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This morning we started by going to the St. Louis Arch (the Jefferson Expansion Memorial). It was a perfect morning – completely wet, cloudy and foggy. We could almost see all of the arch when we were standing below it before entering. Once we got to the top, we could see for inches out the view windows. It brought back memories of Devils Tower in Wyoming, which was shrouded in fog on our visit there a few years ago.

Other than being foggy, the experience at the memorial was actually pretty cool. It is great how they keep everything below ground to not interfere with seeing the arch. We watched an IMAX movie on Lewis and Clark below the arch. The ride up to the top was pretty cool, though if you don’t like small spaces, it is probably not for you.

Afterwards, we headed to the Budweiser facility in town for a tour of the brewery. Despite the rain (and of course portions of the tour were outside) the tour was fun. We had two guides, Jim and Monica, who were very entertaining and kept the tour fun. We got to see some of the Budweiser horses, as well as the brewing and packaging processes. And of course, free beer at the end of the tour can always lift spirits.

On our way to our next stop, the AKC Museum of the Dog, we found Dickeys BBQ chain. Lunch was pretty good. It is another place which you order and they give you a number stand to take to your seat and they bring over the food to you. (Culver's was the same.)  For a fast food place, it is a lot more efficient than having people hover around the counter waiting for their food. Dad would like it as they offer free ice cream! Just one flavor of soft serve, vanilla, but hey it’s free! The AKC museum definitely exceeded our expectations. It was a much larger then we had anticipated. All art and sculpture dedicated to dogs.

We tried to get to a park to see a giant eyeball, but the park was closed for an art event that weekend. We skipped that and instead stopped at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. For just a home which he only spent a few years in, on and off, it was really well restored and they had a good museum and a nice tour of the home.

It was getting close to 5 PM and we had not left the St. Louis area and still had to get to Memphis, which was 4 hours away.  The weather had cleared by lunchtime in St. Louis, but as we got closer to Memphis, the weather picked up again and started to rain. On the way, we saw the signs for Lambert's Café. They are known for their “throwed rolls.”  While you eat, the staff comes around and serve up piping hot fresh rolls by throwing them to you from across the room. That was a perfect place to stop for dinner. Calling it a “café” is way off, the place is huge, and I would say almost 2 x the size of a Cracker Barrel. Not only are you entertained by rolls flying around the room, but you also get meals served in a giant 12-inch skillet. Your drinks come in giant 34+ ounce size travel mugs and they come around with different sides – potatoes, mac & tomatoes, fried okra, etc… while you are eating.

Erica and I were not completely prepared for this much eating, but it was a great time. On the way down from the café as we got back on the road, there was a billboard for the outlet shops further up that said “…Now come walk it off.”, referencing just coming from Lambert's Café and stuffing yourself silly.

Speaking of billboards, we have seen a number of billboards, displays, signs, etc… for a lot of “Pro Life”. Some of them low key, but most very out there about being pro life and not pulling any punches. Not much of it on or around church property.

Townspeople:

               “Cooter Holland”
               “Huxley Maxwell”
               “Roland St. Paul”
               “Randall Stanhope”
               “Keiser Wilson”
               “Marie Leganto”
               “Marion Sunset Wynne” (its hard enough to find a first and last, but a first, middle, last is even more rare)

Tomorrow we tour Graceland and other stuff around Memphis. This will be our last full day before coming home.

- Stephen

I forgot to post the other day about our other stop on our trip to Weldon Spring Interpretive Center. Weldon is a giant superfund cleanup site. The cell, which is a giant rock mound where hazardous waste is stored, is the highest point in St. Charles county. It is based on an old TNT and DNT manufacturing site used during WWII. It stores hazardous waste from that and uranium waste. A bit different from any of the other sites which we have seen on our trip, but that is why it fits into the trip.

- Stephen

Left Davenport this morning without much fanfare. We stopped at the Family Museum on the way out so Erica could get a National Park stamp from the “Silos and Smokestacks” which are a collection of NPS sites throughout Iowa. Not much to see in going from Iowa to Illinois. Iowa was the only state the consistently greeted visitors at its borders with a sign.

