May 20, Wednesday: Abilene, Kansas

Today will be the third leg of my Presidential Tour.  The strong winds blew all night with occasional rain.  The rain stopped long enough for me to unplug the electric and I headed southwest to Abilene, Kansas -- Eisenhower's boyhood home, museum, library and gravesite.  I stopped at the visitor center to get my ticket for the house tour and watch a 20 minute film about Ike.  The museum was very large with the majority of exhibits about "General" Eisenhower and a very broad look at WWII.  The displays were traditional old-time museum, demanding a lot of reading.  It could use some updating and some better lighting!

Jack and I visited this room in Rhiems where Germany signed the WWII surrender.

While reviewing the WWII displays, especially about the D-Day Invasion, Battle of the Bulge, and the German surrender at Rheims, I couldn't help but remember that only a year ago we were actually touring these sites in person!

I spent a couple of hours in the museum, touring the home and visiting the gravesites in the small chapel.  The Abilene house was their home before he became President. They retired to a farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

old time stove in the kitchen

Eisenhower Graves

Afterwards, I drove due north to visit the Hollenberg pony Express Station.  The visitor center had a small museum that explained the building, still on its original foundation, had long been a stop on the Oregon Trail with limited sleeping quarters, a store, and tavern.  It was contracted as one of the Pony Express stops where the riders would change horses and continue their journey.  Even though the Pony Express is a favorite story of the Old West, it was only in existence 18 months before the telegraph and poor financials put it out of business.

They did not identify what this trap door was for -- cool storage or a place to hide during Indian attack like we used to see in the old Westerns?

Driving west, I found a place to stay just over the Nebraska line in a small city park for free!  The park is very nice with concrete pads, water and electricity that will come in handy as it will be getting cool tonight and I will need the space heater.  I backed into my site, centered on the concrete pad and didn't hit the electric post or water spigot.  Life is good.  No WiFi or television, but I do have that 1,000 page Truman book I bought at the book shop at the Truman Museum in Independence to keep me busy.

May 19, Tuesday: Truman and Independence

Stayed at a local RV park last night in Independence, Missouri so I could return to see the historic downtown and the Truman house.

Although Independence literally runs nonstop into Kansas City, the historic downtown still has a great small-town feel.

 I stopped at the visitor center and watched a movie about his life and then walked the half mile to the Truman Home.  It was originally his wife, Bess' family home where Harry and Bess stayed when they were in town.  After his mother-in-law passed away, Harry bought the home from the other heirs, making it the first time he had owned a home.  The home was built in the 1860's and added on in the 1880's -- an old, comfortable, modest home.  Everything in the home is original just as it was left by the Truman's.  They had retired to this home and lived out the rest of their lives here.

Across the street was Harry's cousin's home were he stayed when courting Bess as he was living 20 miles south helping his family out on their farm.  This house was turned into a mini-museum with a lot of photos and posters tracing Harry Truman's life.  Also across the street was a small brick home where the Secret Service lived and, according to stories, were bored out of their minds.

There was a walking trail through the downtown area, highlighting places that were part of the Trumans' life, but I was running out of time and so left down about 11:30, heading west.  Just a few blocks from the historic downtown, I spotted this unusual church spire, so I detoured to find out a bit more about it - it is a non-denominational Christian church that had a huge campus.  To me, it looked like the church steeple belonged in the munchkin land of the Wizard of Oz.

I took Interstate 70 just to get around downtown Kansas City, but got off onto US 24 that parallels the interstate just north, going through rolling farmland and a few small farm towns, each centered around a huge grain elevator.  Stopped outside Topeka for lunch, and then continued west through Kansas.  I stopped at an army corps of engineer campground on Milford Lake - the largest lake in Kansas.  Unfortunately, it clouded up and started raining and the wind picked up, so getting a great campsite right on the lake wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been.  Very proud of myself for backing into the campsite, staying in the designated driveway area and not putting the RV into the Lake!

May 18, Monday - Across Missouri and the Truman Library & Museum

Yesterday, Sunday, I spent a long, boring day driving through western Tennesse, western Kentucky, and north through central Illinois and then west into Missouri.  I tried to get a photo of the Arch in St. Louis, but driving and photo taking is not a good combination....

I stopped for the night about 20 miles west of St. Louis - almost 400 miles.  Spent the night in an upscale casino parking lot.  Of course, I visited the casino (I make a habit of visiting them once every two or three years) and lost $20 on the slot machines.  It was fun because they had lots of 1 cent machines to keep me busy and it took almost two hours to lose my $20.  I am not the kind of RV customer they hope to attract with their free overnight parking.

The lot had other RVs and lots of tractor trailers with security patrolling regularly.  Not very scenic, but safe and convenient.

