Chris and Kathy arrived in KC, MO on Tuesday night and stayed at the Jason & Toni's household so we could start out bright and early (?) on Wednesday morning. Although Jason leaves for work even brighter and earlier, Toni had some munchies to start the day and off we went!
This is our second "grandkid" trip. Kathy's grandparents began by taking their 10 grandchildren, one at a time, on each child's own vacation. Their two kids and spouses continued the tradition and now the original grandchildren are taking the next generation! This year it's Blake's turn! Thie challenge for us is to find activities for a pre-teen boy...
The BAD -- Our first stop wasn't too far north of Kansas City, Jesse James' birthplace. The tour wasn't bad, it's Jesse that we're talking about here. The movie shown at the beginning of the tour shows how Jesse and Frank got started in their lives of crime during their lives as Bushwhackers during the Civil War. (Well, they might have called it the "War of Northern Aggression" since they were Southerners in a Union state!).
Several rooms of museum displays are there at the Visitor's Center and then we took a guided tour of the actual house where the James' lived for several generations. One of the main themes seems to be the role of Jesse and Frank's mother in, not only their lives, but as a fiercely protective mother of all her children.
When Jesse was killed (while straightening a picture on the wall of his own home) by a man he considered a friend, his mother, Zerelda, had him buried in the front yard of the family home with a tall monument. She even moved her bed so she could watch out the window and make sure no one came to desecrate the memorial!
Zerelda was actually married three times; Mr. James, a preacher, was her first husband. She lost two children because of Jesse's life choices: Jesse and one of his young half-brothers, Archie, who was killed when the Pinkerton detectives through a "bomb" in to the house hoping to flush out Jesse and/or Frank.
We began with our first of our sports-related trivia here at the James Farm. The family maintained the site as a tourist attraction for at least three generations. One of Frank's sons liked golf, so for awhile the home had a three-hole golf course attached so that visitor's could play a little golf when they came too! We then headed out of Missouri in to Iowa
The GOOD -- Our "good" is an all-American legend. John Wayne was really born as Marion Robert Morrison in the small town of Winterset, Iowa. "Duke", as he became known, only lived in Winterset a few years, but visitors can tour his home and view memorabilia from his long and varied career. As Blake pointed out, people think he was just in Western movies, but he was in a lot of different ones: war movies, one in Ireland, sports movies, "romantic comedy", historical movies, etc.
Our sports trivia of the tour was the fact that John Wayne, as he became known later, played football on a scholarship for the University of Southern California.
Although the house is small, the curators have filled it with movie stills and other mementos of Wayne's career. There are also items from his childhood, even a copy of his parents' wedding license.
If one wants, you can take a photo next to one of the several images of Wayne found in the gift shop.
The UGLY -- Oh, yes, there is no doubt what is the UGLY of our day... the heat!!! There was a disagreement (Chris and Kathy) about whether the air conditioner was working in the camper van. The result is that we rode the rest of the day with the windows open!! It was hot, hot, hot! I believe the gauge hovered around 100 for most of the day with maximum humidity ranging from 62-98!! Maybe it was the humidity, not just the heat.
Even at night when we were setting up our camp at the Amana Colonies Campground in Amana, Iowa, the sweat was just pouring off us (I apologize if anyone's tender senses are offended, but it WAS offensive). In the end, Chris slept outside on the sleeping bag on the ground most of the night while Kathy and Blake slept in the camper. After a cool shower, it wasn't too bad once we actually settled down for the night,
Chris moved inside around 5:30 AM or so when a thunderstorm actually arrived!! That did lower the temperature, but the humidity was awfully high!
A high point of the evening was eating in Marengo, Iowa, at Phat Daddy's restaurant. We saw lots of people entering, including children, so we figured it must be popular. The food was very good. And it had the extra perk of being air conditioned! ;-)
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