Knoxville TN
September 17, 2009
We left St. Louis fairly early so that we could get to Knoxville in plenty of time to get ready for the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah. We drove straight through as quickly as possible in order to get their by 9p.m. and we were able to see our grandchilren before they went to bed. Thurs. night was my mother's Yorzheit and I wanted to be able to make some Rosh Hashanah remembrance foods for the dinner on Friday night. The dinner Friday night was a magnificent holiday feast and our grandchildren-not quite four years old were able to say the blessings before the meal.
On Saturday morning we all went to the Children's service for the New Year and we spent the rest of the day playing at home. The synagogue that we went to was the synagogue that we belonged to the year that we lived in Knoxville. It was great to see old friends and acquaintances.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
On the Road-St. Louis
September 16, 2009
Saint Louis
We left Kansas City early for St. Louis where we could visit with cousins. It is really nice to be with family after so long a time. Maria and Norman were great hosts, wining and dining us and giving me a beauty treatment at the office. Maria took us to the MO Botanical Gardens. This is a beautiful place with a Climatron Building (with regulated climates inside) a beautiful herb garden, a Japanese garden enormous koi in the pond, and overall beautiful flowers and scenes. I love the feel of St. Louis.
My cousin Susan says that she loves to follow our adventures on the blog even though we are seeing "lots of places that she would never want to see." That is the thing with driving across the country. You have to go through all the places between two points that you want to see. We try to find something to visit or appreciate in each town but the fact is that some places are not meaningful to us. Maybe some people love these little places. Maybe it is like the food. I have said how I am always surprised that you can't find any decent restaurant in these backwater towns but you can find good food in the most modest restaurant in the big city or a resort town. Maybe the reason is that the people who live in the backwater towns really love the bad food that they are served.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
On the Road- Kansas City-Truman Museum and Library
September 15,2009
St. Joseph MO
Last night we stopped in St. Joseph for the night. There was a coupon for a Best Western and it was really prety basic and the neighborhood didn't look so hot either. We decided to treat ourselves to a nuce dinner but the nicest we could find was a "Ground Round." We got up early to finish our trip to Kansas City and as we drove out, I noticed that they have places of interest even there. They have a museum of psychiatric treatment history and they have the home of Jesse James with the bullet hole in the wall from when his gang shot him dead.
In Kansas City, we used another coupon but this place is very nice. It is a chain called Druray Hotels and it is clean and comfortable. Besides the free breaksfast they provide 3 free alcoholic drinks at a happy hour. I went to check it out and they really do.
Kansas City
Who would have known Independence is for all purposes Kansas City?
We noticed that the Truman Museum and Library, etc were actually very close to our motel and we went over there as soon as we got checked in.
We thought that the museum was great. There is an introductory film that gives one the sense os what brought him to Presidential office. Harry was a farm boy who excelled in school tho not in sports. He courted and married an affluent girl from a fancy family. Not having a job, he went to war during WWI as a captain(altho I don't know how he qualified). He learned from that experience that he could lead. After the war he tried different things, not successfully. He opened a business with a Jewish fellow and their business collapsed during the depression. Jobless again, he went to work for the Democratic machine in KC and was somewhat of a puppet to the party head Pentergast. Pentergast made him a judge (and Harry had no post high school education). Then Pentergast helped him to get a senate seat. Truman was not well thought of at the senate as many felt he was a Pentergast puppet. He did suggest a committee to investigate waste and fraud in government contacts and became chairman of a committee to oversee waste. He got noticed.
When FDR ran for his fourth term, it was apparent to those in the know that FDR would not live long into his nfourth therm and they needed to have a Vice Presedential candidate who could take over the presidency. The earlier VP Henry Wallace was controversal, one reason being Communist ties. Truman had Southern roots, he had labor and minority support and the farm vote and they decided on Truman.
FDR died soon into his fourth term and Truman was left to deal with the problems. One of his major decisions during the war was to drop the atom bomb on Japan
When the war ended, new problems arose. There were no goods available for purchase. Manufacturing had not converted to peacetime. There were shortages noticeabley meat and inflation became rampant. The museum displayed models in dresses with price taqgs for cost of the same dress from maybe 1936 until 1948. Then around 1947 prosperity came to the U.S. Tract houses were built in suburbs and people got tv and refrigerators with freezers.
