Tag: Lewis and Clark

QUOTABLE: “Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting.” ~ Amelia Earhart, who was born in Atchison, Kansas.

TOO FUNNY: To celebrate the 100th day of school, the assignment was to write about when you are 100 years old. Elementary school student Emma Knight wrote, “When I turn 100 years old I will be tired of everything & everyone. So I will tell everyone I’m going to Canada but accually go to the Bahamas. I’ll live in a tiny hut with my tiny dog. I will order fish tacos when I’m hungry & live my best life with no crap.” How do you get that kind of cynicism in elementary school, and what is adulting going to do to her??!!

On Monday, August 19, I was still hanging out in Rome, Georgia with Mom and Dad².  We met Aunt Pat and Emanual and Sharon Guglielmi at John Boy’s in Cartersville, Georgia, for lunch, then did a little shopping.  That was pretty much it. 

Meanwhile, MW was up and out early in order to get to his first stop when they opened.  Shocker…he found an air museum…the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in Ashland, southwest of Omaha.  He said it was really cool.  All of the aircraft are indoors, which is pretty amazing considering the size of some of them.  They are restored to look as they did when last flown, and are kept in immaculate shape.  There were a couple of things you don’t see very often, too, like a C-119 and a complete B-36 (which is often displayed without parts of the wings due to the width).  He sent me a pic of their SR-71 display (my favorite), which, unlike any other I’ve ever seen, was in the air as if flying.  There was also an EC-135, which was the airborne SAC command post.  Code named Operation Looking Glass, one of those planes was ALWAYS staffed and in the air for over 29 years from February 1961 to July 1990. On board was a battle staff of around 20 people and about a dozen to keep the plane flying. In the event of an attack, the former would assume control of the United States military response.  MW said the museum is definitely worth a look for military air buffs.

Here are a few other interesting things from the visit:

• In March 1949, a B-50 bomber named Lucky Lady II completed the historic first nonstop flight around the world. Several refueling crews were part of that secret mission, and one Strategic Air Command KB-29 crashed into a mountain northeast of Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines just after refueling Lucky Lady II. All nine souls on board were lost, and there is a memorial at this museum to them…Capt. William G. Fuller, Capt. William W. Taylor, 1st Lt. William S. Regales, 1st Lt. Robert C. McCormick, 1st Lt. Edwin W. Ryan, S/Sgt. Arthur W. Stear, S/Sgt Andrew J. Brooks, S/Sgt Fred L. Shepherd, and Lt. Col. Jack S. Hunt.

• Flying an SR-71 wasn’t like piloting your average airplane. The extreme speed and altitude created a lot more pressure and heat, requiring special equipment. The crews wore suits, gloves, and helmets that kept them alive. In addition to communicating and breathing, they could also eat and drink without removing their helmets. Too cool!

• During the Cold War U-2s and SR-71s were particularly important for gathering information on our enemies. In 1960 a U-2 departed from Pakistan on a secret CIA mission to fly all the way across the Soviet Union, photographing strategic targets along the way. The Soviets made several attempts to stop the plane crossing at 70,000′, and finally hit it with an S-75 Dvina surface-to-air missile. Pilot Francis Gary Powers was thrown from the spinning plane unexpectedly before activating the camera’s self-destruct mechanism. Captured immediately, Powers was taken to prison in Moscow. Unfortunately the plane and much of its equipment survived the crash, so the U.S. story about a weather plane that strayed off course didn’t fly. Following months of interrogation, Powers confessed to violating Soviet airspace and apologized, although he continued to give inaccurate information about the plane’s capabilities. He was convicted of espionage in 1960 and sentenced to 10 years, 7 to be served in a labor camp. While initially portrayed as a hero in the American press, the CIA would later question whether Powers had actually defected. They opposed the 1962 prisoner trade deal that eventually brought him home, but President Kennedy approved it. That wasn’t the end, though. It wasn’t until after extensive questioning by the CIA and the Senate Armed Services Select Committee, that it was decided he acted appropriately and with honor. Afterwards Powers worked for Lockheed for several years before becoming a broadcast helicopter pilot covering traffic, weather, and police and fire reports. Sadly, it was another crash that ended his life when his helicopter went down in Encino, California. The 47-year-old is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Finally back on the road, MW zig-zagged over to US-75, passing through Auburn and turning east near Dawson.  He headed south again on US-73, then east over to Rolo, before following the river road, which became KS-7 as he crossed the state line.  At Atchison, he crossed the Missouri River into the state of the same name and turned south, ending his day at Lewis & Clark State Park near Rushville. 

