Go West, Boomers! Day 11

Reporting from Vincennes, IN
LAT 38.39 N LON 87.3 W

What will most likely be the penultimate day of our trip began in the St. Louis area. We kicked things off at a sculptural park.

I’ve got something in my eye.

Bambi’s back and she’s pissed.

Then it was onto St. Louis proper. Wow, what a mess of a city! “St. Louis: We Gave Up”.

A sign bigger than a gas station.

A flying saucer that now houses fast food.

With all the visitors and a sportsball game going on, this was as close as we could get to the St. Louis Arch. We were planning to skip it anyway.

This is a bridge that goes to Chouteau Island, in the middle of the Mississippi. Took us a while to figure out how to get there.

Moving on to Illinois, and a great lunch. Roasted chicken and a smoked turkey salad. Both were great!

Moving thru Indiana, we found a dragon that actually breathes fire (as long as you pay for it).

Then the ”Madonna of the Trail”, a tribute to the women of the Cumberland Road.

Our final stop of the day was just across the border, in Vincennes, IN. A library with giant stuff:

Red Skelton was born in Vincennes. For your kids out there, Skelton was a famous comedian in the radio and early TV days. I remember his long running variety show, but to be honest I was never a fan. I do remember his sign off "good night and God bless".

Red as a kid.

Muffler Man and Uncle Sam, Saturday mornings on NBC!

With such a big lunch, we had a snack for dinner.

OK, time to crash. Tomorrow—all the way home (?) #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 10

Reporting from Warrenton, MO
LAT 38.49 N LON 91.8 W

Overall, today started well, but went downhill. I would call Missouri the "Show Me (the way out of this) State”.

We started off at the Johnson County Museum—incredibly impressive. There must be some money in this area to fund something like this. It includes an entire “all electric home” from the 50’s.

I’m pretty sure we had this color of counter-top when I was a little kid.

The painting slides back to display a TV. WANT!

There’s also a full-size neon sign from a local hotel.

We moved on to the National Museum of Miniatures and Toys. Two ladies had collections, and ran out of room in their respective homes. I was impressed!

Tiny rooms with even tinier furniture.

Regular and mini.

Of course, I was more interested in the toy collection.

ViewMasters—the Instagram of the analog era.

Stuff I had as a kid is in a museum? Yep, I’m old.

Sure, you got burns from them—but it was fun.

HOT WHEELS!

Moving on to the Truman Presidential Library. President Truman was a pivotal figure from the end of WW2 to the Korean War, along with the Berlin Airlift.

We grabbed a burger and tots just down the street from the Library.

As we continued the drive across the state, we ran into the “Cradle of Ragtime” at a train station

We then hurried to Jefferson City, in order to see the Missouri Capitol before they closed for the day. It was a bit of a letdown. Very impressive from the outside, but the interiors were in bad shape. Part of the place has been turned into a “state museum” that frankly wasn’t as good as the one we saw this morning. Both houses were closed and inaccessible. All the inside arches reminded me of a subway station. At least Mindy got a pencil from the Governor’s office.

At that point, we started to look for a place for the night. Mindy uses her phone to find a place each night, and we generally do pretty well. In this case, for whatever reason, we learned that hotels in Missouri are VERY overpriced. Like nearly double other states. There’s certainly very little drawing people here—just seems like profiteering. Anyway, after some driving and backtracking, we found a place that is decent and slightly better priced. We picked up some local pizza and sacked out.

Thin crust—almost cracker-like. We liked it.

Ehough for tonight. Tomorrow, St. Louis and parts east.

Go West, Boomers! Day 9

Reporting from Lenexa, KA
LAT 38.57 N LON 94.44 W

We began the day in Nebraska, and visited our 6th State Capital in Lincoln. It’s unique—Nebraska is unicameral, so there’s only the Senate. Also, the building doesn’t have a traditional dome—instead, it has a 14 story tower. You can actually go outside near the top. The place looks like a church inside—no metal detectors to be found. Ironically, the outside seems more like a prison.

A panorama on the 14th floor, near the top of the tower. Lots of black stone and murals.

View from the top.

Driving on, we ran into some wooden objects.

In a guy’s front yard. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a tree?

Replica of a Lewis & Clark boat. Very narrow and cramped.

After a quick sprint across the corner of Iowa, we found ourselves in Missouri. St. Joseph is the self-proclaimed “Pork Tenderloin Capital of the World”, so we shared one at a local dive.