Today I drove an hour or so on I70 before dropping south to travel US 50 along the Missouri River - pretty farm country.  I traveled the the state east or west with my destination for the day the second part of my Presidential tour being Independence, Missouri to visit Truman's home and museum/library.

 The museum made me realize just how many world crises Truman faced.  He, like Andrew Johnson, was vice president to a president who died in office, although Roosevelt was not expected to live out his full fourth term and the democratic party considered Truman a compromise candidate that wings of the party could live with as President.

Truman's famous desk sign.

Truman's Oval Office

Truman inherited the problem of dropping the bomb on Japan, negotiating with Russia the end of WWII and getting Europe and our country back on solid economic footing in peacetime.  It was a huge task to turn our economy from a war production machine to a peactime economy serving all of the returning servicemen coming home, getting married, looking for housing and starting families.

As part of the return to peacetime, they had this display.  I am really old -- I remember the TV console, we had the exact same kitchen table and icebox....

Truman also had to deal with the growing Communist threat in Russia and China, the development of the Cold War, deciding whether to recognize the new state of Israel and jeopardize our oil supplies from Arab countries, the initiation of the Korean War in response to Russian and Chinese support of North Korea's invasion of South Korea (the Truman Doctrine), and early civil rights movements that splintered the Democratic party.  Although his approval rating when he left office after the end of his second (first elected) term was in the low 30's, current reviewers and critics have given him much higher marks.

Truman had a lot on his plate....

Truman and his wife, Bess as well as his daughter and her husband all buried here.

May 16, 2015: Across Tennessee

After spending an hour or so driving through the Cherokee National Forest with beautiful views, got onto Interstate 40 where it started clouding up and raining.  Some pretty scenery with the Blue Ridge Mountains off to my left, but mostly a boring drive as there were few alternatives to the interstate in this area.  Stopped for the night at a campground in the boondocks north of Interstate 40 with full hookups and even WiFi so I could finally access the internet and start the blog.

May 14-15, 2015: I'm On The Road, Again! The Start of the Presidential Leg

After a tearful goodbye, I headed off in the RV to attend my nephew's graduation in Colorado, while Jack stayed "back at the ranch" so he could attend Zach's graduation in North Carolina.  I started my trip by heading up to High Point, NC to exchange some LED lights I had purchased online for the RV so the owner could make sure I was getting the right ones this time.  He wasn't going to be available until Friday morning, so I stayed in a town a few miles up the road.  Stopped at a nice park in town overlooking a popular fishing lake to have dinner, then back to the local WalMart for a bit of shopping.

Next morning, I headed to the shop and the owner got me all squared away and back on the road through the Blue Ridge Mountain towns of Grandfather Mountain, Boone, Blowing Rock and Banner Elk, NC and on into Tennessee.  Rhododendron was in bloom and was gorgeous in purples and pinks.

I stopped at Andrew Johnson's home in Greeneville, Tennessee a bit late in the afternoon.  Found a place to park and visited the multiple components of this National park.   They have a small museum in the visitor center, his original tailor shop, his first home in Greeneville (born in Raleigh, NC) and his retirement home.

Andrew Johnson's Original Tailor Shop

The interior of the Tailor Shop with the statue of Andrew Johnson just visible in outside the window

Johnson's first home in Greeneville

The parlor in the Retirement Home

Johnson's grandchild's bedroom

Johnson's Retirement Home in Greeneeville

For the trivia minded folks, here are some interesting items about Andrew Johnson:

His father died when he was a toddler in Raleigh, NC, and his mother apprenticed him for six years to a tailor where he learned the trade.  He got into trouble with a neighbor for throwing rocks when he was about 12 and ran away, with the tailor posting a reward for his capture and return.  He finally settled in Greeneville, Tennessee as a older teenager, working as tailor.  He married, his education entirely self-taught, and involved himself in politics through state legislature, Governor, U.S. Senator and eventually chosen by Abraham Lincoln to be his running mate (Democrat).  He became president in 1865 and mostly continued Lincoln's legacy, but angered the Republican legislature so badly with his strict constitutional views about primacy of state's rights after the end of the Civil War, the House impeached him, but the Senate acquitted him by ONE vote.  He was the only President to get back into politics after leaving the Presidency and won election to the US Senate.  Interesting stuff.

My plans for a campground was in the Cherokee National Forest, but I did not know it was way in the forest in the mountains via a twisting, mountainous road.  Made it okay, got the last site available, only to find I had no phone service and knew Jack would be worried.  Luckily, text messaging worked even without enough strength for a phone call and we chatted that way.  Nice evening in the woods, listening to a rushing river just down the hill.