Things were bad in Europe. The Allies were hungry and had nothing left. The Russians were tryingto spread communism all over Europe and they gained shome footholds. The museum has a very effective alcove showing the allies after the war. The alcove is dark and a wind constantly blows through the burned out houses and the bowls and pots for food are all empty.
Secretary of State Marshall proposed a plan of massive aid to allied countries and this passed and wasvery successful. Truman proposed at Doctrine to contain Communism and try to stop it from encroaching on Europe. When the Russians put a blockade up in Germany to keep supplies from getting to the U.S. sector, the U.S. air lifted food and other necessaries and this was successful.
Truman and therefore U.S. was the first to recognize Israel after Great Britain gave up Palestine,(because of war and expenses there, and they gave Palestine to the U.N. The U.N. made it a Jewish state. Chaim Weizmann, who had been put in touch with Truman by Truman's old friend from the haberdashery, told Truman that the decision to recognze Israel was for Israel a decision before Statehood and Extermination.
Then came the serious fears of communism in the U.S. and Senator Joseph McCarthy and his hearings of accusing many loyeal Amercans of being Communists. Truman went along with forcing employees to take loyalty oaths but he did question McCarthy's tactics and evidence.
The museum had a couple of auditoriums in which visitors could vote with approval or disapproval of government actions.
When you enter the Museum there is a note about the information given about Truman. It notes that "history does not speak with one voice."
St. Joseph MO
Last night we stopped in St. Joseph for the night. There was a coupon for a Best Western and it was really prety basic and the neighborhood didn't look so hot either. We decided to treat ourselves to a nuce dinner but the nicest we could find was a "Ground Round." We got up early to finish our trip to Kansas City and as we drove out, I noticed that they have places of interest even there. They have a museum of psychiatric treatment history and they have the home of Jesse James with the bullet hole in the wall from when his gang shot him dead.
In Kansas City, we used another coupon but this place is very nice. It is a chain called Druray Hotels and it is clean and comfortable. Besides the free breaksfast they provide 3 free alcoholic drinks at a happy hour. I went to check it out and they really do.
Kansas City
Who would have known Independence is for all purposes Kansas City?
We noticed that the Truman Museum and Library, etc were actually very close to our motel and we went over there as soon as we got checked in.
We thought that the museum was great. There is an introductory film that gives one the sense os what brought him to Presidential office. Harry was a farm boy who excelled in school tho not in sports. He courted and married an affluent girl from a fancy family. Not having a job, he went to war during WWI as a captain(altho I don't know how he qualified). He learned from that experience that he could lead. After the war he tried different things, not successfully. He opened a business with a Jewish fellow and their business collapsed during the depression. Jobless again, he went to work for the Democratic machine in KC and was somewhat of a puppet to the party head Pentergast. Pentergast made him a judge (and Harry had no post high school education). Then Pentergast helped him to get a senate seat. Truman was not well thought of at the senate as many felt he was a Pentergast puppet. He did suggest a committee to investigate waste and fraud in government contacts and became chairman of a committee to oversee waste. He got noticed.
When FDR ran for his fourth term, it was apparent to those in the know that FDR would not live long into his nfourth therm and they needed to have a Vice Presedential candidate who could take over the presidency. The earlier VP Henry Wallace was controversal, one reason being Communist ties. Truman had Southern roots, he had labor and minority support and the farm vote and they decided on Truman.
FDR died soon into his fourth term and Truman was left to deal with the problems. One of his major decisions during the war was to drop the atom bomb on Japan
When the war ended, new problems arose. There were no goods available for purchase. Manufacturing had not converted to peacetime. There were shortages noticeabley meat and inflation became rampant. The museum displayed models in dresses with price taqgs for cost of the same dress from maybe 1936 until 1948. Then around 1947 prosperity came to the U.S. Tract houses were built in suburbs and people got tv and refrigerators with freezers.
Things were bad in Europe. The Allies were hungry and had nothing left. The Russians were tryingto spread communism all over Europe and they gained shome footholds. The museum has a very effective alcove showing the allies after the war. The alcove is dark and a wind constantly blows through the burned out houses and the bowls and pots for food are all empty.
