I love the West

I really don't know what it is about the West but I am totally in love with it.  There is nothing I don't like.  The colors, the distances, the smells, the lack of sound and people all appeal to me, but there is something more that i can't put my finger on.  I love driving through the mountains.  At every hairpin turn there seems to be this incredible vista laid out before you.  Other mountains, mesas, the Rockies peeking over other hills, large fields or valleys.  There is no chance to ever feel claustrophobic as there is in mountains in other places.  I love the challenge of driving the twisting turning roads that lead through the mountains. I have never been on roads like these, they really test your nerves.

Today I went to Mesa Verde, there wasn't a green thing about it.  The National Parks collect fees but I applied and received a special senior pass that gets me into all National Parks for free - Yea to be old!  I paid for a tour before I found out it was a strenuous hike but I went on it anyway.  Luckily three young women encouraged me at some of the very tough spots.  It was a beautiful experience but we had to go up ladders, which I am not really great with, really I'm terrible with.  They terrify me, especially the top rung.  There were four ladders so you can imagine how thrilled I was, but this other young women and I made it up with lots of "you can do its" from her friends.  There were also a million stone steps to go up and down, some of the steps were as much as eight inches deep.  All in all a strenuous day indeed but well worth the fear.  The sight is another Anastazi site abandoned about 1100 C.E.  They believe only about 120 to 130 people lived in this city and they farmed on the mesa top and hunted in the area which still has abundant game.  I saw a deer very carefully cross the parking lot before the rest of the group arrived.

Having terrified myself enough for the day I decided to do something easy.  I went to the Four Corners Park.  It is on Indian Land so they collect a fee.  It has been verified by Geographers and Astronomers as the exact meeting of the four states-Colorada, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.  They have the plaque at  the exact spot and all sorts of people were taking pictures with their hands and feet in each of the states.  It was fun to see.

I need to remind people that I have a 3 hour time difference.  It is not that I am among the missing and not blogging but that what you think is late is to me quite early.

Farmington UUs

I found a UU church in Farmington, New Mexico this morning.  They have Adult RE at 9:30 so I attended.  Their's is very different from our Forum.  They watch a half hour of a DVD and then start a discussion about it.  Today was a segment of Joseph Campbell speaking about reincarnation in Asian cultures.  The discussion started with reincarnation and the release of the ego to reach illumination and moved on to our ability to let go of our egos.  We discussed death and whether we would fight it or be able to accept.  It was a far ranging discussion and an interesting concept for a Forum.  The service was ladled by a Pagan for May Day.  They have no Order of Service but they do have a specific order.  They only have 35 members but they are very friendly.  It was a lovely morning.

Next I went to the Aztec Memorial National Monument.  They had a short movie explaining how the Anastazi developed and eventually built the pueblos across the West and then disappeared.  They are not sure they really disappeared.Some believe they became the pueblo dwelling tribes that exist today.  After that a ranger gave a talk on the Kiva, which was a sacred space used for special events and secret ceremonies.  Then there was a numbered walk through the ruins.    The ruins were quite fascinating.  Some of the architecture was quite beautiful.

As I drove on to Durango, Colorado I rounded a bend there they were The Rockies.  It was just a brief peak but it took my breath away.  They were incredibly beautiful.  Tall, jagged and snow topped.  They gleamed in the sun.

Mesas and Atom Bombs

I started the day in Los Alamos which is where I ended it last night.  Well when in Los Alamos you have to explore the history of the creation of the atomic bombs.  First I went to the Historical Museum, which never opened, but not to worry, they had a walking tour with labels.  I did find several of the labels.  It was an interesting game of hide and seek.  The area of the History Museum, which now also contains an Art Center, was the first housing for the scientists from all over the world.  They came in secret to a completely new town that didn't exist to the outside world.  All mail, packages, food and people were filtered through Santa Fe under strict security procedures.  Comings and going were narrowly restricted.

The Bradbury Science Museum went into great detail on the development of the bombs against the timeline of the war.  The have models of the housing for the bomb and the detonator.  They have a movie on the whole program from inception to the dropping of the bombs on Japan to the surrender.  They also have incredible displays about all the new uses to which they are putting nuclear research.  It all either was over my head or overwhelmed me with too much information.  It was beautifully done.  Great propaganda and I'm sure it is true that we are reaping huge benefits from the research they are performing.