Stopped in Hannibal, Missouri to see the Mark Twain home and cave. We ate at the Mark Twain Dinette. The town and the dinette were about what we expected. The town was a whole lot around Mark Twain. Not sure if it was the town or just how long we have been on the trip, but it wasn’t really grabbing our attention. The cave, however, was a great experience. Our tour guide, John, gave a really great tour, even with the group of school kids who were in the tour group.  The kids were really well-behaved and self correcting. One of the kids on the tour was apparently a relative, by marriage, to Jesse James. Jesse James hid out in the cave at one time. Of the other couple on the tour who were not with the kids, the woman was a cousin of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens).

Coming into St. Louis area, we passed a theater which had the movie “Star Treck” listed. Yes, that’s what I said. There were a number of billboards we saw advertising “Bunny Bread.”  At the bottom of each of the billboards, it has the phrase “yes, that’s what I said.”

For dinner, we ate at Trattoria Marcello based on Erica’s co-worker’s recommendation. It was tremendous. The appetizer of the baked ravioli was the highlight of the meal. They were baked meat ravioli with parmesan cheese on top and a nice sweet tomato sauce on the side.

Topping off dinner, we went to Ted Drewes, an ice cream and custard chain. We rolled up and there were at least 4 lines of people queued up out front to get some ‘concrete.’  ‘Concrete’ is basically is close to what we call a ‘blizzard’ back home. Though here, it’s a custard that you can get with nearly any topping or mix to add into it. From the crowds of people on a damp, Thursday evening, we made the right call for dessert.

Tomorrow the Arch, beer, dogs, an eyeball and onto Memphis…….

- Stephen

We woke up almost two hours late today, so we spent the day behind schedule. It was our second longest driving day. We went from Minneapolis to Davenport, Iowa.  Along the way we stopped at Big Honza, which is probably a great look at American self-promotion. There really wasn’t much to it, other than a café and a whole mythology created around the “Big Honza” by the café’s proprietor. Unfortunately Honza’s “un-natural” history museum was closed, so we could not get the full experience, only an early lunch. On the way to Honza's, we almost hit a pheasant that decided to run across the road.

Our next stop was the SPAM museum. Unlike Honza, this was the real history of SPAM and the Hormel Company, sponsored by the company in Austin, Iowa. It is definitely worth the trip. A free tour and movie about SPAM, what more could you want? Oh, we also got to hear a test of the tornado warning siren in the town as we pulled into the parking lot of the SPAM Museum. There is a test of the siren every wed. It was pretty cool to hear as we had never heard one before.

We may have settled Wayne's question about the world's largest frying pan. The sign for the one we saw in Iowa was billed as "Iowa's Largest Frying Pan", whereas the one in North Carolina was claiming to be the "World's Largest Frying Pan".

On the way to Riverside, Iowa -- the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk -- we finally stopped at a Culver’s Restaurant. It is a burger and frozen custard chain with over 300 locations in the Midwest. We just got to sample the food, which was what we expected for a burger joint. Haven’t had a chance to have any of the frozen custard; hopefully we will before the end of our trip.

The marker for the future birthplace of Kirk was behind a house (in the backyard) off the main street of Riverside. It was quite an odd place for it. The Star Trek Voyage Home Cultural and History Center was closed as we got there late, so there wasn’t much else to see.  Flyers posted around town advertise a big party over a weekend in June celebrating Trek, including a rodeo and appearances from the original cast. That should be a good time.

Getting close to Davenport we passed "The World's Largest Truck stop". We chose to just see it from the road and didn't feel a need to stop to confirm.

Got to see a whole lot more of Iowa, which was a lot like the Iowa we saw heading into Minneapolis.

Townspeople:

               Walton Muscatine
               Stockton Davenport

- Stephen

Today was probably our easiest day in the whole trip. We spent the day in Minneapolis, starting by sleeping in! We only had a few things on our agenda, the main one being the Mall of America (MOA). We first round the Mary Tyler Moore statue, and the sculpture “Spoonbridge and Cherry”. The sculpture park that includes “Spoonbridge” was very nice with many other sculptures, including an installation by Frank Gehry. We tried finding a cemetery for victims of a carnival accident within a giant cemetery, but we were unable to locate the site.