Secretary of State Marshall proposed a plan of massive aid to allied countries and this passed and wasvery successful. Truman proposed at Doctrine to contain Communism and try to stop it from encroaching on Europe. When the Russians put a blockade up in Germany to keep supplies from getting to the U.S. sector, the U.S. air lifted food and other necessaries and this was successful.
Truman and therefore U.S. was the first to recognize Israel after Great Britain gave up Palestine,(because of war and expenses there, and they gave Palestine to the U.N. The U.N. made it a Jewish state. Chaim Weizmann, who had been put in touch with Truman by Truman's old friend from the haberdashery, told Truman that the decision to recognze Israel was for Israel a decision before Statehood and Extermination.
Then came the serious fears of communism in the U.S. and Senator Joseph McCarthy and his hearings of accusing many loyeal Amercans of being Communists. Truman went along with forcing employees to take loyalty oaths but he did question McCarthy's tactics and evidence.
The museum had a couple of auditoriums in which visitors could vote with approval or disapproval of government actions.
When you enter the Museum there is a note about the information given about Truman. It notes that "history does not speak with one voice."
On the Road-Lincoln NE
University of Nebraska at Lincoln State Museum
September 14, 2009
ELEPHANTS AND CAMELS
Who would have known that millions of years ago Nebraska had elephants and camels walking around. Tis isbecause the land bridge that at one time stretched across Asia into North America allowed these animals to cross. At that time Nebraska was on the Equator. Once the ice age came and it got colder , the ancient elephant evolved into the Woolly Mammoth with hugely extended tusks and tiny ears. Elephants' ears are used for cooling themselves so the colder the climate, the smaller the ears. There were also Mastodaons here that looked a lot like the woolly mammoth but amny scientists believe that they are not elephants. The camels apparently stepped into some mud as the Nebraska sea was evaporating and camels were unable to extricate themselves and they died right there. They found the camels' upright feet and legs in a certain layer of rock under the earth. These camels only got extinct here 11,000years ago. A form of hyena called the Borophagus ate the camel carcasses when they could.
ALL ANIMALS LIVED IN THE SEA
At an earlier time, there was no atmosphere on Earth and all animals lived in the water. The whale was an ancestor of many animals and in NE, the rhino was a direct descendant of the whale. There were even sharks living in the NE sea 300 million years ago. When the oceans got too crowded, some animal pioneers ventured on to land and found that they could survive.
Nebraska has huge amounts of fossils and bones from these ancient animals. NE is most famous for fossils of the Cenozoic period. They found bones from 10,000 elephants so far and they estimate that there are 3000 more. At this point, still one in ten houses in NE has elephant or dinosaur bones buried under it. The stegasaurus was first found and named in NE and they dug up plenty of them.
SCALE TREES
The most common plant-eating mammal on the Great Plains was the Oreodont. The earlist tree type are scale trees. The museum had some fossils of them and these trees had no rings. Flowers first developed 199 million years ago.
DINOSAURS
Dinsaurs developed here about the same time as mammals. The stegasaurus was first discovered and named in NE. There were many of them found here as well as other dinosaurs. Dinosaurs and early mammals often swallowed stones that helped grind there stiff plant food so that it could be digested.
September 14, 2009
ELEPHANTS AND CAMELS
Who would have known that millions of years ago Nebraska had elephants and camels walking around. Tis isbecause the land bridge that at one time stretched across Asia into North America allowed these animals to cross. At that time Nebraska was on the Equator. Once the ice age came and it got colder , the ancient elephant evolved into the Woolly Mammoth with hugely extended tusks and tiny ears. Elephants' ears are used for cooling themselves so the colder the climate, the smaller the ears. There were also Mastodaons here that looked a lot like the woolly mammoth but amny scientists believe that they are not elephants. The camels apparently stepped into some mud as the Nebraska sea was evaporating and camels were unable to extricate themselves and they died right there. They found the camels' upright feet and legs in a certain layer of rock under the earth. These camels only got extinct here 11,000years ago. A form of hyena called the Borophagus ate the camel carcasses when they could.