On Tuesday, Mom, Dad², and I went to breakfast at Landmark Family Restaurant before I headed south to the airport and my flight to Kansas City International.  Except for having to stand in line for about 35 minutes to get through security, everything went smoothly, so I was thinking MW’s “terrible return” prediction was wrong.  That is until I got to the gate and realized that my camera was still in the back floorboard of the rental car.  Oh…My…Gosh!!!!  Assuming they found it, there was absolutely no way I could get all the way back there and make my flight.  I called MW, and he jumped online and submitted the necessary report.  Meanwhile I boarded the plane, angry at myself for not checking more closely. Neither of us held out much hope of getting it back.

On the flight out, I had the window seat on an aisle of three.  The couple who sat beside me were co-workers, pulling out spreadsheets and notes for an upcoming meeting as soon as they sat down.  As time passed, I realized that they were also a couple, either newly dating or having an affair.  She sat in the center seat, turned towards him for the entire flight, and both were WAAAYYYY too giggly for their age.  Neither acknowledged my presence until I had to go to the bathroom.  Then they accepted my apology, but were clearly irked at the interruption.  In anticipation of another two hours of isolation, I kept my computer out for this flight to get some work done.  I didn’t need it, though.  I met the most AMAZING young woman named Valerie.  She is a veterinarian of both large and small animals, and one of the few in the country that can work with poultry.  I had no idea.  We talked about family, jobs, bird flu, race and gender issues in a white male dominated field, the challenges young people from less fortunate walks of life face getting into veterinary medicine, and the non-profit she and her husband created to mentor and support those kids.  Her face lit up when she talked about what she is building there, and I found her fascinating.  In no time at all we were landing. She introduced me to her husband out at the concourse, and we traded contact information.  I sure hope we cross paths again.

The Kansas City airport was a breeze to navigate, and I made it outside in good time. MW was already waiting at the cellphone lot and took me to supper at Roxanne’s Cafe in Platte City, Missouri, on the way back to the campground. It is always good to be back in my own space with my person.

On Wednesday morning I headed out for a walk and was greeted by an amazing sky. Our campsite overlooks a mature field of soybeans and is pretty peaceful despite a road across the way. This park has an interpretive trail dedicated to Lewis and Clark, who stayed in this area on July 4, 1804, on a nearby stream they christened Independence Creek. The expedition followed the Missouri River west from the Mississippi in 1804, then returned along the same route two years later. Although an easy Northwest Passage was not found, the journey was the first for Euro-Americans to ascend the length of the Missouri River. Along the way they met almost 50 Indian nations and recorded over 300 plants and animals that had never been described before. One interesting thing about this park is that it is on an oxbow lake. Well…it used to be. I explained the whole oxbow thing here, but this one has an interesting twist. A few years ago the nearby Missouri River flooded the area. The resulting mud and silt brought in by the flood waters displaced the water in Lewis and Clark Lake, the oxbow. When everything receded, there was no more lake. Foliage quickly filled it all in, so now the oxbow overlook is a great vantage point to look at a giant field. Pretty interesting. I explored and took park pics for an hour or so, before getting cleaned up. BTW…REALLY missing my camera, but the iPhone isn’t bad unless you need to zoom in on something.

