July 3, 2014
I will never eat another bowl of cereal without thinking of
all the corn we have seen on this trip. We are almost tired of looking at it.
Our roads through the countryside vs. interstate provided us with endless miles
of cornfields. My hat is off to the farmers. They have much work to do,
plowing, fertilizing, planting, harvesting, buying gas for farm equipment,
keeping all that equipment running, selling his harvest and most of all being
at the mercy of the elements of nature. I salute them!!
We got up early and left our hotel. Our first stop was the
Pony Express Museum/Patee Hotel in downton St. Joseph, MO. The Patee House was
a 140 room luxury hotel that served as the headquarters for the Pony
Express. We thoroughly enjoyed the exhibits. That of the Pony Express and
interpretive exhibits of the way things were in the mid 1800’s. There was a
dentist office (that was the replica of Walter Cronkite’s father and grandfather
who were dentists), Pony Express Office, newspaper office, store, a home, a
store, train station, barbershop, optical/ocular doctor’s office, photographer’s
shop, and other sites of interest. Also on exhibit were antique fire trucks,
old cars, a carousel, and other things donated. One point of interest was that
Jesse James was killed one block away by a young boy to whom he had given a
gun.
We then left St. Joseph and went to Atchinson, MO to see the
birthplace of Amelia Earhart. It was a beautiful home that belonged to her
grandparents perched on a cliff overlooking the Missouri River. The house was
immaculately decorated. There was a lot of Earhart memorabilia but not that
much telling about her great achievements. Mostly pictures, letters, etc. There
were even school projects that students had made. I did my junior research
paper on her in 1967. Guess I should have kept it and donated.
After going to McDonalds and paying $19.59 for 3 burger
meals we headed out only to discover that we did not get our fries. It wasn’t
worth going back for. I must say that was the most expensive hamburger/drink I
ever had. Oh well, life goes on.
We then drove to outskirts of Beatrice, MO to the National
Homesteaders Museum. It tells the history, stories, and hardships of the
homesteaders who headed West to get their free land. They surely had it really
hard. I would have never ever made it. They left behind most of the comforts of
their homes and basically started over.
We are now in North Platte, Nebraska. Time for a good night’s
sleep. 400 miles of riding tires one out. Hmmm. There’s fireworks going off
outside. They’re celebrating the fourth a little early.
Note: The majority of our driving today consisted of keeping
the wheels straight. I drove for over an hour and I don’t think I moved the
steering wheel more than 10 degrees.
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