ALL ANIMALS LIVED IN THE SEA
At an earlier time, there was no atmosphere on Earth and all animals lived in the water. The whale was an ancestor of many animals and in NE, the rhino was a direct descendant of the whale. There were even sharks living in the NE sea 300 million years ago. When the oceans got too crowded, some animal pioneers ventured on to land and found that they could survive.
Nebraska has huge amounts of fossils and bones from these ancient animals. NE is most famous for fossils of the Cenozoic period. They found bones from 10,000 elephants so far and they estimate that there are 3000 more. At this point, still one in ten houses in NE has elephant or dinosaur bones buried under it. The stegasaurus was first found and named in NE and they dug up plenty of them.
SCALE TREES
The most common plant-eating mammal on the Great Plains was the Oreodont. The earlist tree type are scale trees. The museum had some fossils of them and these trees had no rings. Flowers first developed 199 million years ago.
DINOSAURS
Dinsaurs developed here about the same time as mammals. The stegasaurus was first discovered and named in NE. There were many of them found here as well as other dinosaurs. Dinosaurs and early mammals often swallowed stones that helped grind there stiff plant food so that it could be digested.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
On the Road;Cheyenne
September 12, 2009
Cheyenne
Cheyenne is the capital city of Wyoming and at one time, it was a pretty good sized city. gold was discovered there and the Pacific Railroad went through the city. The railroad went over the nearby mountain making that track the highest on the entire railroad line. The main street there is Lincoln Highway and Lincoln Highway is the oldest road to go East -West across the country. It is older than route 66. At one time Cheyenne was in the running to have the Intl airport but it lost out to Denver which has turned out to be a much bigger city. Our guide on our trolley sightseeing tour told us that at one time Cheyenne was the richest city in terms of per capita assets. There was a millionaire's row and one millionaire purchased a house and built 6 brick houses on the property, one for each of his daughters. None of the daughters ever lived in one. The money came from rr money and oil money.(They have oil here and we some oil jacks as we drove along the road).There was one escaped slave who opened a restaurant and got quite rich. The doctor and the lawyers and the architects did well also.
The shops downtown seem to close at 2p.m. on Saturday and after that it looks dead in the city. We visited a Museum of the West which had quit a number of old carriages. There is a statue outside on the road of an Esther something who was the first woman in the U.S. to cast a vote. Wyoming wasn't quite a state when the territory gave women the right to vote. Wyoming is one of 10 states to have gold on the dome of their capital building.
In July, Cheyenne hosts a big week long event called Pioneer Days.
The best museum that we got to see was the state museum. It had a dinosaur section because the first triceratops skeleton was discovered in Wyoming. It was discovered by some Yale professor who uncovered about 16 of them but he took them all out of Wyoming; and all Wyoming ever got back was a cast of a skull. They had a tortoise fossil of a giant tortoise that was some 40 million years old. There was a room of furnitue created by a Wyoming fellow--Tom something--in which he used burls from trees as will as straight logs for his furniture. He used Pioneer and Indian designs on the upholstery.
iAn intersting thing that I noticed was a case of Indian made artifacts that the Indians made in a way of copying the Pioneers that they met. They were woven neckties sitting in a stiff frame, lady's hanbags with Indian beading.
There was a lake here that was 20,000 miles wide. It evaporated and some chemical from the water seeped into the land and made some mineral called Trona. They have most of the Trona in the world and it is used the make baking soda, boric acid, detergents, etc. they also mine a lot of coal here--either because they have a whole lot or they allow it all to get mined.
There is no income tax in Wyoming and a 5% sales tax.
On the Road-Wyoming
September 11, 2009- Day of Remembrance
Jackson Hole
<>It turns out that Jackson Hole pretty much shuts down after labor day. The stage coach ride, which I was looking forward to was over. The daily shoot-out in the town square at 6 p.m. was over. Our guide told us that by the end of September, it would become a ghost town. It looked pretty crowded to me but every lodging seemed to have a vacancy and we got a good deal on our room. The history, or apocryphal, is quite colorful with shady hotel owners and visiting outlaws. TAhey get a lot of mileage out of the Hollywood movies such as "Shane" that have been made there and Willy Nelson was there at some time.
The best restaurant that we found in JH is a breakfast place called The Bunnery. Its specialty is their flour called OSM which is Oat, Sunflower, Millet.
