A Truman Kind of Day

President Harry S. Truman, 33rd president of the USA came onto his post with FDR's death during that president's unprecedented 4th term in office.

Kept out of the loop mostly by FDR while the vice-president, Truman had the job of president land on him suddenly and he soldiered through to successfully prove his critics wrong.  

Martha and I visited his home in Independence, MO first.  Don't find out as we did though, you have to buy the tickets for the tour, which run on a scheduled basis, five blocks away in the visitor center.  So, we got our steps in today shall we say. 

Anyways, a short 10 block walk later, we joined a tour of a people led by a tour guide from the US Park Service.  Sorry, no pics of the inside as they were not permitted and the guide made sure that we kept to the specific carpeted path and touched nothing while inside the house. 

Here's some views of the outside:

Across the street from the Truman Home, is the Noland house, which used to house relatives of the Truman family. It is now owned by the National Park service and contain some more exhibits and you could take pictures inside. 

Since I know little about Medicare and its history, I was surprised to find out that Truman had worked on its creation but had not gotten it made into law before he left the presidency. President Johnson, who did sign the Medicare legislation issued the first two cards to the Harry and Beth Truman.

A young version of Truman and his future wife:

We then went to lunch at a local burger joint, nothing significant to report of that place, just a place to fill one stomach while waiting for the presidential library to open up at noon.

The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library had its interesting points but it wasn't as impressive to me as the World War I museum had been.  It is well laid out and plenty of history to read and view especially if you are a fan of Truman's presidency or his history. 

The museum was also hosting a special America 250 Year exhibit, with the basement level of the library showcasing photographs and descriptions of American events throughout its history. 

A pretty nice mural depicting themes of the westward migration of Americans

Vehicles owned by Truman, from a horse drawn buggy to automobiles

The president and the first lady are buried on site at the library, in the courtyard. 

A replica of the Truman oval office: 

The saying that Truman is famous for: 

Martha at the current main entrance to the presidential library. 

We think this used to be the main entrance to the presidential library before they expanded it. 

Artwork showing President Truman's house: 

The back of the above heart shaped artwork shows the three main migration routes taken by settlers as they move towards the west coast. 

We were quite done with touring by 1:30 PM so we headed back to camp.  We leave tomorrow for Illinois, stay tuned. 

I did go for about a 15 mi ride with Yagi but the plethora of forest around the area precluded much in the way of scenery.  Here are views of the dam that forms Blue Springs Lake.

Oh, and we had a visit from one of the locals at our campsite:

Touring the National WWI and Arabia Steamboat Museums

Today Martha and I drove the CR-V into Kansas City, Missouri to check out two museums

.

The first museum was the National World War One Museum.  It really was very well done and laid out, and the almost 3 hours we spent there were quite educational and enjoyable. The best part was that it wasn't very crowded either.

Some of the things that caught my eye among the many well curated exhibits:

Today's moto content:

After the main exhibit level, we went to the top level and climbed a few steps after exiting an elevator to the top of the tower you saw in the first few pictures.  You can get quite a view of the city: 

Then it was time for lunch at the nearby barbecue joint called Jack Stack.

The barbecue was pretty good!

Next it was a very short drive to reposition that car closer to the City Market. The museum that showcases the recovered steamboat Arabia is located there. The Arabia, or the Great White, as it was known was one of many hundreds of steamboats that plied the Missouri River in the early to mid 1800s.

It sank in 15 ft of water after it struck a sunken log.  It then quickly sank into the river's quicksand bottom overnight leaving only the smoke stacks showing above water in the morning.  Even the stacks would eventually disappear into the river. Fortunately all the passengers were taken off and saved with the exception of one poor mule who was found tied up at the stern of the boat. 

The Arabia was forgotten and as the river twisted and turned over the years, the wreck ended up almost a mile from the river over 25 feet under a  farmer's cornfield. 

More information about the Arabia and museum here: Link 

Sadly, the museum will be closing its doors come November of this year as the city will not be renewing their lease for the property.

One of the Arabia's paddle wheels, it spins slowly to demonstrate the mechanism involved to get it moving and rotating.

Samples of the varied pre-civil war cargo carried by the Arabia.

Part of the tree trunk that ripped up the steamboat's bottom and sunk her.

Scale model of the steamboat:

The steamboat's boilers:

I found this map interesting, it was used to illustrate the migration routes in the early to mid 1800s. Of interest to me was how it did not show the future states of Colorado, Wyoming, etc.  notice the spelling for Kansas.

The actual stern of the steamboat. You can see the tiller mechanism headed towards the rear of the boat: 

Here is the rear or stern of the boat and you can see the rudder which was attached to the tiller mechanism.

Cool Artwork

A pretty good day of museum learning, and only one close call in terms of traffic.  

Although sunny, temperatures never reached the mid-60s and so it was cool when the breeze would pick up.