I made a decision not to go to Abiquiu as it was a long way in the wrong direction and I wouldn't be able to get into Georgia O'Keeffe"s home.  It is only open to groups on a pre-arranged basis.  I figured I has seen Ghost Ranch once and I could live without going to Chimney Rock.  It would be more interesting to go to the Aztec National Monument.  This required hours of driving through mountains with hairpin turns, 360 degree turns, snake turns, 20 mph turns.  The mountains were magnificent, too bad I couldn't stop and take pictures.  Though at one point there was a break and you came to the very old enormous caldera called the Valle Grande.  After all the dark pines of the mountains the soft greens on the caldera plain was so striking it took your breathe away.  It was a nice break from driving.

It was getting late by the time I got to Aztec so I continued on to Farmington, where they had a hotel.  It was almost 5:30 my time by my arrival.  Tomorrow I will get to Aztec and Shiprock and into Colorado, hopefully.

Another day of Adventure

Adventure means that I was lost for most of the day.  I had no trouble getting from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.  The Loretto Chapel has an extraordinary staircase that has mystery attached to it.  The Chapel was run as a girls school by nuns and the choir loft was only accessible by ladder.  The  nuns prayed and in answer to their prayers a stranger, a master carpenter appeared and built this spiral staircase.  It is free standing and completes two 360 degrees turns.  After the completion, the carpenter disappeared without asking for any payment.  Whatever the story the staircase is marvelous.  I walked to the Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi.  I saw the central Plaza.  I looked at many galleries and shops and realized I was bored with Santa Fe.  I wanted out so badly that I didn't even go to the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.

Next I headed for Taos.  I wound up on back roads, I'm sure there was a better way but that was the way the Garmin took me.  I went to the Kit Carson Home and Museum.  Kit Carson was an interesting man and didn't appreciate the legend that grew up around his name in the East.  In reality he was a very impressive person.  He lead Fremont on several treks to map the rockies and the West.  He led wagon trains and scouted for the army.  He married 3 times because his wives died in child birth.  I walked around Taos for a while and decided it was as commercial as Santa Fe.  I didn't love either one as much as I had the first time I saw them.

I set off, or so I thought for Abiquiu.  Since the Garmin wouldn't get me there I sort of was on my own, which was very wrong.  I got lost in the mountains going in the wrong direction.  I tried to correct myself and missed my turnoff.  I was up in the mountains with snow still on the ground in shaded areas.  I finally gave up on Abiquiu for the day, especially as there were no hotels in the area.  Garmin could get me to a hotel in Los Alamos so that was where I went.

The Desert

Today I made it to the desert, my favorite place in the world.  Somehow I find it beautiful and restful.  The colors are all soft pastels; purples,pinks, soft grays, greens set off by bright red clay and crisp blue sky.  I can feel my shoulders just drop when I cross the mountains and see the desert spread out before me.  The mesas and low mountains are lovely.

It was 275 miles from Amarillo to Albuquerque so I had to find a way to break up the trip.  I had no idea what to do and then as I got to Tucumcari there it was - a Dinosaur Museum.  I'm still a child at heart when it comes to dinosaurs.  The museum is connected to a community college that teaches paleontology and has a yearly dig.  The displays were a good mix of fossils, dioramas and a play area for children.  It was laid out simply in a time line showing the evolution of each type of dinosaur.

Next I was off to the Petroglyph National Monument.  This is just outside of Albuquerque.  My Garmin and I had a little argument but I did finally get there, I never did get to the Visitor Center but I did get to the actual trail.  It was a mile and a half walk that passed a lot of petroglyphs done on lava rocks.  They were done by the local Native Americans between 400 and 700 years again.  It was fun to search for the petroglyphs.  There were some modern markings because people will be people.  The markings aren't very contrasting in most cases so it was hard to see them.

