A Historic Site, a Museum, and a Fair

Most of what we did today we completely made up along the way and it all turned out roses. After waking up in Lawrence, Kansas we did some strolling along a street with lots of very college town shops.

We both agreed that the neighborhood reminded us of the Loop in St. Louis only much less scary. I even got to do some profitable book shopping. Hurray!

We then hit the road and headed towards our only actually planned destination: Wamego, KS.

We weren't driving long before we hit our first detour: a sign for the Brown v. Board of Education

National Historic Site in Topeka. It sounded cool plus Lydia is a teacher so I figured she'd be even more interested.

This creepy black baby-doll had was accompanied by a sign that read:

This doll is one of four that Kenneth and Mamie Clark used to conduct their study on the damage done to black children by branding them with the inferior status implied by segregation. Starting in 1939, the Clarks used these dolls to test some 200 children, including 16 black children aged 6 to 9 in rural Clarendon County, South Carolina, the week before the Briggs case was argued.

 "The conclusion I was forced to reach was that the children in Clarendon County, like other human beings who are subjected to an obviously inferior status in the society in which they live, have been definitely harmed in the development of their personalities." Dr. Kenneth Clark testimony, Briggs v. Elliot, 1951.

When we finally made it to Wamego we popped in to the OZ Museum. The Wizard of Oz is credited as the only time the state of Kansas has ever been or will ever be mentioned in a movie ever. Ever.

From the outside, I was a bit iffy on whether the OZ Museum was going to be worth the $8 admission, but it ended up being pretty darn cool.

They had lots of neat memorabilia from the books as well as the movie.

I liked Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum's life story because he was really hustling. He seemed to be doing lots of random odd jobs until he found something completely awesome to make his career. At one point he was a traveling axle grease salesman. It doesn't get much worse than that.

There was a little sign in the museum that explained that the Emerald City in the books was likely inspired by the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, often referred to as the "White City". Baum traveled to Chicago to see the fair. An additional fun fact was that in Baum's first book the city wasn't green, but anyone who entered was forced to wear green tinted glasses which created the illusion that the city was emerald. That sneaky wizard!

Even the museum's closed sign was fun!

Across the street there was a nice little yellow brick road leading to a park.

Well we only had a couple of things planned to do in Omaha and we still had an extra day to burn, so we decided to tour a bit of Nebraska's hinterland. In particular the Sandhills sounded like they might be worth a look. Why not? Well as we drove I passed a billboard for the Nebraska State Fair on the highway. I noticed that it was in progress, but didn't think much of it. A little while later we stopped at a Walmart for some snacks or something, and just for giggles I checked where the fair was going to be held. It was taking place in Grand Island, Nebraska. The city we had just stopped in. We both laughed when we saw the sign in the Walmart parking lot that read: "State Fair Shuttle". Let's go!

We arrived pretty late in the day due to the total lack of planning that had taken place, so we only had an hour before all of the exhibitions closed. We booked it.

This was a combine simulator which may win for dullest video game ever.

Clown garbage can. Who's laughing now?

Lydia wanted to walk around and look at this building full of quilts. I was glad she suggested it too because there were lots of patterns and fabrics and each color had a really significant zzzzzzzz.........

I had to admit that this Lego Star Wars quilt was pretty killer.

Sky ride!

There was a building full of pigs and cows about to or recently having given birth. There was a crowd gathered around one mother pig that looked like she was about ready to start launching little walking ham sandwiches at any moment. I can't say I've ever actually witnessed any sort of birth take place and I didn't want to ruin my winning streak today. I enjoyed watching these little guys battle for milk though.

There were some recent chick escapees present as well.

Why not?

This sheep needed some supervision. Not my souvenir cup!

How would you like to be a corn judge?

Once we were satisfied with seeing every last display we could relax and stuff our faces with fair food.

I read about the stuffed cucumbers while still on the shuttle bus and was happy to find them. There were a couple choices... chicken salad and a something else... but I chose seafood salad. It was really delicious and unusual, and its healthiness was completely out of fair-food character. The guy pumped it full of filling with like a food-grade caulk gun. Appetizing.

We had a beef sundae, which was beef, mashed potatoes, cheese, and a cherry tomato with some toast on the side. People used to call me "beef sundae" in college.

What a day!

Omaha Via Long John Silver's

We briefly considered spending the three-day Labor Day weekend at home taking it easy, but then we were like "Nah, let's go someplace awesome." Our plan was to check out Omaha, Nebraska but so many quests, voyages, and adventures presented themselves along the way that we only spent one night there.

On the way out of town I took Lydia to Long John Silver's. The poor girl had never been there before! What's the statute of limitations on child abuse?! My mom took me to this deliciously unhealthy eatery quite often and it's surely part of why I'm such a great success today. The magic is pretty simple. Take an animal that used to live in the water and then make it crunchy. Also chicken. Boom.

Also the hats.

We drove by the most glitzy glamorous rural Missouri movie theater that ever was dreamt: the Century 6 in Nevada, Missouri.

We made it to Lawrence, Kansas before stopping for the night.

Will our fearless adventurers make it to Omaha? Will they survive their encounter with a 75 year old creepy black baby-doll? Will they see a camel? Will Lydia eat a cucumber shoved full of crab meat? Find out next time on John Milito's Amazing Adventures!