We headed over to Saint Joseph, Missouri, for a little sightseeing. First up, a memorial at Missouri Western State University to one of my favorite voices…Walter Cronkite, “The Most Trusted Man In America”. The smooth talker was born in St. Jo in 1916, later moving with his family to Kansas City, then Houston. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where Eli Wallach was a classmate, but dropped out after 2 years to pursue journalism. During WWII, Cronkite tested his mettle as a war correspondent, serving aboard the USS Texas (the same one parked at San Jacinto in Texas now) for Operation Torch in North Africa, flying in B-17s for bombing raids over Germany as part of The Writing 69th, landing with the 101st Airborne in a Waco glider for Operation Market Garden, and covering both the Battle of the Bulge, and later, the Nuremberg trials. He provided the first nationally televised coverage of both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 1952, a job he held for political conventions for decades except 1964, when the networks lost their minds and replaced him, a mistake they quickly rectified. Walter anchored lots of shows over the years, but what everyone my age remembers is him sitting behind the CBS news desk. There he became our trusted voice. In 1963, he introduced us to the Beatles on the CBS Morning News, a report that was pre-empted on the CBS Evening News that night as he contained his own emotions to tell us that our President had been assassinated. He kept us up-to-date on wars, the economy, and everything else going on in the world, good and bad. He told us about the moon landing and Armstrong’s “giant leap” in 1969, shouting “man on the moon!” with so much excitement, joy, pride, and awe that every American felt we were right there with them. Although he retired from the news anchor job at CBS in March 1981, he continued to do special reports and host a variety of shows and events through 2008, three years after the death of his lovely wife of 65 years, Betsy, and one year before his own death at the age of 92. Several years ago MW and I went to The Little White House, President Roosevelt’s retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia. The film there was narrated by Cronkite, and I felt such a sense of nostalgia that it brought tears to my eyes. Today we can’t believe anything we see on the news, but then, if Walter said it, you knew that he believed it. He was a treasure. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear that voice on our news today…”and that’s the way it is”. *Sigh*

“Of all humankind’s achievements in the twentieth century…the one event that will dominate the history books a half a millennium from now will be our escape from our earthly environment and landing on the moon. …The first landing on the moon was, indeed, the most extraordinary story of our time.” ~ Walter Cronkite, “A Reporter’s Life” 1996

After a quick lunch at Bandana’s BBQ, our next stop was the Pony Express National Museum downtown. Founded by William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell to provide express mail delivery to the prospectors in California, the famed service ran from Saint Joseph to Sacramento. The first rider, Johnny Fry originally from Kentucky, headed west on April 3, 1860, at 7:15 PM. The trip took 10 days, which many maintained could not be done. Other options for delivery were steamships to Panama with mail taken overland to the Pacific an put on another ship (4 weeks), ships sailing around Cape Horn (3 months), and stagecoach (21-23 days). The quick method was costly, though, with postage of $5 per 1/2 ounce (later $2.50 and finally $1 by mid-1861). To accomplish the task 184 stations, 400 horses, 80 riders, and several hundred support personnel were required. Riders no heavier than 125 pounds carried one revolver, water, and the mochila (a specially-designed, locking mail pouch). A typical leg was 75 to 100 miles, dodging hostile Indians and bad weather and changing mounts at each swing station. At the end of their work day, riders stayed at the home station until the next day when they would retrace their route for the return leg. Despite the need for the service, the Pony Express never made a profit and went bankrupt as soon as telegraph lines were completed across the country in 1862. The museum is located in the actual Pony Express Stables in St. Jo where the first ride began. It includes exhibits on the company and all aspects of the 1,996-mile trail, plus pioneers and other related stuff. One of the more famous riders was Buffalo Bill Cody, who as a 14-year-old rode the section between Red Buttes and Three Crossings, Wyoming.

INTERESTING NOTE: Every Pony Express rider had to swear an oath…”I, __________, do hearby swear, before the great and living God, that during my engagement, and while I am an employee of Russell, Majors and Waddell, I will under no circumstances, use profane language, that I will drink no intoxicating liquors, that I will not quarrel or fight with any other employee of the firm and that in every respect I will conduct myself honestly, be faithful to my duties, and so direct all my acts as to win the confidence of my employers. So help me God.”

