Wednesday morning after leaving Goodland, we headed to Abilene, Kansas to visit the Dwight D. Eisenhower library and museum. We arrived about lunch and were able to tour his boyhood home. It was interesting to see how little the house had changed since the time that he had lived there. To me it seemed like it was built very similarly to Richard Nixon's home in Yorba Linda. Also, it was amazing to see how his entire family of his mother, father, grandfather, several brothers, and himself all fit into this small house. It really makes me grateful for the house I have to see what he lived in. Next, we saw a fascinating exhibit in the presidential library, talking about the schooling that several of the presidents had. It was amazing to see how much learning they had had by the time they left high school!
Wednesday afternoon was my turn to drive (yippee!) as we were driving through Kansas for most of the time. The highway there is straight, long, and 75 mph speed limit, very nice for long driving. Although people complain of Kansas being boring, I actually thought it was pretty interesting. After the mountainous regions of Utah and Colorado, it was quite a change to golden plains and vast empty prairies. Late that afternoon we came into Kansas City, a largish city for Kansas. The freeway change was a bit hectic, but really not that bad compared to the average California freeway.
After passing through Kansas City, we arrived in Missouri!! For dinner, we stopped in a small town with a population of about 320. The restaurant we went to closed at 8PM (wow!) It was called Farm House Restaurant, and when we got there about 7:15, we were the only ones there. The food and service was very nice though and we really enjoyed our time though. A quote from Hannah on learning that ice cream came with her meal "I'm shivering with happiness." As we later learned, it came from the Charlotte's Web movie she had recently watched.
Thursday morning after leaving Clinton, Missouri, we went down to Mansfield to visit Laura Ingalls Wilder's house that she lived in after she married. We got a tour of her house, and saw where she wrote her books. The girls really enjoyed the bookstore where they sold period clothing, dolls, and the Little House books. This was definately one of our favorite places to stop.
Last night after stopping at about five different hotels, we finally found rooms in a Hampton inn in Springfield, Illinois. This morning, we drove to the Lincoln Library and Museum. The museum's set up was absolutely phenomenal! They had two tours, one of his boyhood years and one of the white house years. To enter the first exhibt, you went through a replica log cabin and followed the path through various scenes in his life, complete with wax figures and displays of various events. This pathway ended, and the next one went through a front of the White House, where they had several similar scenes, including a moving exhibit of a replica of Lincoln's coffin lying in state in the White House. It was definately an emotional time for me, especially reading the last paragraph of his famed Gettysburg address at the end. Leaving the museum my dad commented on the similarities between Lincoln and our current president Bush which I thought was very interesting. Mainly how Lincoln and Bush were oft criticzed during their lifetimes for difficult decisions they had to make including a decision to go to war. It'll be interesting to see if Bush is as revered after his time as Lincoln was, for they both have had very difficult tasks.
After leaving the museum, we drove north through Illinois and cut through the corner of Indiana. Due to heavy "construction" which we barely saw any of, we made horrible time in Indiana. Finally, however, we made it out of Indiana and into Michigan. And here we are!!! The orchard is gorgeous this time of year and the weather is delightful. Sadly most of the cherries were eaten by raccoons a few nights before we arrived, but we hope to find a couple while we're here. Since we're now in Michigan, pictures from the last several days should be coming very soon.
Under the mercy,
Elizabeth Bush
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