As we left our hotel in West Des Moines, we drove onto Mills Civic Parkway and saw a Scooters coffee across the street from a Caribou coffee. We chose Caribou and turned onto Interstate 35 heading south. Within a few miles, we were out of the city and back travelling through the green Iowa countryside. I liked that the city was so close to the country. I regretted that we had not seen more of Des Moines.
We charted a course to Abilene, Kansas, where we planned to see the Eisenhower Presidential Museum. I am not sure how I missed this, but Interstate 35 runs due south through Osceola, Van Wert and Decatur City and then right into Missouri. Surprise.... we were going to Missouri.
Just over the Missouri border, near Eagleville, we stopped at the Missouri welcome center. To say this was a welcome center or rest stop does not do the place justice. The usual brochures and local displays were there but also a beautiful mural depicting all things Missouri. Just off the parking lot there was an open field planted with flowers and grass. Amid all the plants was a herd of bronze buffalo. We spent some time wandering among the bronze herd. You could almost imagine what the plains must have looked like centuries ago.
Once on the road, we realized we would not make the Eisenhower Museum that day. It was 340 miles to Abilene, and the museum closes at 3:30. We needed a Plan B. Now that we were in Missouri, we looked at what we could see around Kansas City. There was the Jesse James home. That looked interesting. But, wait..... Independence, MO is the home of the
Truman Presidential Library and Museum, We had started the day thinking we were going to Kansas to see Eisenhower, but now we were on our way to Independence and Truman.
It was a stroke of luck. I really enjoy the presidential libraries. They tell the story of the president and his family and the challenges of the day. We gladly spent half a day at the Truman Library. The next day we continued on to Kansas and, fair is fair, spent a half day at the
Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. Both the Truman and Eisenhower libraries were incredible educational experiences and both, for very different reasons, quite moving.
Now, I could write alot about these presidential libraries, the men, the families and their times. But, I will let the Truman and Eisenhower statues get to the heart of it. Both libraries are planned with bronze statues of the presidents outside the library. The Truman bronze is modestly larger than he was in real life -- his bronze statue standing maybe a foot taller than his real life 5'9" -- and blends in nicely with the surrounding library grounds. The former clothing salesman and last president without a college degree is seen engaging others with a congenial tip of the hat. After playing some piano, Harry even had time to stroll the grounds with me.
It is a completely different scene over at the Eisenhower Library. The bronze Ike is raised on a pedestal and dominates the Library entrance and grounds. No blending in here and no mistaking that Eisenhower was a five star general, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, and oh yeah, president too. Like our visit to the Truman Library, our time at the Eisenhower Library was an incredible experience.
We stayed at the Eisenhower Library until closing time. Then it was time to hit the road. Where would we go?
At this point, all planning was on the fly, which suited me but drove Marcia nuts. After leaving Cedar Rapids, we had no reservations and had not even settled on a route back to Pasadena. We had "discovered" the Truman Library, then made it to Topeka for the night. Eisenhower was the last must see stop for the trip and there was nothing else to do in Abilen, KS.
After toying with heading back to Colorado, we settled on Albuquerque as our next desitnation. So, from Abilene, we drove west on the 70 for a bit, then turned south at Salina. We got stopped for gas in Liberal, KS, home of the
Liberal Bee Jays.
We were in farm country, but this farm country was flat and dry -- very different than what we saw in Nebraska or Iowa. Then, occasionally the countryside bloomed. Below is a sunflower farm that was so stunning, we stopped to admire the acre upon acre of flowers.
The day was wearing on. The car was pointed toward New Mexico, but we would need to stop for the night. As night fell, we were weary of traveling for the day.
As we crossed from Kansas into the Oklahoma, it looked to me like the panhandle was a tough place to live. Through the dimming light, I could see more than a few abandoned buildings and from my air conditioned car I knew it was both very hot and very dry outside. It was dark as we pulled into Guymon, which is the largest city in the panhandle with 13,000 people. We found our hotel, which in the light of the next morning turned out to be next to a junk yard.
On to New Mexico.
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