As I was looking for my hotel for the night I came across a Toyota Sales and Service Center.  Since my car was letting me know maintenance was required I pulled in and asked if they could fit me in.  They were nice enough to accommodate me.  They even washed my car.  They couldn't get the bugs off the front.

A LOT of driving

Today was almost pure driving.  I did break it up by stopping at the Buddy Holly Center in Lubbock, Texas.  As I was driving out of Dallas/Fort Worth I entertained myself by seeing what I could find in the fluffy white clouds.  It was like being a kid again.  I was fine as as I was on the super highways but that didn't last long, soon  I was on the back roads.  The speed limits were reasonably high but the roads were two lane.  Anyway I was doing 5 miles over the speed limit and got stopped by a policeman.  This was the first time in my life.  Luckily he only gave me a warning, but I was shaking.  I've never had a moving violation of any kind and I didn't want to start now.  The rest of the day I was spot on the speed limit.

While I drove the 500 plus miles I thought how wonderful Lady Bird Johnson was in encouraging beautification of the highways.  All along the roads are rich displays of wildflowers and native grasses.  It is very restful on your eyes as you are driving for hours.  You get plenty of time to reflect on things you've done or seen.  I thought about one of the Sargent's that I saw yesterday.  It is one of those paintings that you see in books or in special exhibitions all the time.  It is of a young woman dressed in white holding her cape open over her head inhaling fumes from a censor.  She is wearing white and cream set in an oriental setting that is also in tones of whites and creams.

I finally made it to Lubbock and eventually found the Buddy Holly Center.  It was a challenge as they do not have an entrance on the street of the address.  But not to worry I was not to be put off.  The museum was very interesting.  I didn't know that much about Buddy Holly as I was a little young when he was at his biggest.  His career was so short yet he had such a profound influence on so many musical groups that followed - The Beatles, The Stones, Springsteen to name a few.

Well it was soon back on the road for me.  I made it all the way to Amarillo before I collapsed.  I really don't know where I'm going from here.  I have to make a decision.  It is either Oklahoma or New Mexico.  The decision changes the direction from there.  I'll see how I feel in the morning.

Art Museums coming out of my ears (eyes)

Today was a total overload of art.  I went to 3 museums filled with wonderful works of art.  The first museum was the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.  When they say American Art they meant it.  I have never seen so many cowboys and Indians in my whole life.  Amon Carter seems to have made a specialty of Fredrick Remington and Charles Russell, two of the best documenters of the West as it existed before it was settled.  It was a bit of an overload as Russell might paint the same picture over and over again with minor changes.  Upstairs however the Amon Carter had some lovely Georgia O'Keeffe, Winslow Homer, William Harnett and others.  The Amon Carter had borrowed several John Singer Sargent's from the Clark Museum in Massachusetts.  John and I had missed the Amon Carter museum the  time we had been to Dallas/Fort Worth, which is amazing as it is only a block away from the Kimball and the Modern Art, which we did go to.

My next museum was the Kimball Art Museum.  They were showing a special exhibit of Impressionists, also borrowed from the Clark museum.  Of course, Francis and Sterling Clark had collected a large number of Renoir's, my least favorite Impressionist.  Renoir must have been like a machine turning out paintings on a daily basis judging by how many the Clark's have and how many are in the Barnes' collection un Philadelphia.  Anyway, there were plenty of other wonderful people to drool over.  There were Manets and Monets, Pissaros and even Degas.  It was just glorious and the audio guide was included in the price of admission.  I had lunch in their cafe.

My last museum was the Dallas Museum of Art.  Unfortunately I only had 45 minutes in there.  It was a parking issue.  They had Matisse, Modigliani, Mondrian, Picasso and Bracque, Pollack, Monet,Gaugian, and Van Gogh.  I'm sorry that I didn't have more time to enjoy the paintings.  I can't even tell what I missed in my hurry to get in as much as I could before I got a parking ticket.

The temperature has been steadily rising down here. Today the temperature hit 88 and tomorrow it should be over 90.  I'll be on my way to Lubbock so who knows what i"ll find.

