Presidents and Indians

Monday, June 6, 2011

Today was the day we started the journey back to Bedrock.  We dashed up several of the Missouri alphabet soup roads to route 63, had bronto-breakfast burritos in Rolla, on up 63 to Columbia, then turned left on I-70 at Columbia.  Independence Mo. and the Harry S. Truman National Historical Site was our first stop.  We went to the VC which is located in an old fire station to get all of the passport stamping out of the way.   The VC had a very nice video presentation on the President as well as his family.  Grandson Athos is travelling with us, and we got him all fixed up with a NPS passport book and his first six stamps at the VC.

Athos, Barney, Wilma and Fred at VC

The Truman Home

The next stop was at the Truman house, which is actually the family home of his wife Bess.   We didn’t take the tour but did get some photos of the exterior of the house.  From there we went to the Truman Presidential Library and Museum.  The exhibits were very interesting.  The replica of the Oval Office when Truman was president was very authentic right down to the small screen, console  model TV and the black Bakelite rotary telephone.

The Truman Library

Replica of Truman's White House Office

 






The museum is very large with lots of memorabilia and several cars. We even had a pop quiz before leaving.  The pictures tell part of the story.  You might not be able to read the header above Athos and the President that says “They continue to shape American life today.”  Since Truman is gone, that leaves Athos. What will we come to!

Athos and the President

Barney under the Rubble-mobile

When we left the Library and Museum the Rubble-mobile failed to start.  One of the mounting bolts had fallen out of the starter and the other was loose.  We tightened the remaining bolt and got it going.  We figured it would work till we could get a bolt and get it installed.

We headed up I-435 then I-29 to Mound City.  We were headed for Big Lake to spend the night but found out that it was closed due to flooding.  We crossed the Missouri River at Rulo, NE. and looking over the Nebraska end of the bridge it was very apparent that there was still a lot of high water near the river.  We headed north and finally found a place to camp at the Indian Cave State Park.  It was well after 10:00 pm by the time we finally got the caves situated and crawled into bed.

This is when we were looking for a campsite

This is when we finally got to bed

We found out the next morning that some areas of the park were closed due to high water.  We were fortunate that the camping area was not flooded.

 It was a long but enjoyable day.

Battles and Higher Learning

Wednesday June 1, 2011

We took off in the Rubble-mobile in the direction of Wilson’s Creek near Springfield, Mo.   We had to make a stop at Sonic in Cabool, M0.  It seems they had an excess of Supersonic Burritos and we were able to ease their problem by having one apiece.   We eased through the construction at the intersection of route 60 and 65.  

The Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield is a few miles southwest of Springfield, near Republic MO.   We stopped first at the museum and walked through the exhibits of Civil War memorabilia.

Many of the items on exhibit were donated by families of Civil War Veterans.   The museum has the largest number of fire arms, both pistols and black powder rifles any of us have seen in one place. 

On to the VC we watched a 30 minute video that included contributions from Ken Burns. It was a very interesting video.   We also learned that Missouri had the third largest number of Civil War battles of any state.   The battlefield is located on the ”Wire Road” which connected Rolla, MO and Fort Smith, AR with a telegraph line running along the side of it.   The VC also had a topographical display which traced the action of the Battle of Oak Hill, or “Bloody Ridge” by narration and through the use of LEDs on the topo-display.   General Sterling Price was one of the Confederate generals leading the battle.   General Nathaniel Lyon died from injuries and a fatal shot.  He was the first Union general to die in combat during the Civil War.

The battle occurred during the month of August.   It is hard to imagine marching through the ticks, fleas, chiggers and poison ivy in August, let alone carrying a 15 to 25 pound musket and everything you need to sleep in and personal hygiene items.  

From Wilson’s Creek we journeyed to Hollister to see our grand-daughter, Porthos at the College of the Ozarks near Branson, MO.

Barney and grand daughter Porthos

After a quick tour of several highlights of the campus we headed back toward Springfield. We did make a quick stop at the Steak and Shake in Branson for a quick bite before returning to the rock pile in Tyrone.

