A little cooler this morning (48), and some fog sitting on the water. It's usually been in the 50s when I got up. We picked up Ray and Linda and headed back to the Harley Davidson factory and took the factory tour. Their more in-depth tour, the Steel Toe tour, was not available this week -- that part of the plant is closed for maintenance or something. They started making Harleys in 1903, and made 3 bikes the first year. An interesting note is that they let any employee owning a Harley park it right up front, so it's almost like more displays. After you work for Harley for a year, you are eligible for a 20% employee discount. We picked out the orange one for John from among the employee's bikes.
Pictures, of course, were not allowed inside the plant. We were furnished with safety glasses, a radio, and a name tag. After the tour, we walked through the displays and gift shop, then were on our way.
From here we headed over to historical Independence, Missouri. We were back and forth across the Missouri River several times on every trip, so we never knew whether we were in Kansas or Missouri. Independence is famous for the James brothers and for the home of President Harry Truman. First we toured the Jackson County Marshall's House and Jail Museum. We all thought these jail cells might be more of a deterrent to a life of crime than what we offer today.
After Jesse James was murdered in 1882, Frank James, fearing assassination, began negotiations with the Missouri Governor to surrender. He was brought to this jail to await trial (he was found "not guilty") but while he was here in jail he was treated almost like a celebrity, and his cell almost looked like a home, with a bed, other furniture and pictures on the wall, and lots of visitors.
The Marshall's house was typical of the time.
There was also a school right here, and desks unlike we had ever seen.
When we came out of the jail, a mule-drawn wagon was parked at the curb, and the driver, dressed as an Amish man, offered to take us for a ride, but we passed on that.
We next went over to the Truman House for the 2:30 tour. No pictures were allowed inside this house either, but the tour was very good. The house was much more ordinary that we expected, and had been left as much as possible as it was when the Trumans lived there.
We only got to see about 5 rooms on the first floor, and none on the second floor. We saw a model of the house at the Presidential Library that we went to next, and we could tell that we only saw a small portion of the house.
We were beginning to wear down, but went on over the Truman's Presidential Library. This was a very interesting library, not fancy but full of the history of his presidency, and the decisions he made while in office (dropping the bombs on Japan, the Truman Doctrine). This museum really traces the remarkable story of the man who became our 33rd president. Both President and Mrs. Truman are buried on the grounds. We missed the big celebration here by one day -- tomorrow (May 8) is his birthday and they are having a big party here. The museum is divided into 5 sections: Family, The Early Years, Political Career, Life in the White House, and Mr. Citizen." The tour starts with a 10-minute video at the Truman Home Ticket Center which was next door to the jail we visited. But it was all very interesting.
We didn't take many pictures (too tired) but Joe did get a couple of photos of cars, one he owned and one that was used when he was in office. After he left office, he used the office here to work out of. And there is a nice replication of the oval office while he served in Washington.
There was one other item in town we intended to visit but we could hardly walk by now, so we settled for a picture of the Community of Christ Temple. Spiraling 300 feet into the air, this facility houses a museum, two theaters, a bookstore, a 1,600-seat sanctuary, multi-cultural artwork and a 102-rank Casavant Freses pipe organ. We'll have to take them at their word for all that because we did not go in.
We headed back toward camp, stopped for dinner at the same restaurant we ate at last night (as well as breakfast this morning), and rested briefly before we resumed our card war. Linda and I eked out a win for the first game, but for some crazy reason we decided to play a second game, and the guys whomped us again (they surely cheated).
For some reason, we have both lost our sense of direction the whole time we've been around Kansas City -- must have something to do with crossing the river so many times. Poor Ray has had to co-pilot everywhere we went.
We only saw one deer here, a few turkeys, ducks, geese, and lots and lots of pretty birds. Lilacs are blooming around here, including a bush at the Truman House, but I did not think they would allow me to walk over there and break off a bloom, so I left that bush intact. We never did have time to drive around this beautiful lake, so that's something left for another visit if we ever make it back here. We really enjoyed our 4 days here, and had a great time with our new friends, Ray and Linda.
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