Waco to Dallas

I stopped in Waco to see the Dr. Pepper Museum.  I don't even like Dr. Pepper but the museum was very interesting.  The whole story of how the soda was invented was told by one of the best animatronic figures I have ever seen.  The museum displayed beautiful cabinets and soda fountains with great detailed carvings and lovely stained glass work.  They had the requisite bottles of potions being that the original soda fountain was part of a pharmacy.  They also showed a bottling machine and the original well that supplied the pure water for the soda.  All in all it was worth the trip.



I next headed to Dallas and the Mary Kay Museum.  I have always admired Mary Kay and what she was able to do for women.  The museum, for what it was, is housed in corporate Headquarters.  It is very small and has nothing much in it.  It showed prizes that women can win, prizes that Mary Kay was awarded and news coverage of her through the years.  They showed a lot of clothes labeled Sales Directors suit year ----.  I'm not sure what that was about.  Did the sales director have to wear that outfit?  Not many women could pull the outfits off.

After Mary Kay I decided that I was tired of running from one tourist spot to another as though I had to get so many notches in my belt.  I got myself a room and went and took a long nap. I felt wonderfully indulgent.  It turns out I'm in the flight path of the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport but you only sort of hear it.  Tomorrow I think I will head to some serious art museums.

San Antonio toured

This morning I tried to find the secret UU church.  They gave directions, but they were directions for people who already knew San Antonio.  Anyway I think I found the end of the instructions but I never found the street name that they claimed they were on.  I got out at the correct exit number but it had the wrong name, no one had ever heard of the street.  I finally gave up and went downtown to start sightseeing.

The first  thing I did was take a trolley car tour.  It was a hour ride around various locations.  They claimed we would see the Alamo and we sort of did if you count on seeing it through the trees and just a back wall.  We also saw several Missions.  The Spanish found very friendly Indians and taught them Spanish and how to farm.  These were tribes like Apaches and Comanches.  It took us to louse it up.  We also passed the Hemisphere which is very like the Space Needle.  The Hemisphere was built for the World's Fair in 1968 and the restaurant at the top spins around in an hour.  Germans seem to have settled much of Texas.  I don't know why.  But a lot of the tour talked about businesses and homes that the Germans built.  One of the most interesting things on the tour was a work of shadow art on a Texas University building.  It was designed by a 10 year old boy.  The horses get bigger as the day goes on.

After the trolley car ride I went looking for the River Walk.  Well let me tell you I walked and walked until I accidentally stumbled on it.  For some reason I had found myself in the one part of the city that didn't have signs pointing to River Walk.  Once found I was able to locate the river barge tours.  It was very enjoyable.  There wasn't that much to really see.  They pointed out a lot of hotels and gave us statistics on them.  One hotel, a Marriott, couldn't be taller than 16 stories because it would cast an afternoon shadow on the Alamo.  This is the stage that Sandra Bullock used in Miss Congeniality.

The Alamo was the last stop on my sightseeing tour.  It is treated more reverently than the Vatican.  No photographs are allowed inside, men have to remove their hats.  I'm surprised you don't have to genuflect in front of the names of the heroes.  It is very small and you do have to give the men a lot of credit for defending it for as long as they did.  The women and children hid in a small room and were spared.

I haven't decided where I am going tomorrow.  I will be heading towards Dallas/Fort Worth.  If I get tired I'll stop and see and see if there is anything interesting there.

Really San Antonio

Before I left Austin this morning I went on a Duck Adventure tour.  Since I didn't have a reservation I had to wait and see if the waiting list would get on.  I was first on the waiting list as I am compulsively early.  Sure enough I got to go.  The bad part was my camera battery ran down so I have no pictures of the trip around Austin.  Unlike my other electronics it does not give you a warning that the battery is low.  It simply shuts itself down.  Very contrary.

This morning I also realized that I had really meant to go to San Antonio yesterday not Austin.  There were many more things I wanted to do in San Antonio than in Austin.  All the special music clubs that John had told me about have since been torn down and hotels, condos and office buildings have been put up instead.  The Duck narrator was about my age and he bemoaned their loss.  Unfortunately the Duck tour had to go out into the lake which was really the Colorado River just to prove it was really amphibian.  That part of the tour was boring.

