Giddyup.
The art museum is in the 1,326 acre Forest Park, a couple miles west of downtown. Traffic is all snarled as we approach. The intersections have no power, so everything is a 4-way stop. Then we see all the downed trees and destruction. We are driving through right where the tornado came two days ago. It's a mess. The park has thousands of trees - hundreds are now laying on their sides. Did I say it's a mess?
We wind our way into the park from the west. This area of the park is totally wrecked. We reach the parking lot to the art museum and it's packed. Several trees are down, but the structure is fully intact. We park and go in.
The St. Louis Art Museum is world renowned and dates to 1879. There are 34,000 objects dating from antiquity to the present. The building was originally built for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. The total gallery space is 224,000 square feet. It is free to the public.
While a docent was handing us a map, we asked how is was during the tornado 2 days ago. She said it was loud and frightening. They tried to get patrons to the basement floors, but a large number paid no attention. Luckily, the museum encountered only minor damage.
A few of the paintings
Degas' "The Little Dancer"
Plus a special exhibit featuring
Art, Fashion and the Automobile - France 1918 - 1939
We were able to spend a couple hours inside and thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
The view outside the museum on Art Hill, overlooking Emerson Grand Basin. Not much tree dammage right here.
We meander through the park and encounter several more areas with severe tree damage. Man, what a shame. Takes a long time to grow a tree. There are still some structures remaining from the 1904 World's Fair - which was the first one outside of Europe.
The hotel is right downtown so we make our way in and have a look around. The population of the city is only around 300,000, but you can tell it has some chops.
Our hotel is the Hilton in the former St. Louis Union Station. The station opened in 1894 and was the largest in the world. Traffic peaked at 100,000 people a day in the 1940's. By 1978 it was over when the last Amtrak train left the station.
St. Louis Union Station (not my picture)
In the 1980's it was renovated into a hotel, shopping center and entertainment complex. Turned out to be a hopping place, having stayed there as a young man in the late 1980's for a fraternity convention. We never left the grounds over a three day period until we finally ventured out to see a Cardinals baseball game at Busch Stadium and go up in the Gateway Arch.
Well, it died again in the '90s due to high costs. They tried new renovations, new vendors & new ownership. The hotel did fine, but by 2016 the place was 95% vacant. I walked in expecting to see a similar venue as before. Who knew? This was crammed with shops and people back then.
The hotel lobby is still cool though.
The room is nice and we head out back to the former 11.5 acre train shed, where there is still some activity, an aquarium and a few restaurants. The train shed is an enormous open structure that used to be the platform to 16 train lines that served 22 railroads.
Today its a nice pond. (Looking back toward Union Station)
Found a nice dinner at a seafood house and called it a day.
St. Louis, Missouri
Total Miles: 2,663
Daily Avg: 444 Miles