We started in MOA with lunch at Tiger Sushi, where we put together our plan of action to tackle the mall. As we moved around the mall hitting stores of interest, we came across “Alamo Flags”, a store which sold flags (of course) and more, including state and flag stickers, patches and more. Erica made a great find there in some state stickers she could use for scrapbooking. While checking out, we chatted with the owner of the store and his father.  We were discussing our road trip (hence the reason for all the stickers) and he mentioned how much he liked it here (in Minnesota specifically) as he felt accepted, even with his mixed family. His wife wore full Muslim dress (burqa), and his kids were adopted: his son was African and daughter was blonde.  His father gave us an Aruban coin as a gift, which we didn’t realize initially.  We kept trying to give it back to him.  Our interest in the coin prompted the owner to also show us all the different coins that they receive there. He gave us a coin from Jordan, his home country, as well. Both of those coins were given to us to keep. They, like everyone on this trip, were extremely nice and friendly.

We went to a number of stores, including Beadniks, which is an awesome bead store. We found out tonight when we got back to the hotel that they also have a location in West Chester, PA. We will definitely be going to that location when we get home.

The mall is really big, but very well organized and easy to get around.  After wandering around and shopping for several hours, we hit Tony Roma’s for dinner and then went to see “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” at the theater there. Wolverine really lived up to expectations. It was a good telling of his back-story and how he got where he was with the X-Men. I can’t wait to see more movies around this franchise.

Tomorrow, we head back into Iowa heading towards Davenport. We hope to see SPAM and Captain Kirk…….

- Stephen

Forgot to mention some more of the townspeople names we came across over the past few days:

• "Jane Noel"
• "Anderson Joplin"
• "Archie Drexel"
• "Black Rattle"
• "Huxley Maxwell"
• "Roland St. Paul"
• "Randall Stanhope"

- Stephen

We started the morning in Omaha with breakfast at the hotel with Kathy, one of Erica’s coworkers who lives in the area. After relaxing with breakfast, it was off on our long haul 6+ hour drive to Minneapolis. We spent most of the morning just around Omaha visiting a number of sites. With the long distance, we managed to get in a whole bunch of sites along the way.

We started out seeing a sign in Dundee commemorating the one Japanese balloon bomb that was detonated during WWII. During the war, the Japanese sent over a bomb on a balloon and it made it all the way into Omaha before detonating. It exploded overhead with no damage or injury. They were hoping it would cause an incident that would be reported and they could use it to plot the course for other weapons. The incident was kept secret until after the war. 

Next up was Boys Town. This is where it all started with Father Flanagan -- the real guy, not Spencer Tracy. :)  It is a very cool place and interesting to see how it has grown over time, as well as how they operate today. We followed that up with the birthplace of Malcolm X. (Just a sign right now.  They intend to build something on the site but have not gotten to it yet.)   We also stopped at the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Visitor Center, which serves as the National Park Service Midwest Headquarters. While we were getting our stamp for the location, we were talking with Nichole, one of the rangers there. Turns out she spent about 10 years in the Philadelphia area!  She knew the area and had tried to get back there whenever possible. She also had a friend who lived in Oreland two blocks from us!!!  What a small world!!!

We crossed the river out of Omaha, Nebraska, and continued through Iowa.  There we came across a giant spider made out of a Volkswagen Beetle, a giant golden spike monument marking the union of the railroads, the Squirrel cage jail (closed on Monday’s unfortunately), the first bank robbed by Bonnie and Clyde (now a police station), a Danish windmill, and a smiley face water tower, as we drove our way to Minneapolis. Through most of the way through Iowa, there really is not a lot to see. Just lots of farm land and a surprising number of windmills (modern energy-generators) all throughout the farm land.

It has been a very long day. Time for bed. More of Minneapolis and St. Paul tomorrow…….

- Stephen

Yesterday morning, leaving KC on our way to Omaha, we started by stopping by the Truman home. As it turns out, you need a ticket for the home, which you need to get from the visitors center a few blocks away.  We had some time to speak with the ranger down there and see a slide show. She explained that the library yesterday was so cheap ($2 vs. $16) because they are celebrating Truman’s 125^th birthday, so a whole bunch of activities were going on.