That is all of the hammer and stone-pad work for now.

Later.

Wading in Boiling Water

Wednesday May 25, 2011

We left Fred and Wilma’s cave on wheels sitting with Barney and Betty’s cave setting on the ground beside it and took off in the Rubble-mobile to look for passport stamps in Van Buren, Missouri at the National Scenic Riverways Visitor’s Center.  The drive took us on route 60 in addition to an alphabet soup of Missouri county roads, all of which were pretty good roads.  After an hour or so of driving we arrived at the VC.  There Betty and Wilma attacked the passport stamping station with the zeal of a T-Rex eating a Bronto-burger.   The Volunteer at the VC was a very nice lady who after living in Missouri for 20 years still claims to be from Seattle.  There were some very interesting exhibits at the VC including an old ledger (from a doctor's office showing medical and surgical services from 1905-06) which contained the name of man with Betty’s maiden name and a man named Flintstone—Interesting…

The rolling caves parked

Doctor's office ledger

We stopped at the Jolly Cone in Van Buren for a B-burger which we consumed at the establishment's patio tables on a very pleasant day.

After lunch we made our way to Big Springs, only a few miles from Van Buren.  The area had an extremely wet spring and the Current River was pretty high.  Big Springs has a normal flow of around 288 million gallons of water per day.  We couldn’t find a flow meter, but the water was high enough to be over the path that goes from the parking lot, around the spring to the bluff the spring flows out of.   Interestingly, there is a sign between the path and the spring that says “no wading, no swimming”.  The sign appeared to be standing in about 2’ of water.  At any rate Betty waded around the path to the face of the bluff to get pictures of the water boiling out of the ground.

Betty wading in the spring

Uh-oh!

The water was coming out of the ground so fast that it was boiling up 18” to 2’ above the surface of the spring.  It is really amazing to see that much water coming from a hole in the ground.  

That's amazing!

We dashed back to the VC in Van Buren to pick up a map thinking we would return to the caves by another route.  In the end we went back the same way we came.  It was a very enjoyable day.

Coils and Springs

May 21, 2011

Not much happening on Friday, but Saturday we took a day trip to Alley Spring and Round Spring.  Alley Spring is the most photographed spring in the US.  It is spectacular with the blue green water and the red mill sitting on the edge of the spring.

Alley Spring and the Mill

Barney and grand daughter Porthos

A Muskrat in the spring

Betty and Wilma enjoying the spring

The spring is 32 feet deep, with an average daily flow of 81 million gallons. Barney, Fred, and Porthos hiked the short trail around the spring.  After pictures and of course getting our stamp in our passport books, we went on to Round Spring. Very pretty, but smaller and not as spectacular as Alley. There was no one at the ranger station, so alas, no stamp in our books for Round Spring.  Both springs are part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

Fred and Barney got up close and personal with a couple of snakes found in the yard today.  See the pictures!

Missouri wildlife

Fred up close and personal

Barney "relocating" the snake

Barney capturing the monster

The rest of the day we just sat around and visited.

The chisel will pound out more on the rock pad later.

Day Trip

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Wednesday wasn’t a blogging day.  We went into town for a few things, Fred mowed, and Barney poured some concrete.

Today was a lot more interesting!  We got an early start so we could make a day trip to St. Louis.  Fred wanted to go in for the release of the Ulysses S Grant presidential dollar.  Barney has wanted to stop in at St Louis Metallizing for a while, so this was a good opportunity.  We made arrangements to stop there around 10 am.  Larry took Barney and Fred on a tour of the shop while Betty and Wilma waited in Larry’s office.  Barney had dealt with Larry and this company while still in the work force.

After their tour, we decided to stop at the Arch and get our stamps there.  We had to wait around for about an hour to go up to the top of the Arch. That is a very interesting trip. You cram five people into the small cave like cars, and it takes four minutes to make the climb, and three minutes to go down.

