Daniel Boone Home and St. Louis (Thursday)

Our itinerary today was to locate the two Daniel Boone historic sites around here and check them out.  We drove down to the Visitor Center in Washington, which happens to be right on the Missouri River, and got some information.  This is a cute little "happening" town, population of about 10,000, but they have lots of festivals here and the buildings, although many are really old, are mostly in good shape.  We headed out of town with a set of directions, which was a good thing because there were lots of turns.  I wonder if there is where the expression "in the boonies" comes from!  It was raining when we got here, so we sat in the car and waited it out for 10-15 minutes, and it was still drizzling then, but when we started our tour, it kindly stopped.  We got to the Daniel Boone Village about 11:30 and bout tickets to the guided tours of inside the house, and of the grounds which included going into some of the buildings.  We could not take pictures inside the house but could the rest of the tour.

After the Louisiana Purchase, no one was moving this far west and the Indians were reclaiming this area, so the government "persuaded" him to relocate to this area in the hope of populating the territory with Americans.  Daniel Boone spent the last years of his life in this beautiful stone, 4-story Georgian-style mansion overlooking the scenic Feeme Osage Valley.

The home was actually built by his son, Nathan, but he and Becky lived here with them most of the time.  The parcel that Daniel was given was actually down on the River, which was a few miles away.

The Boonefield Village is comprised of more than a dozen historic buildings representing the 1800s and includes a schoolhouse, the Old Peach Chapel, a carpenter's shop, a general store, and a grist mill.  These buildings have come from the surrounding area (within 50 miles), been taken apart and then rebuilt on the property, piece by piece. 

We got to sit down at the desks in the school and had a short spelling lesson with chalk and a little chalkboard.  These buildings are in remarkably good shape.

The Old Peace Chapel was really beautiful.  The chapel is available for weddings, now renewals and other special events.  It was originally build in the mid-1800s and served as a store and dance hall before it was converted to a church in 1905.  It included an interesting clock system, a nice stairway up to the choir loft, and a candle chandelier that could be pulled down to light the candles.

They have a few animals here, representing the times, including some sheep and a draft horse.  Next to the barn was some cane growing so thick you couldn't get through it.  Cane was used for many things back then, including making baskets and fishing poles.

Next we went into the general store, which was stocked with things important to that time, including guns, traps, chewing tobacco, etc.

The grist mill is where farmers brought their grain (grist) to have it ground.  The farmer would also furnish the horses or mules to power the mill, which was on a pivot, and then pay the owner of the mill some percentage (15% we think) of the product (which he would sell) or be paid for the use of the mill.  So it was a win-win if you owned a mill.

We finished the tour and headed out to Daniel Boone's burial site about 15 miles away.  Even with written instructions, we got lost twice.  Becky died first and when they buried Daniel, the site next to Becky had already been taken, so they buried him at the foot of her grave.  The story here is that Kentucky thought they should have the Boone's and came with a contingent to remove the bodies to Kentucky.  They had not contacted or received permission from the family, and the family knew Daniel hated Kentucky and never wanted to return there, so they did not tell Kentucky where he was buried, and the people from Kentucky, assuming he was next to Becky, supposedly took the wrong body.  DNA was performed on the skulls, and Kentucky does have Becky, but the other bones were said to be come from someone taller than Daniel and of African-American heritage (probably a slave). 

We saw several wild turkeys out here, and as we headed back to town we saw 4 more.  I think we saw a total of 11 today. 

By now it's 3:30 and we were starving, so we headed back to town.  We were amazed to find that we were only about 3 miles from Washington -- I thought we were probably 20 miles.  As I've said, we have totally lost our sense of direction here.  Anyway, we had lunch, got the RV ready to travel, fueled, and headed to St. Louis about 4:45. We stayed with Hwy 100 to I-44/US-50, and then onto I-55.  Of course, we are facing rush hour, but with the help of  GPS Lucille, we sailed right across town.  We exited right by the river, in fact we drove right beside the arch, and crossed over to E. St. Louis.  We had stayed at the casino here a couple years ago and remembered that it had a nice campground so that was our plan for tonight.  We only drove 52 miles today, and were off the road about 5:45. 

We visited with our neighbors for a while, then went over to the casino for a couple hours.  I actually came out a little ahead, but Joe didn't have much luck.  There's thunderstorms in the forecast tonight, so we'll see!

After several days of tours, with lots of walking, we are both pretty tired and looking forward to getting to Lucille's to get some rest.  Yeah, right.  We'll see how that goes.

Washington, MO (Wednesday)

Today was a travel day, so we de-camped, said our goodbyes to our camp hosts and guides (Ray and Linda), and headed out.  We hit the road just before 10:00, it was sprinkling a little but was fairly warm (58).  Ray and Linda were heading into one of the small towns today, so they "led" us out to find our route (even with our written directions from them, I doubt that we could have found the right roads).  We found our way over to 291 at Liberty, then we brought that down to US 24, we went east on that to Marshall, then we headed south to Sedalia on 65. We picked up US 50 there, and took that east to Jefferson City, then took 94 over to 47 into Washington (we are now in Daniel Boone territory).  It was a pretty drive, and took us through the bottomland along the Missouri River -- in fact, we crossed it a couple more times.

Not many photo ops today, but one thing that caught our eye was a water tower in Tipton, painted like an 8-ball.  At one time a pool table company was located here.  After it moved out, the water tower was repainted but the residents were all so upset that it was repainted back to the 8-ball.

We saw a little of Missouri's capital city, Jefferson City.  I took one photo of what I assume was the Capital Building, but we didn't get very close to it.

The roads were really good until Jefferson City, but Hwy 94 was really crooked, hilly, and narrow with no shoulder most of the time.  But the countryside was very pretty, very green.

As we get closer to St. Louis, the Missouri River is getting wider.  We crossed it again just before we reached Washington, where we are staying overnight on the Walmart parking lot again.

We passed a sign pointing to Daniel Boone Monument just outside of town so that will be our first destination tomorrow.  Today we drove 264 miles and Joe was ready to get out from behind the wheel.  We paid $3.479 for gas today but we hear that it is going up, and we know Illinois and Indiana are always higher priced than anyone else, so it's going to get more expensive.

Harley Davidson and Independence, MO (Tuesday)

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.