Kansas City

[From Craig]  Winners in yesterday's "guess where?" question are meowmamma and Laurel Owen.  Today (after the soccer game) we went to the Harry Truman Library and Museum.  We spent long enough there that we decided to skip the Truman home.

Truman is the first president I remember, probably because FDR died before I was born.  To me, he and Reagan were the two most likable presidents.  He and his wife Bess did a lot of letter-writing to each other, and he had pretty good handwriting so it was fun to read what a man thinks while he's president of the United States, as well as before that.  There are too many such letters to read in an afternoon visit, but one that will stay with me was HT writing in 1950: "the members of this Congress are mentally stuck in the 1890's".

His years as President, 1944-52, were amazingly busy times, with WWII, the atomic bomb, getting back to a peacetime economy, the Cold War, and fear of Communists.  Not to mention advances like indoor plumbing, TV, and actually having a chicken in most pots.  

The museum is very well done, especially for people our age.  A thought occurred to me while going through it: while most of the points made in the exhibits were fairly well known to us, to 80% of current Americans not having a TV set is close to inconceivable!  Makes me feel older than when we went in...

The other striking thing was how much Truman's battles with the Republicans in Congress are like the situation in Washington today.  A good lesson for anyone who thinks that modern political times are a lot different from the past!

After we got back, Merikay continued a search for documents we'll need when we get to South Dakota.  Finally she found most of what she was looking for, and we went off in search of KC barbeque.

I had done some research, and we went off to a place called Oklahoma Joe's on the Kansas side of the KC area.  I was scared that it couldn't live up to a quote from the lead restaurant reviewer of the NY Times, that it is "the Best Restaurant In The World".

The place is in a partially-converted gas station.  We happened to walk into a door that leads to a fairly typical gas station convenience store, looking for the BRITW!  The we saw the long line of people coming in from the other door and out into the parking lot.  Mostly locals too!

The wait in line was long enough to hash through the various possibilities.  We settled in a full rack of ribs and a couple of sides, plus a pound of cold pulled pork for lunch tomorrow.

The first four ribs were probably the best food I've ever had in a restaurant.  (Merikay on a good day can beat any restaurant.)  The last 2 or 3 huge ribs went slower, but were still terrific.  Great fries and cole slaw too.  

That NYT reviewer is a smart guy!


From Merikay:  Friday will be a driving day.  We are heading north to Nebraska and plan on stopping at the Blue Ox hitch headquarters. They have overnight RV spots and a plant tour. Normally I make sandwiches to eat while we travel, but I am looking forward to pulling into a rest stop and heating up some pulled pork on buns for lunch!  Yumm. 

Pictures will be taken.