After the tour I headed out to the real San Antonio.  It wasn't a big deal to get to, but it was a big deal to get a room to stay in.  The places close to downtown were all full.  I'm out in the industrial area but at least it's quiet today.  I'm not sure where dinner will be available but I will survive.  I've discovered that sometimes my Garmin has trouble with North and South.  Plus it's interpretation of some words is interesting.  St when it should be Saint becomes street, which is understandable, but Sts becomes suites.

Tomorrow being Sunday I have found a UU congregation to attend.  Its website is not as nice as ours and they have 490 members.  They are doing an outdoor Earth Day service.  They also have adult RE which I will try if I find them in time.

Houston to Austin

I started the day at the Rothko Chapel.  The building is octagonal and was designed by Rothko and Philip Johnson and others.  From the outside it is ugly red brick while on the inside it is just boring.  There are 15 huge paintings by Rothko on the walls, since I don't like him I was not impressed.  They were black or black and brown.  It made the place very depressing.  The young receptionist asked me where else I was going to go in Houston.  When I said I was going to see the Byzantine frescos she informed me that they had been returned to Cyprus.  They had been on loan for 15 years and were returned in March.

She told me about St Basils at the University of St Thomas.  I trotted over there to see the basilica.  It turned out to be worth it.  The basilica has a bright gold dome and an abstract cross on the side of the building.  The altar was very modern and I thought was truly beautiful.  The rest of the campus was the usual boring red brick buildings.

Then the rest of the morning was spent getting to Brenham, which is a tiny town sort of on the way to Austin.  They have what is billed as an Antique Rose Emporium.  It is a very sorry collection of rose plants for sale.  There were lots and lots of different names on rose bushes, but they were past their prime.  Also it wasn't a well tended garden center.  The people who ran it were very nice though.  I really wanted it to be nicer.

So I needed a pick me up and set out for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  While I was traveling I saw a bunch of vultures eating something.  They were less than 6 feet away from me.  It was fantastic!  I also decided that cattle have cliques.  You see separate groups at separate sides of pastures.  The groups have their backs to each other.

I got to the Wildflower Center and it was gorgeous.  There were every type of wildflower you can imagine.  They are put together in natural settings so that you can imagine how they would look in your area.  People are encouraged to redo their yards with self-sustaining plant material.  It was a lovely day for wandering around among the plant arrangements.  The sun was warm but the shade was pleasantly cool plus there was a refreshing wind.

New Orleans to Houston

I have given a lot of thought to my first impressions of New Orleans.  I  may have been somewhat unfair.  It's just the first night while I was out to dinner someone put a horrible scrape on my right rear fender and then even though the people of New Orleans were friendly all the people on my tour were not.  So the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.  But while driving out of town this morning I had better feelings for the city.  It was helped by seeing flocks of Snowy Egrets flying overhead with their long black legs just trailing behind.  It was a beautiful sight.

Speaking of beautiful sights.  There isn't much to do when you are driving straight roads for 150 miles before you get on another road to drive another 150 miles, but look around and think.  Well today I had the most amazing Magritte sky.  It was that unreal blue with the clouds looking painted on.  They didn't look real, it was wonderful to contemplate.

When I got to Houston I made a quick stop at the Beer Can house.  The tour book says the house and yard feature about 50,000 beer cans.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  When the wind blows the strings of tops make a lovely tinkling sound.  It really is quite ridiculous but fun.  It was well worth the trip.

New Orleans

Well I have now seen and toured New Orleans.  I can say I am not that impressed.  The French Quarter is very charming but not that different than the old centers of every old center city I've ever seen in Europe or America.  I took a tour and was fascinated by the things that were begun in New Orleans.  The process of creating brown sugar and then white sugar were invented here.  The word and idea of cocktails was started here.  There were many other things but i didn't take notes.  I took lots of photos of buildings because of the lovely balconies.  some just had beautiful railings others had a profusion of plants and/or flowers.  I walked around on my own or on the tour for about 5 hours.  I had a lovely lunch at a cute cafe on a corner in the middle of the Quarter.  I had soft shell crab Po' Boy.  For that I was in heaven.  There is little else that I love more than soft shell crab.

