Independence & Kansas City, MO - Nov. 1 - 2, 2007

On November 1 we left Wakarusa heading for Independence, Missouri.  We spent one night at the Wal-Mart in Terre Haute, Indiana, the following morning we drove across Illinois to Campus RV in Independence.  The most interesting thing about this park is its location within walking distance of Harry Truman's home and Independence Town Square, and its neighbor the Community of Christ Temple that spirals 300 feet into the air.  It looks a bit like the minaret of the Great Mosque of Sāmarrā in Iraq.

Independence is a very interesting community.  Although the town was established long before Kansas City as the starting point for the California, Oregon and Santa Fe Trails, it is now a suburb of its larger neighbor, Kansas City. 

We were in Independence to visit the recently renovated Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.  We spent several hours perusing the museum and considering the many very difficult issues President Truman confronted at the close of World War II and the post war years - dropping the atomic bomb, working with Churchill and Stalin to redraw European and Middle East national boundaries, instituting the Marshall Plan, confronting the onset of the Cold War, domestic post-war economic and civil strife, the McCarthy Era, the Korean War and recognizing the new state of Israel.  We still feel the consequences of many of these far reaching decisions today.

Interestingly, by the end of his presidency Truman was reviled by a majority of Americans, yet today's politicians invoke his persona to establish their own credentials.  They try to cloak themselves in Harry Truman's legacy of 'plain speaking' and 'the buck stops here'.   For some, the cloak doesn't fit well.

After visiting the museum we headed for Kansas City (KC) to do a quick tour.  We didn't have much time so we headed to the very impressive World War I Museum perched on a hill overlooking the city.  We then walked down the hill to KC's renovated Union Station built in 1878.  The station was sponsoring the most impressive model train display we had ever seen.

We then drove to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to check out the sculpture garden and KC's emblematic 'Shuttlecock'.  We moved on to the River Market on the Missouri River and finally home. 

The next morning Susan went for a walking around Independence to see Truman's home, the town square, Clinton Pharmacy where Harry worked as a boy, and the historic gingko tree.  Apparently, in Truman's later years he would stop and chat with the gingko tree during his daily walks. 

On Sunday we headed west toward Denver only to run into total gridlock.  Seems that every football fan in the Midwest was heading to the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Green Bay Packers game.  Happily, we were able to move away from bottleneck and get on our merry way.