Lawrence to Lincoln

Greetings everybody and thanks for visiting again.

Day 4 of our journey across America took us to Lawrence, Kansas. After driving from St. Louis, stopping at the University of Missouri and Harry Truman's home in Independence, then driving through Kansas City, we made it into Lawrence about dark.

We stayed at an old-fashioned Holiday Inn with a great indoor pool, and got up the next morning for a visit to Kansas University.

Lawrence and KU far exceeded my expectations. Lawrence is a small college town about 40 minutes west of Kansas City and 20 minutes east of the state capital of Topeka. It is really clean and pretty.

Kansas U was beautiful. Instead of being flat and dull (as I had envisioned) it is up on a hill with pretty views, a large open campus with gorgeous buildings. One of the favorites I have visited ... Athens/UGA is the gold standard of course, but I rank Kansas up there with Georgia, UNC at Chapel Hill, and Virginia.

On campus, we visited Allen Fieldhouse and drove by the football stadium (you can tell b-ball is the big deal at Kansas.

Enjoy the pictures!

Holiday Inn Lawrence, Kansas

A great big pool that was a comfortable temp

You can't see them well, but all the Big 12 school flags are hung from the rafters.

Phog Allen Fieldhouse ... named for the great Kansas coach and student of James Naismith (who came to teach/coach at Kansas after inventing basketball in Springfield, Mass). Kansas has a great tradition ... Allen coached Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith so there is a direct link from contemporary times back to the origins of the game.

Kansas Hall of Fame inside Allen Fieldhouse

Found a way into main court area!

Allen had a real old-school feel to it obviously ... I think I liked it better than the Dean Dome or Cameron at Duke. It was big like the Dean Dome, but kept that old gym style of Cameron while being very modern on outside and around concourse. Very impressed by whole campus.

Campus is up on a hill, but football stadium is kind of down in a valley. A beautiful drive around dorms, academic buildings (like the one above), and an outdoor park area made it very picturesque. The parking would not come close to handling an SEC type crowd though.

Next stop .... Lincoln, Nebraska ... we take a quick detour in Topeka to eat at a place I saw on Diners-Drive Ins and Dives, then get off the interstate to drive several hours north to the home of the Huskers!

Thanks for visiting (I am typing from Rawlins, Wyoming) ... will update soon.

Hope all is well with all of you.

The Show Me State

Day 3 of our great westward journey took us across The Show Me State of Missouri.

After spending the day at the St. Louis zoo, we drove west on I-70 and soon crossed the mighty Missouri River. Our destination was Lawrence, Kansas, and on the way we passed through Columbia and saw the University of Missouri.

Just miles before Kansas City at the far edge of the state, we stopped in Independence to see the home of one of my favorite U.S. Presidents ... Harry Truman.

Old "Give 'Em You Know What" moved back to his long-time home after leaving the presidency, the White House, and the spotlight in 1953, and there he stayed until his death in 1972. A modest home in a middle American town ... a true citizen-president.

Hope you enjoy the pictures (click on any to enlarge).

The Mighty Missouri River

Memorial Stadium- Don Faurot Field at UM

My sources in the athletic department at Mizzou tell me the Tigers will accept an invitation to join the Big Ten by the end of June. OK ... so my source was actually a sophomore working in the football stadium gift shop, but still.

Harry Truman Home - Independence

Harry Truman Presidential Library ... unfortunately we enjoyed the zoo so much we got to Independence after hours - I would have enjoyed seeing it.

Thanks for keeping up with us ... next stop is more Big 12 country ... Lawrence, Kansas, and then Lincoln, Nebraska!

Scenes from St. Louis

We were supposed to stay two nights in St. Louis, but the delay in Nashville cut the visit to one night.

We stayed at the Drury Inn by the Arch and it was very nice ... walking distance to most downtown attractions. We visited the arch, the city museum (which is really a kid's play museum), and the St. Louis zoo (great zoo which is free) on the way out of town.

Here are a few pics (next stops ... U Mizzou ... Kansas U ... U Nebraska) ... we are currently in Colorado Springs, Co.

Above ... at the museum under the arch ... great info on Lewis and Clark, all the presidents, exhibits of pioneers, etc.

Above ... view from our room

Above ... another view from room

And another above ...

Above ... sliding down in the city museum

Under the arch ...

Above ... Atop the arch

Above ... a view of Jones Dome from the arch

Shadow of Arch on mighty Mississip

View of Busch Stadium from arch

Pool at Drury in St. Louis

Neat Lewis and Clark statue in lobby of Drury

At St. Louis zoo above

Above at zoo

St. Louis zoo

Gateway to the West

St. Louis, the historic gateway to the American West, is a great city to visit ... easy to navigate, not so large that you get overwhelmed, and plenty to do.

These are shots as you enter the city crossing the mighty Mississippi on I-64 West. As soon as you come into the city you'll see Busch Stadium, home of the Cardinals. Our hotel (Drury Inn at the Arch) was only a couple blocks down so we drove right beside the stadium (you can see into and onto the field from centerfield on Clark Street).

Next stop ... our hotel, the Arch, and downtown sites!

Seeking Shelter from the Storm

Welcome to the 2010 May Getaway!

The trip got off to a very soggy start on Sunday May 2nd.

We left at 9:45 AM Sunday morning, and some 7 hours later we were all the way to ... Nashville ... yes we got caught (literally) in the great Nashville flood. All interstates were closed.

We came very close to being stranded on I-40 (we had gotten routed to I-4o W when I-65 and I-24 were shut down. Some vehicles were stuck up to 18 hours on the interstate, but thankfully we had stopped on the way in to Nashville and reserved a hotel room in Brentwood (southside of town). After a hour or so of just sitting, we managed to get off an exit and wind thru back roads back to the hotel and stayed there. Whew!


(Above): Monday morning was bright and beautiful and we cruised through Nashville with no problems. The water levels were amazing and nearly up to field level at the football stadium (it would flood the next day as the waters kept rising).

Above: You can see the Titans stadium in the upper right. This is I-24 W going through downtown. A person had actually drowned near here on Saturday night from the flood.

Above: A harrowing drive was finally over as we made it back to a parking lot near our hotel. If you ever take a long trip, buy a GPS system. Ours helped us navigate back roads to find our street.

Above: This was our view on I-40 W outside Nashville for probably an hour or two. I cut across four lanes to get to the last exit that was open and then wound thru backroads to the hotel. Tempers were flaring as big trucks blocked people off ... a man got out of a vehicle and confronted a guy three cars in front of us because the guy would not pull up. Bad scene.

Above: Some of the waters coming into Nashville on Sunday afternoon before it started raining hard again.

May Getaway 2010

Hello all and welcome to the May Getaway 2010.

Partly inspired by the recent (and great) Ken Burns documentary on America's national parks, our trip this year centers on two of the nations' favorite historical destinations - Yellowstone and Mt. Rushmore.

We'll start like those pioneers of yesteryear ... heading west through St. Louis. Not completely finalized, the driving trip is scheduled to pass through 17 states and make a big loop through much of the Great Plains ... west through St. Louis and back on a more northern path through Minneapolis and down thru Chicago.

Hope you'll visit the blog (and that I am able to update it some during the trip).

See you soon!