Last night Alex taught me how to add photos to my posts, so I am going to go back and add photos to old posts.  So far I only have processed the photos from the old camera so those are as far as we will go.  It will get done in batches.  As I am still learning the new camera it might take a while for those photos to appear.

Alligators and driving through Louisiana

This morning I went to an alligator park.  There were all sizes and sorts of alligators about in various types of watery surroundings.  The one thing they all have in common is that as soon as they realize that you are anywhere near them they quietly and slowly sink below the surface of the water.  It makes it rather difficult to take a picture but then if you have seen one alligator you have pretty much seen them all.  They had a short movie that explained how they discovered how to farm alligators for their skin as a by-product of studying them to increase the wild population.  Interestingly enough they managed to do both.  They have created a very lucrative farming system for meat and skins and increased the wild population 10 fold and still increasing.  The swamp that they set up for some of the alligators also attracts birds like Red Wing Black birds and Night Herons.  I was the only visitor this morning but it was a cold rainy morning.

Then it was on to driving to New Orleans.  Louisiana is a strange state.  I think it is more water than land.  Everywhere you look is a stream, river, lake or inlet to some body of water.  You are constantly going over bridges because there is so much water.  It is really quite pretty because everything is so green.

I had grilled catfish in some sort of shrimp cream sauce for dinner.  This is supposed to be real New Orleans cooking.  Well no one ever lost weight on New Orleans food I guess.  Tomorrow is the big day - I venture into the real New Orleans.

Finally the Crystal Bridges Museum

Well it's hard to believe but I finally managed to get into the museum.  There is no charge as it is supported by Walmart.  I have no idea why it is called Crystal Bridges as there isn't a glass bridge anywhere in sight.  They have the museum nicely arranged on a timeline and a nice representation of each period of art.  It is a very nice collection with some choice pieces.  They have a huge collection of Martin Heades.  He is known for his beautiful hummingbirds of South America.  Their Hudson River School works don't hold a candle to the works we have at Reynolda House.  Our Bierstadt, Cole and Church are so far superior!  They do have a few nice Morans, Sergeants and Bellows and others too numerous to name.  It was a very pleasant experience.

I've come to realize that most of my days from here on out will be spent driving from place to place.  America is much larger than it looks on the maps.  I had to break up the trip from Bentonville to New Orleans somehow so I have stopped in a town called Natchitoches.  There is an alligator farm which I will visit tomorrow.  I'm getting no exercise so I'm going to start using the treadmills at the hotels before I leave in the mornings.  Of course now that I made that decision I am staying at a Best Western which doesn't have an exercise room.

Thank you Phyllis.  I am a little confused these days.  I have lost track of the days, date and obviously the months.  Thank you for reminding me that Memorial day is in May.

Exhaustion

Today was mostly driving.  I drove from the middle of Kansas all the way east and then down the east side, briefly into Missouri and then into Arkansas.  I am now back in Bentonville to try once more to see the Crystal Bridges Museum.  I had this sudden fear that tomorrow was Memorial Day but it turns out it's next week.

I did stop in Wamego, Kansas to tour the Oz Museum.  It was so much fun.  It was a trade off between the Wamego Oz Museum or Dodge City and the Liberal Wizard of Oz Museum.  I decided that Dodge City looked very commercial and phony.  Also Martha said the Oz Museum in Wamego was very good.  Anyway, the museum was really well done and had so much to see.  It had large dioramas for each of the main characters, film clips, copies of the books and translations from all over the world, toys and games.

I'm  too punchy to be very interesting tonight so forgive me.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll have lots more to say.

Wrong Address and a Tornado

Today was an eventful day, as usual.  It's becoming a habit.  First off, this morning I had breakfast in the local diner because that's where the motel does free breakfast.  Next off I went to find the last existing Pony Express station.  I entered an address into the Garmin and off I went.  Well all of a sudden I am on a gravel road which was strange.  But it got stranger from there.  Next I was on a dirt road with calves escaping into the road from under gates.  There were muddy spots that I worried about getting through.  It just kept getting worse.  I even flushed a flock of wild turkeys.  The Toyota took it all.  We did have some almost out of control slipping but we made it to this out in the middle of nowhere address.  So I tried again by putting in the name of the Pony Express Station and got a totally different address, so off we went.  This time we made it.