In leaving KC, I had the observation “I have never spent so much time on exit ramps as in KC.” We were doing figure-eight’s going from one place to another. They also really like exit #2, as it went from 2A up to 2U!  On our final pass through KC, we found a giant concrete soccer ball in the middle of some soccer fields.  Next we swung by a giant needle and button which represented the garment industry in the town.

On our way to the Glore Psychiatric Museum in St. Joseph, we stopped at Carlos O’Kelly’s for lunch. We happened to overhear another great conversation. Not quite as good as the “wrestlin’ gators” conversation, but pretty good.  There was a group of older couples at the table next to us. There were 3 men and 2 women. They were waiting for another couple to show up. These are some snippets to the conversation:

A dirty old man joke as they were counting silverware while the ladies were away from the table: “One fork, two fork… ha ha ha… it’s better two fork, then two spoon.”

To start a conversation: “So how is the weather up in God’s country?”  Answer: “About the same as here.”

The men kept chatting up our waitress, Brittnie (yes, that was the correct spelling according to her name tag), asking her why the beer came with a lime. She said she didn’t know, but could make something up if they want, just as she did for another couple when she made up a whole story about a picture on the wall.

The one guy, who did most of the talking asked – “Did I order yet? You’ll have to remind me what I want.”

About the other couple they were waiting for and why they were late: “Oh, he probably didn’t like the pants he was wearing and didn’t realize it until he was in the car, so he had to go back and change.”

The restaurant was pretty good, Erica had a dish with Navajo bread and I had a chicken and beef mix. It was all Mexican, though with the name “Carlos O’Kelly’s” I expected a mix of Mexican and Irish, but it was all Mexican.

After lunch, we stopped at the Glore Psychiatric Museum which detailed the history of psychiatric institutions and the treatment (or mistreatment) of those with mental disorders.  

We made it to Omaha in time for dinner. We walked down a few blocks in their historic district to Upstream Brewing Company, a local micro-brew restaurant, for some good steaks. On our way to dinner, we passed the Gene Leahy Mall, which is a nice park. In the park are two giant side-by-side kids’ slides that were wavy and probably about 20 feet long. They were probably the coolest slides outside of an amusement park that I have seen. Lots of kids were out on a Sunday evening having fun with them.

For dinner, I started with the smoked gouda blonde ale soup, which was great, and then had a NY strip with riced potatoes and onions. I topped it off with some dessert – a Beer Float. It is their stout with vanilla ice cream. It was pretty good; it tasted like a kicked-up root beer float.

After dinner, we passed through the park to see even more people out, and now the bigger kids were enjoying the slide.

- Stephen

Got an early start today. We were on the road by 8:30 am. We had a target of 6 sites to see today. By the end of the day, we had dropped a site, and added two more for a grand total of 7!

We started just outside of Joplin with the giant 32 foot praying hands. Next up was the George Washington Carver National Monument. It was a pretty cool place focused on the man and his accomplishments. He has done so much more than peanuts! On the way to KC, we managed to see the giant morel mushroom by the side of the road (easily 15-20 feet in height) just off the side of the highway. It’s just what it is named, a giant morel mushroom, promoting mushrooms.

Given the time, we opted out of seeing the “Precious Moments Chapel.” It was mainly just for the creepy factor as those things creep both of us out. 

We didn’t really see anything else until we got to the outskirts of KC, where we stopped at the 1950s All-Electric House. It is part of the Johnson County Museum, which we wandered through first.  It gave an overview of the history of the county from early settlers through the suburban sprawl of the 1940s and 1950s.  It was a nice start for the tour of the 1950s house, which was built as a demo house for the KC Power & Light Company. They had moved it from its original location and restored it back to how it was when it was built. It was a really great tour that brought all those “home of the future” black and white reels from the day to life. The woman who gave the tour did a tremendous job with just me and Erica on our own personal tour.  With the house and museum, we were really impressed with the county. Nowhere else have we seen the level of effort in a county in such a well-kept setting to preserve not only its older history, but its more recent history.

