Kansas City, MO

Day 6, We began our Kansas City tour at the Harley-Davidson Plant. Unfortunately we were not allowed to tour the assembly line because they were in the middle of the new line of cycles and no one was allowed to see it, so they spent more time with us in the rest of the plant. It was amazing to see how the metal is cut by a laser. Once the parts are cut to spec, they don’t even have to sand the edges to make them smooth!Our driving tour consisted of the south part of town: Ward Parkway, Plaza, Art Galleries, Westport, and UMKC. Check out this single family house!

We then toured the Hallmark Card Center. Hallmark Cards grew from the originator living at the Y, selling their goods to what they are today. The area they bought for the factory is huge, but the Catholic Church did not want to sell to them, so Hallmark built all around them. It’s like a campus.

We had lunch at the local market and then a great tour of the Steamboat Arabia Museum. This steamboat was 171 foot long ship holding 200 tons of brand new merchandise (European dishware, jewelry, guns, tools, food products, and clothing items were included among her cargo). In 1856, She made good time up the Missouri River, making it to Kansas City in one week, but once she left the Kansas port, she hit a “snag” (a tree branch floating down the Missouri) and sunk.

She sank in minutes, barely saving the people aboard. 132 years later in 1988, a father, 2 sons & a friend found the ship.

The river had changed its course over time and after years of researching, they located the farm that the ship was buried under. It was buried 45 under the ground, a ½ mile from the river’s edge. 10 feet of it was the water aquifer. It was quite an operation for them to dig the huge hole and pump out the water while working to save the treasurers.

The museum has on display all the treasures that they uncovered and are still working on cleaning of the mud & preserving to its original state.

On our way out of the museum, we noticed the sidewalk had sections dedicated by individuals, companies, or organizations. Bill & I just had to take our picture with the section dedicated by Teamsters Joint Council 56 of Kansas City.

We ended our day at the Nascar Speedway. We were able to sit in the Presidential box, go up on the rooftop where the spotters sit during the race. Each car is allowed one spotter. We all got to get our picture taken on “Victory Lane” which was the highlight for some (Bill included). Notice Bill “hamming” it up.

Day 7, We toured the town of Independence, Missouri, where we also visited the Truman Presidential Library.

It was very interesting to find that he was just an ordinary farmer, who was never really accepted by his mother-in-law because he was not from a wealthy family, nor did Beth’s (his wife) friends accept him. He joined the service to fight the war overseas and was elected by his peers (that’s how they did it back then) to led the men into battle. He came home a hero, became a judge in his small town, eventually was elected to the Senate and ultimately the President of the United States. While President, the White House was renovated and he acquired the “buffalo” fireplace mantel. It is said that Jackie Kennedy asked for the return of the mantle when she redecorated the White House, but Trueman refused. The mantle is no longer on display (or at least it wasn’t while we were there), but we were told that it is in storage. When he died, he asked to be buried in the gardens of the library so that he didn’t have to walk far to his office. His wife was also eventually laid to rest beside him.

“Clinton Soda Fountain” is where Truman worked as a young boy. It is still operating today, so of course we had to visit it.

We also saw the home that the Truman’s lived (Bess was born there) as well as Truman’s aunt’s house, which was just across the street, where he visited during his youth.

We then toured the National Frontier Trails Center, where they had many artifacts on display. I could not pass up taking a picture of a rocking chair that someone who had gone out to California to discover gold, but failed to find any, returned ON FOOT back home. He found this rocker enroute and decided to carry it home for his wife.

A short walking distance was the swales , or wagon ruts, which are a lasting witness to the enormous flood of trail activity that flowed in and out of town.

As we were walking thru the town, we saw this really strange stainless steel like structure in the sky. Later we found that we were going to visit that structure. It was the Community of Christ Temple. It is actually the church that the mormons broke away from. We were very lucky during our tour that the organist was there to practice so we were able to witness how beautiful the organ sounded like with its thousands of pipes. I could not help taking a picture of the inside view of that strange sculptured roof.

We ended our day touring the Hunt Midwest Subtropolis, which is basically storage, warehouses, offices inside a hill or a mountain. Because it is a controlled temperature area under the ground, it stays the same temperature all the time, people rent space to store whatever. I would hate to work in there with all the cars & delivery trucks coming and going. I don’t know how they ventilate it, and I would never like to work there!