I was early for the opening time so I sat in the car reading.  The opening time came and went so I decided to go to the Visitors Center next door down the road a bit.  As I was leaving I met a neighbor who told me that she had read that the caretaker had retired and they hadn't hired another one yet.  No sign about that, of course.  So a few pictures and I was on my way.

I was going diagonally across Kansas to the Barbed Wire Museum.  I ran into an amazingly heavy rainstorm.  It was so bad I couldn't see the road.  I finally found an exit and a MacDonalds at the bottom.  I stopped for lunch and while I was there we had sirens go off meaning a tornado was in the area.  We were all hustled into the very back of the store behind all the kitchen equipment, where there were cinderblock walls.  The tornado touched down several miles away so we held for awhile until the all clear came through.

Then I continued my journey to the Barbed Wire Museum which doesn't open until May.  I've done it again.  But everyone who was cleaning the history museum felt so sorry for me they got someone to open the museum for me.  It was well worth the stop.  The barb wire collection was fascinating!   The farmers were very creative and created beautiful patterns in the wires and connectors.  The tools used to work the wire looks vicious but it is working with sharp barbs.  If I could figure out how to load pictures to my blog I would show you some of the patterns.  Also every year at the fair they have a contest to see who can make the best artistic piece with barbed wire.  The winner last year was a Butterfly, it was lovely.

After all the excitement I headed to Hays where they had a Comfort Inn.  There were no motels in La Crosse where the Barbed Wire Museum was.  It has been a long day.

Harry Truman, Thomas Hart Benton and Amelia Earhart

Today was a really busy day and actually worked out exactly as planned.  Amazing what you can do when you do plan!

The first adventure was the Harry S. Truman Library.  Truman has always been my favorite president so it was exciting to visit the library and museum.  There is no security required to get in, as opposed to getting into the Clinton Library.  The library does an excellent job of covering his humble childhood and his inability to get a business to succeed.  It also talks about his involvement with a sort of mob boss who was eventually convicted of tax evasion.  This man helped him win a Senate seat.  The library also covered his war years and the programs he instituted after the war.  The displays and mini-movies talked about how often he went against his advisors because they advised directions against his conscience.  There are interactive sections where you can give your opinion on decisions that he made during his presidency.  It was a great experience.  Truman and Benton became very close friends during and after Benton painted a mural in the lobby of the Library.

My next stop was in Kansas City proper at the home and studio of Thomas Hart Benton.  Reynolda House has an excellent example of his work, which is what got me interested in his work.  He had studied in all the right places:  Chicago, Paris, New York.  He was painting during the years of cubism and other abstract movements.  He rejected those styles and developed his own, which made him a very rich man.  His wife handled all the business matters leaving Benton to work on his art undisturbed.  Benton died in his studio doing what he loved best.  His wife died 11 days later.

The woman giving the Benton tour gave me lots of other things to see in Kansas City but I decided not to see anything else.  If I saw everything people told me to see I would never get out of a single state.  Each person has their own favorite sight for visitors.  I know how they feel, John and I used to overwhelm people in New York.

For my third act of the day I made it to the birthplace of Amelia Earhart.  She was born in the home of her grandparents.  The exhibits showed the house as she would have known it as a child.  Added to that were pictures and paintings of her as an adult with her planes and her husband.  There were articles and maps about her many flights and records.  Amelia's birthplace is in Atchison, Kansas, which adds another state to my trip.  Amelia was an early hero of mine, so today was a total win for me.

I'm now in the middle of nowhere because motels are few and far between.  This is farm country.  So far it is not as flat as I expected but towns are small and don't have very amenities.