We were doing really good on time, so next up was Hallmark.  Hallmark was founded and currently resides in KC, so they have a visitors center with history and some live demos of how cards are made. It was a very cool tour.  Not only do they have engravers working, but demos of two different presses used to make cards. There is even a demo machine that makes little ribbons for you to take a souvenir. At the end, we even got a free gift of note cards, since Erica brought a coupon from the website. We were still doing good on time, so we ate lunch at the Crayola Café in the Crown Center (an enormous mall attached to the building.)  The Crayola Café is just that -- a Crayola-themed café -- geared towards kids with a store right next to it. The factory in Easton should have one near it! (Hallmark owns Binney and Smith, who makes Crayola.)

 Still cruising along, we headed to the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library. (I know, not one but TWO presidential libraries in this trip – isn’t it exciting?!?!) It was a much bigger place then we expected. Even after seeing Clinton’s, I was surprised at just how big it was. They have a large number of displays, movies and other information focused on Harry Truman’s life and, more specifically, his presidency.

This was lucky break number two for us. First, parking at the mall was free because it was the weekend. And then entrance to the library only cost us 2 dollars instead of the usual 8 per person.

Our last item of the day was the Community of Christ temple, or the “crazy rocket ship temple”, since the church has a space rocket look to it.  After that, we checked into the Hyatt and started figuring out dinner and also going about swapping out cars.

Two days ago we noticed a crack in the windshield, most likely from a rock while we were driving. It started below the visible part of the windshield, se we didn’t see it right away until it was pretty big. We called it in to Dollar and we had the option of hanging onto it or bringing it in to swap. It didn’t seem that bad, so we opted to hang onto to it. Well, it got worse, a lot worse, growing by at least two inches a day. We would have swapped it in sooner, but there are no Dollar rental agencies in Arkansas, so we had no choice but to keep it until we hit KC.

We were able to take it to the airport and get it swapped out no problem. We are now driving a white Dodge Journey. We were getting hungry so we went to Arthur Bryant’s for dinner – good KC BBQ - and then Sheridan’s for some ice cream. Sheridan’s has these “concrete” mixes, I got the “Grants Grasshopper” with mint, oreo cookies and frozen custard. Erica got the “Wedding Cake” concrete which is custard with wedding cake mixed in.

Tomorrow we make the trek to Omaha.

- Stephen

This morning we left Little Rock on our way to Joplin. We started by going to the “Old Mill” in the northern suburbs of North Little Rock. It is known for its use in the opening scenes in “Gone with the Wind.” They have transformed it into a very nice park. Originally it was dedicated to the pioneers who made their way out to Arkansas.

Next stop was the Fort Smith National Historic Site in Arkansas along the border of Oklahoma. It was a central funnel in terms of military support, supplies and justice in the western frontier in the 1800’s.

We swung through Alma, Arkansas to see the Popeye statue in the “Spinach Capital of the World.” It is the company town for Popeye brand spinach.

For lunch, based on Erica’s friend John’s recommendation, we stopped at Braum’s. They offer a mix of lunch and breakfast meals a la McDonalds, ice cream like DQ, and  a market area like Wawa. It’s actually a pretty cool combination. I got their large burger and swapped out my soda for a mint chocolate chip shake. Just right.

Finally we stopped in Bentonville, AR, which is where Walmart got its start. We hit the main center of town where there is a Walton’s storefront which houses the Walmart Visitor Center. Unfortunately, in part due to the thunderstorms we were driving through and the time we made it there, it was closed so we only got a brief look around before heading through more rain to our stopover in Joplin, MO.  Along the way, we saw a brief patch where hail had blown through and laid along the side of the road.

For dinner, we hit the Tokyo Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Restaurant a few miles down from the hotel. It was a hopping place with a huge area for a lot of hibachi tables and it was pretty full. We opted for the sushi area as that was what we were really craving. As usual, quick service was the thing and we finished our meal within an hour.

All the moving around is making it hard for us to keep track of what day it is and where we are. Tomorrow is our most ambitious day; we plan on hitting about 6 places. Three places around Joplin and three around Kansas City, including the Truman Presidential Library and Hallmark. We will see how it goes.

- Stephen