Kansas City Museum

Today I spent most of my day in or around the Kansas City Museum. This was the home of Robert A. Long who earned his fortune milling yellow pine logs in Louisiana. He lived here with his wife and his two daughters. He was a church going, teetotaling family man. This mansion contains some of the family belongings but also art exhibits, music exhibits, Native American belongings and information, a billiard table, a place to play chess or checkers, and a cafe with food and drinks and alcohol. There is information about the neighborhoods in Kansas City, the railroads, the cattle processing, and the history of floods. Robert Lang had two daughters. His second daughter became a great equestrian winning races in the United States and overseas.

Robert Long was a generous philanthropist. He had millions and millions of dollars. Before he died he had given nearly all of it away to people in Kansas City. 

After the museum I walked around the neighborhoods for a couple of days. Kansas City is known for it's fountains.

 

Road Trip Map

 Here is an approximate map of the road trip. On, Jan. 3, I started in Duluth. I stayed in Des Moines, Iowa. January 5 and 6th I stayed in Independence, Kansas. I stayed in San Leon, Texas from Jan. 7 to Feb. 7th. Feb. 7th I moved to Lake Jackson, Texas for 2 nights. Feb. 8 to Feb. 13 I stayed in Austin, Texas. Feb. 14 to Feb. 27 I stayed on a Longhorn ranch in San Antonio. Feb. 28 until March 1st I stayed in Little Rock, Arkansas. March 1st to 3rd I stayed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. March 3rd to March 5th I stayed in Topeka, Kansas. March 5 to March 7th I stayed in Kearney, Nebraska. March 7th to March 11 I stayed in Minneapolis. Now I am home. A winter storm warning advises me to stay off the roads until Monday morning. Overall I would say it was a successful road trip. I had fun. I learned. I adapted. I solved problems. I figured things out. I saw lots of nature and birds. I met many fascinating people.

Home

 

Home, Home On The Range

This morning I bought coffee in Topeka and was on the road north and west by 7:30 in the morning. I chose a route that kept me in Kansas as long as possible. The drive through the Flint Hills was beautiful. I love those long and winding roads that make your stomach drop as I fly by at 60 miles per hour. Kansas has great roads. By noon I was in north west Kansas. I did not know that Smith County is the geological center of our nation. I stopped to eat lunch at this park. This is the cabin where the song "Home, Home On The Range" was composed.

This free park has a little nature trail.

Some of the signs were unreadable. The second bridge over the river was either broken or taken on land for the winter.

A tree fell over the trail. I sat on this tree for just a moment going forward and also coming back.

At 1 I entered Nebraska. At 2 I stopped to buy popcorn at a store. Girl Scouts were there so I had to buy a box for five dollars. Four out the four daisy or brownie girls plan to get their gold award. I walked around a local park and saw my first snow since January 3. I went two months and two days without seeing snow. I got to my very nice hotel in Kearney at 3 and proceeded to do laundry.

Then I went for a walk in the neighborhood and found this lovely trail. I walked for almost an hour along the river.

The sun is setting. I had good weather for driving today. I saw hawks and western meadowlarks and robins and horned larks and sand hill cranes and snow geese and red belllied woodpeckers and hairy woodpeckers.

 

Tall Grass Prairie National Park

In the distance you can see the one room school house at the top of the hill after I crossed the creek.

The night was loud here at the sketchy hotel in Topeka. I got up and left before dawn. My destination today was the Tallgrass Prairie National Park which is almost a ninety minute drive away. Half way there I tired of driving 75 miles per hour so I took a route that was 3 minutes faster. At first I was disappointed that the road was gravel.

Disappointment turned to joy once I caught sight of this barred owl. I kept taking pictures until it flew away.

I stopped for breakfast at Aunt Bee's restaurant. I felt better after two cups of coffee, two eggs and a biscuit. I arrived at the National Park just a few minutes after it opened. This visitor center was closed. I walked to the mansion. The park ranger said the video is in the barn. I watched the video in the barn and then took off for this nature trail which went through a stream. With wet feet I hiked up to the one room school house. The school was not open but I could peek in the windows. Bison roamed in the distance. I heard meadowlarks, red bellied woodpeckers, robins, American tree sparrows and northern flickers.

The national park app lets you arrange your photos into postcards. These are shots from inside the mansion.