Still in Missouri

Well it was a bright shiny morning and I got an early start.  Off I went to Hannibal, the childhood home of Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain.  Hannibal has changed as little as possible from the early days when the  Clemens' first moved there.  It is quite charming though filled with antique shops and other stores named for characters and events out of Mark Twain books.  I did take the Mark Twain House and Museum tour.  It went through his boyhood home, his father's law office and courthouse, the home of his best girl friend who became Becky Thatcher and both the new and old museums.  The new museum has 15 original Norman Rockwell's, that he did as illustrations for the first edition of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.  The sketches for the painting were so much better than the paintings I couldn't believe it.  The paintings were dark and drab, so unlike the usual Rockwell.

After Hannibal I was off to Independence to see the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum.  I forget that everything is further away than I think and is going to take longer than I plan. I arrived at 4:30 with the library closing at 5:00.  So I will return tomorrow.  Luckily I am very close to Kansas City, Missouri and can get want I want to do there done tomorrow as well.  Fingers crossed.

I think I'm going into Kansas after that but I won't decide until tomorrow at breakfast.  I'll surprise myself.

Since beside a travel blog this is a trip of personal discovery anyone not interested can stop reading now.

I have discovered I am not much for planning which gets me into a lot of trouble and wastes time.  It also frustrates me which is not good.  I don't handle the frustration well and become self-destructive.  I need to pay more attention to instructions and details.  Right now I'm driving myself crazy.  I seem to be too early or too late for everything.  Tours start on May,  night hours start in May, I'm a day off here.  I'm just sloppy.  If the trip is to be a success I need to clean up my act!

St Louis day two

Today I went to see the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis.  It has the most outstanding mosaics all over the interior, it has the largest collections of mosaics anywhere in the world.  It was done in the Romanesque style but was done in 1917.  Some of the mosaics seem to be fairly recent.  I heard a docent explaining the stories to some students.  I enjoyed the visit.

I then went to the City Garden.  It is filled with charming modern sculpture.  Many more than you would expect in such a small space.  Just as I was finishing up photographing the last piece my battery failed.  I was quite surprised since I had just charged it.

I took the camera back to the motel and tried to charge the battery but it wouldn't take a charge.  Off I went to Best Buy only to learn that batteries are no longer made for my camera - it is too old!  Well my choice was to not take pictures for the rest of the trip or buy another camera. So I bought another camera.  This is getting to be a very expensive trip without it even being the trip.

After buying the new camera I went off to see the Botanical Garden.  I thought it was open until 8:00 PM because it is Wednesday.  Turns out that is only true in the summer.  The nice woman at the admission desk let me in and said just pretend that I got lost.  The gardens were very lovely.  The azaleas were in blooms which really cheers a garden up.  They use the color green in so many wonderful ways, playing the shades off each other.  This is a Chilhulily arch, name spelled incorrectly.

Tomorrow it is off to Hannibal.

Another strange day

Well I went to Crystal Bridges, which is the name of the Walmart family museum.  Guess what - It's closed on Tuesday.  Leave it to Walmart to be different.  Every other museum I've ever been to is closed either Sunday or Monday.  The grounds were open and I did a 1.5 mile loop of gardens that had some art displayed.  The grounds are carefully planned and planted.  Everywhere you go there are grounds crews either clearing weeds and dead plants or planting fresh plants or new areas.  I'm just going to have to stop back on my way to New Orleans.

I returned to Eureka Springs to visit Quigley Castle.  It was well worth the return.  The woman and her children who built it, with the the husband's eventual help, did an amazing and unique job.  She collected every little rock that went into building the house.  The house is two stories high with two sides of windows.  For the first 3 winters they had 7 layers of sack cloth over the window spaces as they couldn't get glass.  They have 2 story hibiscus trees, ferns and other plants just inside the windows.  Everywhere you look you see collections of things she collected.  It might be mussel shells, butterflies or arrow heads, but everything is mounted and hung on the walls.  The granddaughter and her family are still living in the house.  They do a marvelous job of maintaining the surrounding gardens, including the large numbers of bottle trees.

The rest of the day was spent driving to St. Louis.  It took longer than I thought it would which is typical.  I have also found the only Comfort Inn suites that is so exclusive that you can't find it.  You sort of have to stumble across a small sign or get on some elusive ring road.  I am not in St. Louis proper but in a town just outside.  I'm supposed to stay here for two nights but will only do that if I can find it again tomorrow night.