Kansas City with the Fam Day 2

We woke up, ate some bagels and tiny little yogurt packages at the hotel's free breakfast, and hit the road. Our destination was Independence, MO.




View indepedence in a larger map

Independence has a few things going on. It was a point of departure on the Oregon Trail, it serves as headquarters to some Mormon denominations, and President Harry S. Truman grew up here. It is now the site of the Truman Library and Museum. We were here primarily for the museum, but we saw a few other things along the way.

The Truman museum was quality. I don' t think that it was quite as technologically advanced as the Lincoln museum in terms of movies and other multimedia, but it did seem quite a bit larger. Truman was president through all sorts of American milestones: the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan, the end of WWII, the creation of the UN and NATO, the Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift, the beginning of the Cold War and McCarthyism, and the Korean War.

Room devoted to the Berlin Airlift.

I'd like to see this one. I'm sure its a real gem.

This is a really biting letter a dead soldier's family sent to Truman when they returned his Purple Heart.

I thought it was interesting that Truman was alive to see his museum. The place certainly has more of his influence in it as a result. There was a little audio intro in the room that featured a replica of his oval office's trappings. It began something like "I'm President Truman, and this is my office". It had a bit of an eery, beyond the grave sort of feel to it. I think I'm just so used to the idea of the Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, where the man had been deceased over a hundred years before the place was built.

Another theme the exhibit brought up a few times (how true it is I don't know) was that Truman hadn't really wanted to be Vice President, let alone President, and there's a picture of him at Eisenhower's inauguration with his feet propped up and a big smile on his face, as if he was glad to let the burden of the presidency pass to some other poor sap's shoulders. Shortly after his term he returned to his little Missouri home and lived out his days. I thought that was a nice contrast to the millionaire's club national office seems to be today.

Once we were finished reliving the Truman era we headed to Independence's small town square area. There were a few more Truman related places around, his house, his wife's house and so on, but we felt like we had a satisfactory understanding of the situation by this point.

Old-timey courthouse in the center of the square: check.

We stopped in to have a quick ice cream treat before hitting the road back to Kansas City. The menu had a couple of Truman related flavors, like the Buck Stop Sundae.


I had Harry's Favorite, chocolate ice cream with butterscotch topping.


On our way out we passed a Mormon church, The Temple, which is straight out of the Land of Oz.

Back in Kansas City, the last stop of consequence was another journey into the land of barbecue.

Arthur Bryant's

Judging by Arthur Bryant's restaurant interior alone it seemed like the food would be better than at Oklahoma Joe's. It's unassuming and cozy, you can see some of of the firey magic happening just from the ordering counter, and the wall is lined with pictures of famous people eating there. We had plenty of time to examine all of these features while we waited in a very long line.

In addition to another full rack of ribs that we shared, we ordered an open faced burnt ends sandwich, which was awesome.

While Arthur Bryant's was better than Oklahoma Joe's in my humble opinion, I am forced to point out, right in the face of Kansas City's hyped up barbecue fame, that Pappy's Smokehouse in St. Louis is better than the both of them. I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but there it is.

Kansas City with the Fam Day 1

July 8-10 my family went on a little road trip down to Kansas City.


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Being an Illinois boy, my understanding is that a US state ends where the river tells it to. One minute you are in Illinois, then you cross a bridge, and you're in Missouri. Easy to grasp. Kansas City was interesting to me geographically because it sits on an imaginary line between Missouri and Kansas. We would be driving around and realize we had inadvertently changed states. "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore" was uttered more times than I can divulge with pride intact. I thought that was interesting. I'm sure that has all sorts of fun legal implications.

Kansas City barbecue's siren call had been pulling on Tom's soul from both the food channel and history channel for many a moon, so that was something we went for early.

Boom. Oklahoma Joe's. Supposed to be the best barbecue ever, ever.


And the restaurant shares its building with a gas station.

Opening the door and seeing the long line to order and the limited seating had us conversing over how and where we would eat our messy food. Everything moved rather quickly though, and the staff was great about getting people up off their butts and out the door when they finished eating, so seating wasn't a problem.

In order to keep things fair, I chose full rack of ribs as my benchmark for BBQ deliciousness. It was good, but best in the state it was not, I'm afraid. Another thing I've learned is to avoid the sides at a place like this. Legendary meat searing skills do not translate to potato salad.

Anthony Bordain christened this one of the 13 places to eat before you die, which strikes me as a random list, but he is the man so I'll let it slide. A 98.9 The Rock's Johnny Dare radio interview he did about Oklahoma Joe's can be found here(the audio clip begins automatically). They also talk a bit about eating guinea pigs in Peru. You can read about me rocking that delicacy here. What now, Bordain?

After a long drive and a big meal, the rest of our energy was spent on a bit of driving around downtown and exploring. The Country Club Plaza came recommended, so we headed down there. It's a really classy shopping area that covers several blocks. The shops themselves were too expensive for me (Tiffany & Co., a Rolex dealer) but it was still really enjoyable to window shop.

My favorite part was the faux European architecture. There were lots of tall spires, statues, and fountains all around us, and they looked good. I remember walking toward the first tower thinking there must be something awesome or historical underneath only to find it attached to a North Face retailer or something. Take surroundings like that, add people strolling and a street band playing on a corner, and you've got something called atmosphere.

Not too shabby for our first day.