Headed South!

March 31-April 4, 2024

We’ve named this trip “The Eclipse/Presidential Library Loop” as we will not only be experiencing a total solar eclipse, but touring five presidential libraries along the way!  My fascination with presidential libraries began when we toured Ronald Regan’s library in Simi Valley, California (which, after touring a handful of other libraries, remains to be my very favorite!).  That being said, we choose Independence, MO to call home during this stop, due to its proximity to the Harry S. Truman Library!

Campus RV Park was only a mile and a half from the library, with Truman’s home being located right along the path from the campground to the library!  Although we felt safe and everything was in good working condition, I have to mention that it’s an older neighborhood which by every appearance is past its prime.  

Truman’s library did a really fantastic job of portraying the emotions and pressure Truman experienced when Roosevelt died and he suddenly found himself taking the oath of office for the presidency.  Truman was beyond shocked and is quoted as saying “the weight of the government had fallen on my shoulders.”  I can’t even imagine going from absolutely no knowledge that the US was working on the creation of the atomic bomb to having to decide on its use within only a few months.  

Fat Man Safety Plug from the plutonium bomb dropped on Nagasaki

The museum is filled with meaningful artifacts, one being a photo of Elizabeth “Bess” Walker, which Truman carried in his pocket while serving in WWI.  During this time, they were secretly engaged and were married as soon as the war ended.  

I was especially touched by a small origami crane on display.  This very tiny crane had been folded by Sadako Sasaki who, as a two-year-old, endured the bombing of Hiroshima.  When she was eleven years old, she was hospitalized with leukemia, a result of radiation exposure.  While hospitalized, Sadako folded over 1,000 of these origami paper cranes.  Japanese legend has it that whoever folds 1,000 cranes will be granted a wish.  Sadako’s wish – peace.  Sadako died at the age of 12.  This paper crane is one of the few original cranes Sadako folded.

Another major accomplishment that I appreciated during Truman’s presidency was him putting his signature on the press release announcing America’s support of the creation of the State of Israel.  Seeing all that is going on in Israel today, it’s never been more important for Israel to feel our full support.  

We all know Truman’s famous quote “The Buck Stops Here”!  Seeing this sign in person was fun!  What I didn’t know was that on the back of this sign, which would have been what Truman saw, is "I’m from Missouri” which served as a reminder to him of where he came from and where he would live out the remainder of his life post-presidency.  

As we drove past the house he lived in post-presidency, it was fun imagining him out for his “daily constitutional”!  Although it drove secret service agents crazy, Truman insisted on walking from his home to his office, located inside his library.  Truman used this office daily from 1957-1966.  It’s said that Truman would stop to greet people as he walked to his office, even posing for photos!  

Spending time with friends during our travels is always a highlight!  We’ve known Cindy and Alan since 1982, as Dick and Alan worked together at Black & Veatch.  Despite Cindy having had a full hip replacement only a few weeks earlier, Cindy and Alan were still able and willing to meet us for dinner!  I’m not sure if it was our company or the delicious food at Jack Stack Barbecue that attracted them, but it sure was fun to enjoy a delicious meal and catch up with them before heading out of the Kansas City area.

Our next stop was an overnight stay in Oklahoma that is hardly worth mentioning, other than that we may have gotten a little rusty at some of the routines of setting up and hitching up!  We had a bit of trouble leveling the camper and, once we finally got all of the wheels back on the ground, we found we had a failure message on the camper brakes!  Fortunately, Dick remembered the rubbing-alcohol-on-with-a-cotton-swab trick, solving that problem after a quick trip to Walmart for supplies.  The next issue was the water connection which, when Dick opened the site’s water box to hook up the water, he found the connection to be completely submerged in water!  It comes in three’s – right?  There happened to be another site open that we were able to move to, so we hitched up the camper and moved up the lane a bit.  Being how we were going to be leaving first thing in the morning, and we were a bit weary of this whole hitching, unhitching, leveling thing, we hooked up the water and electric and left the camper hitched to the truck.  We decided we deserved a little shortcut after all of this!  The threes thing seemed to be true, as the remainder of our time there was quiet and calm!

Next up:  Waco, Texas!