Driving across Wyoming
When we left Jackson Hole to trave East and South to St. Louis, we found that we had to go back North through the Tetons in order to get on a good road East. The mountains were again beautiful with their nipple points but when we got on the highway to go across the state, it became really boring. By this I mean that you can drive for hours and hours and see nothing but dead looking grassy land and some cows roaming or resting. The cattle are fenced in from the road(fences were not so total in Montana) but in the pastures there is another kind of fence. It looks like separate pieces of fencing that is not secured in the ground but stands up because of protruding pieces In the back allowing it to stand up, rather like a stage prop. I can't find it on Google images so I will have to ask someone. The cattle often congregate against these fake fences. Like Montana, you see some windmill farms as you ride along. But like Montana, it seems totally empty.
UPDATE:Turns out these free standing unattached fences are snow fences. These keep the wind from blowing the snow into unwanted drifts.
Museum of Frontier History
We came upon this museum and it was an actual building on the road and it was marked "free" and we needed a rest stop so we went to visit. It tuned out to be a remarkable place. We did not take the camera because we didn't anything that spectacular. There were old Frontier Wagons. One particularly interesting one was a "sheep wagon" which which was used by Shephards to move with their herd---but David thought that the inside looked just like a modern RV. There was a kitchen stove, hanging post and pans, storage drawers, windows and a bed.
There was a magnificent log looking full service bar with a ;sign by the cash register with the name of a town drunk for whom it was forbidden to be served any alcohol. There was a sign of Stage Coach rules which included abstaining from alcohol unless you would share the bottle around, not smoking cigars in the prescience of ladies. These were suggestions but a man would be put off the coach in the middle of nowhere if "he behaved unchivalrously toward a lady." IT was a;sp forbidden to discuss "stage coach robberies or Indian sightings."
There was replica of a "chemist's shop" a "doctor's office" frontier "home furniture", extensive Indian arrows and arrowheads. There were pictures of hangings and a replica of the hangman's noose.
It turned out that this museum was in actual town called Lander. When I asked the woman in the museum gift shop where I could get a cup of coffee, she told me about 2 places on Main Street. I asked her where Main Street was and she said that I was on it. Sure enough, a while down the road we came upon some stores and we stopped at the supermarket and I got a good coffee. When we left Lander, it was more open spaces until Laramie.
There were lots and lots of trucks on our road and many carried cows or sheep. They may have been going to market, I don't know. There were also many really oversized loads of metal boxes(with no tops) and these trailers holding very long white canvass looking rolled fabric
UPDATE: Turns out that those long white cones and the metal boxes are for another windmilll farm.
Cheyenne
We were going to stop in Laramie for the night but there is a big college football game this weekend(Wyoming and Texas" and the rooms were dear so we went on to Cheyenne, the capital city.Landers, Wyoming
Jackson Hole
<>It turns out that Jackson Hole pretty much shuts down after labor day. The stage coach ride, which I was looking forward to was over. The daily shoot-out in the town square at 6 p.m. was over. Our guide told us that by the end of September, it would become a ghost town. It looked pretty crowded to me but every lodging seemed to have a vacancy and we got a good deal on our room. The history, or apocryphal, is quite colorful with shady hotel owners and visiting outlaws. TAhey get a lot of mileage out of the Hollywood movies such as "Shane" that have been made there and Willy Nelson was there at some time.
The best restaurant that we found in JH is a breakfast place called The Bunnery. Its specialty is their flour called OSM which is Oat, Sunflower, Millet.
Driving across Wyoming
When we left Jackson Hole to trave East and South to St. Louis, we found that we had to go back North through the Tetons in order to get on a good road East. The mountains were again beautiful with their nipple points but when we got on the highway to go across the state, it became really boring. By this I mean that you can drive for hours and hours and see nothing but dead looking grassy land and some cows roaming or resting. The cattle are fenced in from the road(fences were not so total in Montana) but in the pastures there is another kind of fence. It looks like separate pieces of fencing that is not secured in the ground but stands up because of protruding pieces In the back allowing it to stand up, rather like a stage prop. I can't find it on Google images so I will have to ask someone. The cattle often congregate against these fake fences. Like Montana, you see some windmill farms as you ride along. But like Montana, it seems totally empty.