I could watch buffalo roam for a long time. After changing shoes and eating lunch I hiked up the hill into the buffalo enclosure. I walked for 45 minutes. A couple of lady nurses were standing there talking. Buffalo had roamed over the road. They were afraid to go further. People stood on the road at the far end of the buffalo herd and they couldn't get back to head quarters. Once the buffalo started walking toward us we decided it was time to go. The two ladies were going to inform the park ranger that people appeared to be stuck on the road. I really enjoyed this national park. The picture that appears to be looking through a hole was taken when I pointed the lens of my telephone through a hole in the door of the barn.

 

Brown Versus The Board Of Education

This morning I hit the highway in Tulsa at 7:15 a.m. Traffic was heading south into town so I was lucky. Rain fell steadily until almost 11. I stopped to buy gas in Altoona when I saw this big rooster. Today I didn't count the skunks on the road but I did count 13 hawks, 3 Northern Harrier and 10 red-tailed hawks.

I arrived at Brown Versus The Board of Education National Park at 11:15. Two school buses full of children were here with their teachers. Having students of color see the exhibits at the same time I did made for a better experience.

We were watching a movie of a lynching. The teacher said one person hanging in the rope was a doll and one was an actual person. One black young man, taller than me, said "I can't watch this anymore." I silently agreed and left with him.

This artwork was located in the Colored Kindergarten room.

After I checked into my hotel I went to a local park for a walk. Mallards floated in the water.

This was also in the Colored Kindergarten room.

I went to the store to buy two postcards. The ranger asked if I was a teacher. I admitted I used to be a teacher. He gave me the teacher's discount.

This prairie was burned recently. I could still smell the smoke. I heard fox sparrows and tufted titmouse and red bellied woodpeckers and robins singing in here.

This kitchen was in the Colored Kindergarten room. When I got to my hotel it was sketchy. I saw my room and went back to the desk to ask for a lamp, the ice machine and the WIFI code. The man gave me the Wi-Fi code and said he thought I would cancel the booking as soon as I saw the room. He said the ice machine hasn't worked for 7 years. He carried a nice lamp to my room. I went to turn on the television and the batteries had been removed from the remote. Wow. Then I read the reviews on my next place, cancelled that stay, and rebooked another nicer hotel. Live and learn! I definitely need to get back in here tomorrow before sunset or my Honda Fit will turn into a pumpkin and my four new tires will turn into mice.

 

W

Last night I bought a ticket to the George W. Bush presidential library. I chose the last available time which was 3 p.m. I figured if I left Independence, Kansas by 9 I could make it to the library by 3.

Lucky for me I got up early and left at 8 a.m. I booked it through Kansas right quick.

I missed my chance to pay for a toll road in Oklahoma so  now I have to call them and pay over the phone. I got my first insect on my windshield over a river in Oklahoma.

I counted seeing 15 vultures, a handful of hawks, ducks and geese and other small birds. I saw horses, cows, sheep, goats and 3 deer carcasses on the road.

I ate lunch while driving. Some of the roads were 80 mph which is faster than I like to go.

Sometimes the highway had 8 lanes going in one direction. There was frequent road construction.

My knuckles were white!

This is a metal portion of the twin towers.

I got to the library at 2:30. I couldn't find a place to park. I stopped a young man of color for help. He offered me directions and said he was going there himself. So I offered him a ride. He is an engineering intern on campus and the Southern Methodist University is closed to students right now. He was very helpful. After that it was a six minute walk to the library and I got there 2 minutes early.

George W. is not my favorite president. I thought he was unnecessarily pugilistic and in favor of the big oil companies. I liked his father better.

But he wasn't all bad.

He had a sense of humor and I liked his self-deprecating style.

He appeared to be a good family man. He loved his daughters.

This is the view from the Rose Garden.

He tried to do things for the environment. He saved a big chunk of islands in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii.

He tried to help education but I am not sure that he did.

He could have been more helpful after Hurricane Katrina!

I liked Laura Bush.

She seems like a fine woman.

I liked his way of respecting tradition.

I thought trickle down economics was a bunch of malarky.

Living in the White House is difficult. They spent all their winter holidays at Camp David. George W. enjoys exercise as a way to blow off steam. Me too.

I think he did a fine job creating this library.

The staff were helpful and friendly.

I am glad I visited.

I think I will like the LBJ library better. My cousin says the LBJ library is good.

I read in a book about the hospital in New Orleans that George W.'s plane ride delayed the Coast Guard from rescuing people.

I enjoyed this 10 minute video about the oceans.

My hotel is on Airport Boulevard and there is construction all around here so I ordered Chinese food to be delivered. That broccoli and garlic dish was hot and spicy and every so good. I have two more meals of fried rice in the fridge plus another fortune cookie. Now I am super thirsty!