Our last stop in town was the house where, as the song says, “…that dirty little coward that shot Mister Howard, he laid poor Jesse in his grave.” Jesse James and brother Frank began crossing over to the dark side long before they fronted their notorious gang. During the Civil War, they were guerrillas, following “Bloody Bill” Anderson, Quantrill, and others who murdered civilian Union sympathizers and scalped the dead. After the war, Missouri was deeply divided and in turmoil, when it is thought that the James brothers participated in multiple robberies and associated murders with Archie Clement’s gang. Later the brothers joined up with the Youngers (Cole, John, Jim, and Bob) and others to form the James-Younger Gang. Much has been written about them, often romanticizing the gang and making them out to be the Robin Hoods of the west. However, the fact is they were brutal murderers with at least 18 deaths attributed directly to Jesse and others to Frank, and there is no evidence that they shared any of the stolen loot outside of the gang or in any way used the money for good. These were BAD guys, BUT Bob Ford was no better. By 1876, the gang had been whittled down in gunfights with authorities and arrests. Frank and Jesse were the only ones left. They fled Missouri, turning up in Nashville, Tennessee, as Thomas Howard and B. J. Woodson. Frank was content to settle in, but by 1879, the restless Jesse had recruited a new gang and began robbing trains. It didn’t last long and ended with James suspicious of other members and suspected of killing one. By 1881, their activities were drawing the attention of local authorities, so it was time to move on. Jesse took his family to Saint Joseph in November of that year, and Frank headed to Virginia. In his new life, Jesse trusted few, but Charley Ford had ridden with Jesse in the past, and his brother Robert (Bob) was a new recruit. For security, they often stayed at Jesse’s 1318 Lafayette Street home with his family. On the morning of April 3, 1882, having just finished breakfast with the whole family, the three men were in the living room preparing to leave for a robbery in Platte City. Bob, having been in contact with the Governor about the $10,000 reward for Jesse, saw the opportunity to collect when his cohort stepped up on a chair to straighten/dust a picture. He shot the unarmed Jesse in the head just behind his right ear, then fled the house. The Ford brothers never collected much of the reward and both ended badly. Initially, after being acquitted by the Governor, they openly celebrated the murder in a touring stage reenactment. Thanks to dime novels and a general fascination with outlaws, public sentiment was divided on whether they were heroes or cowards and traitors. Charley committed suicide 2 years after Jesse died. Some say it was due to ill health, but others believed he just couldn’t live with the guilt. Eight years later Bob took a shotgun blast to the throat from Ed O’Kelley that killed him instantly. He never said why he did it, but the public was so happy about Bob’s death that over 7,000 people signed a petition to commute O’Kelley’s sentence. Today you can tour the house, which was moved twice ending up in the current location in 1977. For years there were rumors that Jesse James faked his own death to evade the law. In 1995, that theory was blown when his body was exhumed and tested by a team of forensic experts. DNA compared with that of known descendants proved with 99.7% certainty to be that of the infamous outlaw. Case closed.

After a little relaxing back at Priscilla, we headed out for a little more fun in the afternoon, meeting friends Shawn and Laura Faulkner at The Suburban (terrific food and drink) in Leavenworth, Kansas, for supper. (MW and I went to high school with Shawn.) As always, it was great to catch up. Stay tuned, because they are likely to show up on a future Great Adventure for a Booger!

Lewis & Clark State Park is a pretty nice, basic park with lots of grass and shade. Located near Rushville, Missouri, it was an easy drive to Leavenworth, Atchison, and Kansas City. Facilities include a park office, picnic area, playground, pavilion, hiking trails, a dump station, the interpretive trail, and shower trailers. The campground currently offers around 70 sites with a mix of pull-through and back-in. Most have electricity, and some are 50-amp. However, much of this will change as they are doing extensive renovations over this winter that include removing a lot of the beautiful shade trees. On the plus side, they will be adding a full-fledged bath house. Cell signals and over-the-air tv were both strong, and we really enjoyed the peace and quiet. We will visit again when in the area to see how the renovation turns out. For this visit in August 2024 we paid a little over $29 per night.

We awoke Thursday to an amazing, pink and purple sky. It was, once again, moving day, but we only had 3 hours or so to drive. We headed out later than usual, pulling out of the park at around 10 AM.  We jogged north to MO-116, which later became MO-H. In Plattsburg, Missouri, we stopped in at the China Restaurant for a quick lunch, then continued east and hit US-65 south and MO-41 east over to Arrow Rock and our next stop…Arrow Rock State Historic Site.