UPDATE:Turns out these free standing unattached fences are snow fences. These keep the wind from blowing the snow into unwanted drifts.
Museum of Frontier History
We came upon this museum and it was an actual building on the road and it was marked "free" and we needed a rest stop so we went to visit. It tuned out to be a remarkable place. We did not take the camera because we didn't anything that spectacular. There were old Frontier Wagons. One particularly interesting one was a "sheep wagon" which which was used by Shephards to move with their herd---but David thought that the inside looked just like a modern RV. There was a kitchen stove, hanging post and pans, storage drawers, windows and a bed.
There was a magnificent log looking full service bar with a ;sign by the cash register with the name of a town drunk for whom it was forbidden to be served any alcohol. There was a sign of Stage Coach rules which included abstaining from alcohol unless you would share the bottle around, not smoking cigars in the prescience of ladies. These were suggestions but a man would be put off the coach in the middle of nowhere if "he behaved unchivalrously toward a lady." IT was a;sp forbidden to discuss "stage coach robberies or Indian sightings."
There was replica of a "chemist's shop" a "doctor's office" frontier "home furniture", extensive Indian arrows and arrowheads. There were pictures of hangings and a replica of the hangman's noose.
It turned out that this museum was in actual town called Lander. When I asked the woman in the museum gift shop where I could get a cup of coffee, she told me about 2 places on Main Street. I asked her where Main Street was and she said that I was on it. Sure enough, a while down the road we came upon some stores and we stopped at the supermarket and I got a good coffee. When we left Lander, it was more open spaces until Laramie.
There were lots and lots of trucks on our road and many carried cows or sheep. They may have been going to market, I don't know. There were also many really oversized loads of metal boxes(with no tops) and these trailers holding very long white canvass looking rolled fabric
UPDATE: Turns out that those long white cones and the metal boxes are for another windmilll farm.
Cheyenne
We were going to stop in Laramie for the night but there is a big college football game this weekend(Wyoming and Texas" and the rooms were dear so we went on to Cheyenne, the capital city.Landers, Wyoming
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Jackson Hole
Wednesday September 9, 2009
we left Yellowstone by 8 a.m. and we drove south through the Great Tetons Natl Park. These are especially varied peaks and they get their name from the French for breast. I could see that. As lovely as it was, I was sated with seeing mountains already and I wanted to get to a place with internet, cell phone coverage and radio and tv.
Jackson Hole
We pulled into Jackson before noon and we were enchanted. Everything has a wild west decor. There are lots of souvenir shops but they are in good taste and cleverly named. One is called "shirt off my back" and one is called Shirts and Ernies.
I like the name of the town. It is surrounded by mountains and apparently some early fur trader called it Jackson Hole and the name stuck.
We spent a while deciding on which motel room to take In one motel room that we were given a key to take a look at the room there were 7 or 8 emplayees sitting having lunch and watching mtv. The proprietress did not see anything wrong with that but I did. Another thing that I discovered is that when a lodgine receptionist won't let you take a look at a room unless it is made up, she is right. Looking at someone else's left behind room is offputting.
There is a cowboy saloon where all the barstools are saddles.
we left Yellowstone by 8 a.m. and we drove south through the Great Tetons Natl Park. These are especially varied peaks and they get their name from the French for breast. I could see that. As lovely as it was, I was sated with seeing mountains already and I wanted to get to a place with internet, cell phone coverage and radio and tv.
Jackson Hole
We pulled into Jackson before noon and we were enchanted. Everything has a wild west decor. There are lots of souvenir shops but they are in good taste and cleverly named. One is called "shirt off my back" and one is called Shirts and Ernies.
I like the name of the town. It is surrounded by mountains and apparently some early fur trader called it Jackson Hole and the name stuck.
We spent a while deciding on which motel room to take In one motel room that we were given a key to take a look at the room there were 7 or 8 emplayees sitting having lunch and watching mtv. The proprietress did not see anything wrong with that but I did. Another thing that I discovered is that when a lodgine receptionist won't let you take a look at a room unless it is made up, she is right. Looking at someone else's left behind room is offputting.
There is a cowboy saloon where all the barstools are saddles.
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