A local resident.

BPT with homemade chips. Delish!

We jumped over the river to Kansas, where dinosaurs run wild.

Not Photoshopped.

Back to Missouri and Kansas City. We started with a castle tower in a residential neighborhood. A guy decided he wanted to build one, and I guess there was no HOA to stop him.

A treacherous spiral staircase takes you to the top.

The top includes a cannon, in case you have an issue with a neighbor.

Then it was onto KC proper. We had to have BBQ there, and found a place that started in a gas station (ambiance is inversely equivalent to quality in ‘que). After a 15 minute wait in line (and this was an early dinner), we got ribs, burnt ends, and a meat-centric salad. All were great.

The following are artistic installations in the downtown area. We decided to get to all of them tonight, so we didn’t have to go back into downtown again. The roads and traffic are a mess! (Of course, having a Chiefs game going on tonight didn’t help).

In the garment district, almost hidden.

Giant books at the library, with Mindy shown for scale. Took 15 minutes to find a place to park.

A replica of TWA’s “Moonliner” from Disneyland, on a random building. Perhaps it’s there because of…

…Walt’s original animation studio, pre-Disney. Can’t understand why the Mouse House doesn’t pay to have this abandoned building fixed up as a shrine!

One of several giant shuttlecocks at the art museum.

A glass labyrinth, possibly inspired by KC’s roads.

By that point, we were beat, and we headed to the Kansas side of the KC metro area for the night. Tomorrow, museums, libraries, and an electric house. #gowestboomers

Bayou Wedding Tour - Day 11

Reporting from Indianapolis, IN. We’re only a few hours from home, but we have found that if we make a final long dash we end up exhausted. So, here we are.

Today was Big Things Day, featuring the world’s largest <fill in the blank>.

Here’s the world’s SECOND largest rocking chair—why second? More in a minute.

Here’s a giant ice cream cone at an elementary school in Affton, MO for some reason.

Here’s the world’s largest chess piece, outside the Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis.

But the main event was Carey, IL—the world’s headquarters for the world’s largest objects.

Here’s a #2 (million).

So here’s the world’s largest rocking chair. It eclipsed the previous #1, so that’s considered the largest chair on Route 66.

Here’s the world’s largest see-saw (under construction).

The world’s largest FUNCTIONING wind chime.

The world’s largest mail box. You can even drop off actual mail inside.

The world’s largest (non-wearable) wooden shoes.

Mindy had some legal problems in town.

We hit a few balls at the links…

…and dropped by the Bunyan farm.

Why is this all in one small Illinois town? Because there’s a workshop that churns out massive working versions of various objects. I assume Batman villains frequent this place.

Meanwhile, at the closed giant objects factory, the Penguin is completing a purchase!

Well, we crashed early at the hotel. It’s been a long trip (but a lot of fun), and the final day is tomorrow.

Bayou Wedding Tour - Day 10

Reporting from Rolla, MO.

We’ve been in three states today, starting with Oklahoma, which offered us a cheery good morning.

There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow…

After some driving and possible wrong terms (we couldn’t get two GPS’s to agree), we found ourselves at the border of three states.

We then visited the Joplin Museum Complex, which is a strange assortment of random stuff that adds up to an interesting experience.

Joplin was founded on mining, so there’s a large exhibit on that.

Words to live by.

Dennis Weaver was born here. Chief? (something for the MSTies out there)

There’s a miniature circus exhibit and the…

Plus cats wander around the museum freely. All for $2 a head (yours, not the cats).

By then, it was time to eat. Open faced beef sammich, taco salad, and homemade pie from Granny Shaffer.

We had already planned to stop in Carthage to see Marlin Perkins’ statue (he of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom) when I read 20 minutes earlier that Jim Fowler (the guy who wrestled the wildebeest while Marlin had Mai-Tai’s in his tent) died today at 87. RIP

We then reached a second…well you know. This one was in a parking lot.

There’s a rest stop on I-44 (aka Route 66) that has miniature versions of attractions on the way.

When we saw the “World’s Largest Gift Store”, you know we had to stop. Bonus—Lucy’s old car. Where’s Fred and Ethel?

Yet another attraction is the Uranus Fudge Factory. Let the puns begin!

So we wound up in Rolla, which houses Stonehenge—at least a miniature version.

No one knows who they were, or what they were doing.

OK, that’ll do it. Wi-fi is giving out. More tomorrow.