The Midwest

We left you in North Platte, NE on 4/24.The next day we drove only 20 minutes to the Great Platte River Archway Monument that straddles I-80. 

Even though it's a bit pricey, this was a fantastic museum from pioneer days to modern times--150 years-- with very interactive displays and lifesize dioramas.  This road was the major route for the settlement of the West and today, I-80 is the busiest interstate highway in the U.S.  Everyone gets a headset that tells the story at each different exhibit, all included in the admission price.   

 

You are met inside the doors by docents in pioneer costumes doing living history roles. The outside was interesting too since it sits right on the North Platte River and over a bridge spanning the river was an Indian lodge and sod house plus native gardens.  The original company operating this attraction just went bankrupt and the City of Kearney, NE (pronounced "Carney") is now upgrading and operating it--a change for the better the staff said!

The outside was interesting too since it sits right on the North Platte River and over a bridge spanning the river was an Indian lodge and sod house plus native gardens. The original company operating this attraction just went bankrupt and the City of Kearney, NE (pronounced "Carney") is now upgrading and operating it--a change for the better the staff said!

Bridge over the river, large buffalo statue and Indian lodge

The Eisenhower Library with beautiful redbud trees in bloom

On 4/26 we were in Kansas and arrived at 9AM at the Dwight D.Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, a beautiful large complex in downtown Abilene, including his birthplace and a chapel with Ike and Mamie's graves. Lin likes Ike, as the political button used to say, and we thoroughly enjoyed getting reacquainted. The story goes through childhood, West Point, Army staff positions, the war in Europe and the buildup and launch of the D-Day Normandy Landings.

After WWII, the museum follows Ike as president of Columbia University, back in uniform as head of NATO then his political career leading to his presidency. One highlight was a special exhibit in the Library of all the countries in the Allies of World War II, if they were invaded by Germany and their war losses and recovery after the War.  We've never seen anything about many of these countries before. Ukraine was one of the countries shown! 

The house where Eisenhower was born and the chapel with Ike and Mamie's tombs

 

We left about 2:30 and drove to Manhattan, Kansas and the huge campus of Kansas State University.   

We wanted to visit the Insect Zoo that we had read about and found free visitor parking and a very pleasant manager of the facility to show us around.  Lots of live bugs, scorpions,centipedes, leafcutter ants and especially cucarachas (cockroaches) with many dozens of species from tiny to huge, many tarantulas of different species, butterflies and water bugs.   

Great large stuffed toy insects for groups of young schoolkids to learn about insects.   And beautiful gardens outside too -- neat place!

We went to a campground out in the country and hoped for the best since there were tornado warnings for the whole area but the owner assured us they get weather alerts and notify everyone if a tornado is getting close.  Fortunately none did and we came through the night just fine!  For the next few days, the skies were

filled with huge very ominous black clouds.

On Sunday 4/27 as we went to a gas station to fill up with diesel, a huge thunderstorm hit for about 20 minutes with tremendous lightning and extremely heavy rain so bad that you couldn't see to drive on the
road---we waited that one out!  Then we drove toiward Atchison, Kansas and our left windshield wiper quit all the way off the left side of the windshield.Fortunately traffic was light and we drove slowly--the rain was also lighter by then.

Atchison is the home of  Amelia Earhart, the renowned aviatrix who flew nonstop to Europe and Asia and was lost near  Howland Island in the Pacific around 1937.  Lin's Dad was the gunnery officer on the Honolulu-based Coast Guard cutter Itasca which was the communications and picket ship for Amelia's flight in that area.  Itasca began the search for Amelia's plane but she was never found!   

The Atchison Visitor Center has a great display on Amelia's childhood in Atkinson as well as lots of railroad exhibits about the famed Atchison,Topeka and the Santa Fe rail line that was founded here.  Now it's part of the BNSF Railroad presently owned by Warren Buffett.  Mr. Atkinson, the town founder, was incidentally, President of the United States for One Day since he was a U.S. Senator and President pro-tem of the Senate.The newly elected President Zachary Taylor didn't want to be sworn in on the Sabbath!  Atchison's "Presidential Papers" are held in this museum!  Atchison is right on the Missouri River and Amelia Earhart's home overlooks the river in a very swanky neighborhood!  The bridge from Atchison east over the river is named the Amelia Earhart Bridge!

We needed to solve the windshield wiper problem urgently so we headed for nearby Kansas City, MO and the Mercedes dealer where we had changed our oil last trip 2 years ago.  They close on Sunday so we camped in their car lot for the night and got in when they opened at 7:30 AM.  The service adviser checked and to our great relief it wasn't a dead wiper motor (which they didn't have in stock) but the wiper arm was slipping on the wiper motor shaft and in 10 minutes he got tools and tightened everything up and it worked again----no charge!!!  So we were off again at 7:50 AM and entered the state of Iowa at 10:10 heading for the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa.

A theater in West Branch -- all colored glass!