Friday was chores and catch-up, but first I took a walk around the park, enjoying the beautiful weather. Later I headed over to Marshall, Missouri, to take care of the laundry. There were two options for laundromats, but when I got to the first location…no laundromat. Hmmmm…on to the second. Well, that one was no longer in business, and the Dairy Queen next door was using their parking lot for pickups. Before driving 30 miles to the next town, I decided to revisit option one. After circling around for a bit, I found it on a different corner than the GPS indicated. One car was leaving when I arrived, but otherwise the place was empty. I’ve said before that I prefer doing laundry at laundromats instead of having an onboard washer/dryer, and overwhelmingly, it is a pleasant experience. However, this was not one of those days. Although the machine insides were clean, nothing else in the place was. There was dust and dirt everywhere, and I mostly stood around or sat outside waiting rather than touch stuff. My time there was extended when one of the washers filled with water but didn’t actually wash, causing me to have to transfer and start over. I gritted my teeth and got out of there as quickly as possible, but I confess to leaving a note for the owner that they should be ashamed to keep a business in that condition. It costs almost nothing to simply clean stuff up! Before heading back to the campground, I sat at Taco Bell writing for a while.

Saturday dawned grey and VERY rainy, but I was too excited to worry about it. We were going to tour a ranch and see GIANT horses. Warm Springs Ranch in Boonville, Missouri, is home to the famous Budweiser Clydesdales. I remember seeing them in person as a child and being fascinated by the gargantuan beauties so full of grace pulling that amazing wagon. So how did the iconic tradition get started? In 1933 August Jr. and Adolphus Busch III gave their father, August A. Busch, Sr., a gift to celebrate the repeal of prohibition…a team of six Clydesdales (called a hitch) with a restored, turn-of-the-century beer wagon. Dad was overjoyed, and the marketing potential was immediately apparent. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see those guys pass by??!! From there, the famous equine team grew from six to eight horses and today there are actually FOUR hitches, each with two extra horses to provide breaks and a Dalmatian mascot. They travel the country at least 10 months out of every year, strutting their stuff and making everyone smile at hundreds of appearances. To make that happen, specialized teams control their grooming and diet. Each hitch travels in three specialty tractor trailers, and the drivers are horse specialists who go to truck driving school…the team is the primary focus always. As it turns out, becoming an actual BUDWEISER clydesdale is tougher than you might think, too. This 300+ acre farm is their breeding facility, and that happens with a lot of help. In fact, these horses have prenatal care to rival the best human doctors, including regular sonograms and checkups. They typically have around 70 horses on site ranging from foals to adults. When the time comes to do the deed, the sire and dam are brought to the Breeding Room where nature takes its course about 90% of the time. (For the other 10%, science assists.) After that, everyone goes back out into the fields. When Mom’s time gets near, she is brought back into the barn where she will stay until well after the colt is born. Just being born into the family, though, doesn’t make you an heir. To earn a spot in a hitch, the colt must grow into a large, strong specimen standing 18 hands at the withers and weighing between 1,800 and 2,300 pounds at 4 years old. He must also be a bay (reddish-brown with black mane and tail) and have four white stockings and a white face blaze. Overall, this tour was really cool, and I always love getting close to giant horses. Check it out if you are in the area.

Before heading back, we stopped in at The Brew Brothers at the Isle of Capri Casino in Boonville for lunch, which was excellent. Then we headed over to check out Arrow Rock. First noted on a map in 1755 by the French, this site was later mentioned by both the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804 and the Yellowstone Expedition in 1819. The town, positioned along the Santa Fe Trail, was first named New Philadelphia, but later became Arrow Rock, which came from the Indians’ use of the outcropping flint to sharpen arrows. Many buildings dating back to the early to mid-1800s are still standing in use, and the Lyceum Theatre, converted from the old Arrow Rock Baptist Church in 1961, still runs a full season of shows. We walked around checking out the shops and stopped in for ice cream too. Then it was time to head back to Priscilla to relax.

Sunday we attended services at the Arrow Rock Federated Church, then headed over to Marshall for lunch at Bloomfield’s Family Restaurant.

Unlike most of the parks we stay at, Arrow Rock State Historic Site is actually the town of Arrow Rock. There are historic buildings, stores, restaurants, a theater, churches, and lots of houses in the little community with lots to see. There are also trails, a picnic area, a pavilion, a playground, fishing on Big Soldier Lake, and a lovely campground with 30- and 50-amp electric and non-electric sites. There are also vault toilets, a shower house, wood sales, and a dump station. Facilities were clean and well-maintained, and the grounds were very nice. Cell signals were nonexistent, as was over-the-air tv, but we really liked the campground and the little town. For this visit in August 2024, we paid a bit over $24 per night.

Well there you have it…another week down. Next up…Friends, Family, And Preparing For A Navy Invasion

Talisa

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