It's pretty tall

The St Louis Gateway Arch

Betty and Barney enjoying the view

Wilma and Betty at the top

The Old Courthouse from the Arch

Barney & Betty, Wilma & Fred at the Courthouse

You can stay at the top as long as you want. It was not windy, so we didn’t feel it swaying, but you can feel the vibration of the cave cage cars on their trips up and down.  There was a Cardinals game in progress, and we could see the stadium from the top.  It looked like they had a good turnout.

We went over to the Old Courthouse and got a stamp there, then we were off for the Grant home.  We got there after the speeches, but in time to purchase some of the new dollar coins and get our books stamped.  We met up with Betty’s brother and SIL there and we all proceeded down the road.  Stopped and had some dinner, made a stop at Lowes, and then headed for the cave houses.  A great day!

Today’s stops makes 18 park locations where we have gotten stamps on this trip, plus six other stops.  We have been getting around!

What’s all this about stamps and stamp books?

May 17, 2011

Looking back at all of our blogs during the loooong trip to Missouri, we have talked a lot about getting stamps in our books. When we realized that most people won’t know what we are talking about, we thought we should probably explain what it really is, so here goes.

A few years ago, someone introduced us to the National Parks Passport Books which have information about all of the National Parks, National Monuments, National Historic Sites, National Rivers, and on and on and on. Well, our book looks like this:

Each National site we visit has one or more rubber stamps that go in the appropriate place in the book. There are sections for Pacific Northwest and Alaska, Western, Rocky Mountain, Southwest, etc. – all the way to the North Atlantic. In each section there are pages for the stamps as well as for extra stickers for the site we visit. We purchase the sets of stickers extra. The pages look like this when they are completed:

And the stamps look like this:

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the National Parks stamps program, so most stops include the anniversary stamp (like the one on the left above), and we have just begun our quest.
Study these carefully because there could be a quiz tomorrow!

Since we are parked and basically being lazy, there isn’t much else to report on.  More from the rolling cave houses of the Bedrock Bunch later.

Law and Order and Chaos of War

5/15/2011

 We were up about 7:00am and had breakfast in our cave-on-wheels in the Sallisaw/Fort Smith KOA in Sallisaw, Ok.  Breakfast consisted of vegi-omlet ala teridyctal with bronto-sauage and pancakes.   It’s tough to have to do the “hunter-gatherer” meals all of the time, but Betty and Wilma seem to be up for it most of the time.

Once again we headed east on I-40 to Fort Smith, AR.   We took in the Fort Smith National Historic Site.  The passport books were properly stamped and duly processed at the VC.    We didn’t realize that Fort Smith figured so prominently in the history of federal Indian policy.  We were all aware of Judge Isaac Parker’s Court, but didn’t totally understand the huge area that was under the court’s jurisdiction.  The court house and prison were very interesting and quite an eye opener. 

Fort Smith Courthouse

Barney and Fred in custody

Judge Parker's Courtroom

We headed north on I-540 and paused in Rogers, Ak, having discovered a random Taco Bell.  We dined on tacos and burritos then continued our trek northward.

We turned east on Rt. 62 to the Pea Ridge National Military Park.  It was a little difficult to locate on the map, however there are enough road signs that we got there without any problems. 

Pea Ridge is the site of a Union victory that helped to determine the status of the territory west of the Mississippi River.  Confederate hopes of occupying Missouri were dashed.  This year commemorates the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War in the Ozarks.  The VC at Pea Ridge has an excellent video of the battle and there is a driving tour.  The displays in the VC are well done and very informative.  Naturally all of the passport books were stamped.

Barney and Betty at Pea Ridge

From Pea Ridge we headed for Springfield, Mo.   We were a little too late to stop at the Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield, so we continued east on Rt. 60.  After a fuel stop in Seymour, Mo, we continued on   to visit one of the Rubble branch of the Bedrock Bunch.  The rolling caves are currently parked but will probably be taking day trips for the next few weeks.

Look for more in the next week or so.