Arriving at 2:40PM, we went through the museum exhibits, then outside in the rain to see the amazing village that has been preserved from Hoover's time, including his birthplace, his Quaker meeting house,neighbor's houses, the blacksmith shop and an area of tallgrass prairie which is near his gravesite.  Many people blamed Hoover, a Republican, for the 1930s Depression in the U.S. but it seems that many of his policies were used by FDR, a Democrat, to pull the country back and get prepared for World War II.  Altogether one of the more interesting of the Presidential Libraries we've seen--still have 4 more Presidents and their Libraries to go see !!!  Off again at 5:35 and at 7 we entered Illinois and another country campground on a nice lake.  Very peaceful!

On 4/29 we drove to the Champaign, IL area to see Lincoln's Log Cabin and Farm where his father, Thomas Lincoln, lived too.  The historic park was closed but the gates were open and we drove in and walked the area and saw the farm where they keep chickens and sheep and do living history in a very beautiful historic setting. 

 

At 5:30PM we pulled into Lawrenceville, IL., 4400 population, where Lin's aunt and uncle on his mother's side, Ada and Harry McKenzie lived for over 25 years.  We stayed at Walmart for the night then out at 9AM in town for the opening of the local Chamber of Commerce.  The gal there listened to our mission and phoned the town historian, Donna Burton, and she told us the places to go and offered to meet us in 1/2 hour at the town library's genealogy room.  We found obits for many McKenzie family members, most unknown to us in the past, then Donna led us to the Zion Cemetery about 5 miles south of town where we met John King, a local corn and soybean farmer and a genealogist. 

He led us to 11 McKenzie graves and told us stories about the families.  When we returned to town, we went to the CountyCourthouse, a beautiful old building and got death certificates for Ada and Harry and the land records office researched the property they lived on south of town and we got some records there too. David at that office knew Blanche Catt, the sister of Harry whose property they lived on and more stories.  

Some cemetery humor!

We noticed on the drive to the cemetery many oil rigs, in the middle of cornfields and gas flares. In the early 1900's there was a lot of oil found here, but it stopped after they thought the oil supply was gone. Now here too they are fracking and there is a new oil boom.

 

Statue of Lincoln walking next to a group of pioneers heading West

That ended the formal research and we moved on 10 miles east to cross the Wabash River into Vincennes, Indiana when we saw a huge church and the Conquest of the West Monument on the Indiana end of

the bridge.  Turns out a Revolutionary War battle was fought here at Fort Sackville and this is the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park when Clark and his men defeated the British in 1779. 

 

A large granite and marble memorial building commemorates the event. Unfortunately, the ranger pulled down the flag and locked up just as we arrived so we didn't get to see the film about these events. Next time! 

 

The Church adjacent is The Old Cathedral also called St. Francis Xavier Basilica, built in 1826. 

Knox County Court House 1874, Vincennes, IN

Welcome to Indiana!  Time change to Eastern Daylight time--we lost another hour!

On 5/1 we got to Indianapolis, IN at 10AM and wanted to see some of the famous large scale war memorials that commemorate Indiana's role in the Civil War and then World Wars I & II.  Indianapolis has about 800,000 population, is a large spread out city and is the Indiana state capital.

The traffic was heavy downtown with little parking so Lin parked in a loading zone a block away from the impressive 284 foot tall Soldiers and Sailors Monument from the Civil War and the Spanish-American War and Maryke walked over for some photographs.   

There are many other memorials nearby plus the World War Memorial is a 100 foot tall obelisk.  Lin walked to the USS Indianapolis Memorial in a sunken park right on the landscaped canal flowing through town.   

This honors the Navy heavy cruiser named for the city of Indianapolis.  On July 30, 1945, after delivering the components of the first atomic bomb to Tinian Island in the Pacific, the ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, causing it to sink in 12 minutes.  1196 men were on board, 300 went down with the ship and 900 went into the water, where many were attacked by sharks. Only 316 men were eventually rescued several days later.  This was the worst naval disaster in U.S history. 

We left Indianapolis at 2:15PM and drove to our destination--Johnny Appleseed Park Campground in Fort Wayne, IN, only a couple miles from downtown Fort Wayne.  Small city-owned camp but very friendly camp host,a nice grassy layout, water and electric and very clean restrooms/showers.  Norm and Mary Shearer, our Escapees Genies Rally Host is a couple spaces away which is convenient for meetings, and a

potluck later in the week.  It's nice to stop for a whole week in one place and clean up the rig and get reorganized.  On May 2, we relaxed, read the newspaper and found a movie listing for "The Monuments Men" in a multiplex theater north of here.  We left early so we could go grocery shopping then see the movie at 3:15.  We both read the book so it was interesting to see how the movie followed the story. The digital special effects were very well done and we really enjoyed it. Turns out this is a second run theater and the price for movies in all 13 theaters is only $3--what a deal!    

On Saturday, 5/3 at 7PM we had our first genealogy rally meeting and dessert to introduce everyone--7 couples--setup dates for a restaurant dinner together and a potluck another day at the campground.  The weather is supposed to improve this week from very windy and cold 40s & 50s to warm up to 80!!  Looking forward to that!   

Working on the computers in the Allen Cty Library

Today, Sunday at 12:30 we have an orientation at the Allen County Public Library genealogy area and we'll probably stay until 5PM.  Our Rally runs through Friday and the library is open 9-6weekdays.  We're looking forward to making some breakthroughs on both the Hines and Dowling sides of the family this week with help from the Library staff.