Greetings one and all! We left a little earlier this year, November 1st. Just in time to hit some great weather. Halloween was cold 30 degrees! .So we were thinking we needed to hi-tale it south to get out of the cold. But you know what they say about making plans… it’s a must, but they never quite work out. Somewhere in mid Illinois our GPS had a minor fit and “Lady Garmin” as we affectionally call her, stopped cold dead. “ Does anyone really know what direction it is, does anyone really care…” you could almost hear her singing that famous Chicago tune. We managed to awaken her with a simple request; head to Sedona… and she did, but across Kansas which is west not south. By the time we figured out what had happened [and fixed the GPS too] we were entering the prairie state. Coincidentally, [if you believe in coincidences that is] the weather warmed to an unseasonably pleasant temperature, so we thought , what the hell, lets check this state out.
And so we did.
We had never seen this state before but did have a list of interesting things to see and do.
Of course one MUST go to the Oz Museum while in Kansas. True to form, it is filled with literally thousands of items touting the famous movie. From salt shakers to cookie jars you can find virtually anything made in the form of some Oz character. There were some fine displays of the main movie characters too. But did you know the author of this famous tale wrote many books about the land of Oz? There were whole sets …, maybe 14 books in a series too. L. Frank Baum wrote many Children’s books including the Mother goose tales! Who knew??
It was unintended irony that our next stop was the Eisenhower Library, boy hood home and museum. OK so Ike wasn’t green and never flew in a balloon, but he was adored by most people and certainly delivered the nation from peril at a turning point in World History. After graduating from West Point in
1914 he served his military career as a tank commander, a leader, a diplomate, and head of logistics. Just the background he needed to launch the most complicated armada in history! He rose to a general by 1940. Imagine if you will, Pearl Harbor has been attacked, the Japanese are conquering Asia; Europe has fallen, England in on its knees and your commanding officer calls YOU into his office and says, “I want you to plan an invasion of France for 160,000 men, ships, planes and tanks. Don’t forget you will have to supply them all and make artificial harbors too. By the way this is top secret. You have 2 years”. And you, a young man of 45-50 say, “yes I can do than, Sir”. What does it take to have that kind of confidence? What were you doing at the age of 45? As President he went on to end the Korean war, establish the interstate highway system, began the integration of southern schools, and started NASA. No one is perfect, but as we left his museum that afternoon, we thought he might be called the George Washington of our time. The parallels are certainly present.
Not to miss out on other great things we spent some time in the Walter Cronkite memorial exhibit [he was born only 50 miles from Eisenhower’s boyhood town] and a very cool tribute to the care of the
mentally ill in St. Joseph, KS. But truly, the greatest was the Worlds Largest ball of binder twine… all 2700 pounds of it… must be the pride of Kansas. It seems like every little town has a museum of some kind. After all, as one native put it, “well there isn’t a lot to do in Kansas you know.” However S.P. Dinsmoor found something to do. At the age of 64 [he was a civil war veteran] he decided to quit farming and build a mansion in the little town of Lucas. To fund it he created a tourist attraction called the Garden of Eden creating the biblical story out of towering cement figures each with their own story. Every window in his house were
purposely made a different size… again to attract paying visitors [ not a lot to do in Kansas]. And in 1906 they came willing to pay $1.00 each to see this marvel, or $35.00 in todays coin. Adam and Eve, the snake, yes all the hits are there. He worked on the garden for 20 years. At 81 he married for the second time to a 22 year old girl who he fathered 2 children with. Those two kids are the last alive linage recorded of a civil war veteran. Mr. Dinsmoor’s grandson then fought in Vietnam, 100 years later. And if that wasn’t strange enough our tour guide was the great niece of the man. Now that is a legacy!!!
That’s enough for now. There is more to come in Kansas but it will have to wait. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this little romp. There are more pictures at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ww2NGuah7FRmsVvh6