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.