A Day in Kansas City

Yesterday, Sunday, we had a leisurely morning that included attending church via the television since we couldn't find anything local that would have us back and on our bus by 11:30 am ready for a day of touring in nearby Kansas City. Considering the constant spitting rain with sporatic major downpours we were glad most of our activities were again indoors and someone else was driving.

Between our bus driver and caravan host, both of whom live or have lived in this area, we got a continuous sightseeing view of the city as we drove into the downtown area to our first stop - Lidia's Italy.

Since we don't watch PBS we were totally unaware of who Lidia was or what she did but we sure had a wonderful taste of it at this stop.

The manager of this restaurant (one of six that Lidia's name is attached to) welcomed us with fervor,

told us a bit about the place and then made sure we had fantastic service in our own private loft room with this fabulous chandelier

 and other artistic touches. What a fabulous lunch!!! The desserts were extra special too.

On our way out, we checked out the first floor which was filled with diners just to see the very intriguing chandeliers and gorgeous display of wines.  There just was no way to fully capture that from the far end of the room of what was once an old factory.

Our next stop was a totally different experience - a museum

created by a father and his three sons who were determined to find the steamboat, Arabia,

that sailed the nearby Missouri River in the 1850s and sank with most of its cargo aboard while taking settlers and goods to new homes up the river.  Because of the constant change in the flow of the river it was actually buried more than 40 feet below a cornfield where the water table was high which meant there was a need to be constantly removing water while they dug.

There background knowledge from years of running a heating and refrigeration business plus lots of research and determination resulted in the discovery and removal of all of the buried goods in a four month period over the winter. when the frozen ground would be easier to work.  They had pooled their funds, $40,000, thinking that would be enough to accomplish the task but in the end spent well over a million dollars completing their task.

Since there was no money recovered but lots of everyday goods used by settlers in those days they had to figure out what to do with it to recover their costs.  Three years later to the date they started digging they had turned an old factory into this museum without outside help from curators.  It was amazing!!!

Exhibits are set up like a general store

a hardware shop

a men's clothing display (most of the women's clothing was unsaveable)

shoe and boots display

The number of buttons and tiny beads was overwhelming.  Plus there was lots of personal jewelery and decorative hat pins, 

One of the things that made it extra special for us was that one of the brothers, David, came and spoke to us and answered lots of questions and even wandered around making himself available with information as we wandered through the museum.

They are still cleaning up items that they found in this little lab area 

So the museum continues to grow and change as new thing are cleaned up and put on display along with more historical stories of the times.

From there, our bus driver took us to the top of a hill where we could look out at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers and see both the states of Kansas and Missouri since the river serves as the boundry line.

This too is a Lewis and Clark camping spot.  Dates are given on this map for stopping points in the area.  Note that by the You Are Here spot is where the Kansas River (lower left) joins up with the Missouri.

We took advantage of the fact that it was just spitting rain to all gather at the statue there to have our group pictures taken

And here is the other half including Ken and I

We then returned to the campground for a "travel meeting" to prepare for our Tuesday move.  Our Tailenders, Dan and Patty Johnson, love to play trivia so have challenged us to pay attention as we drive as they'll always have a question and prize for the person who can answer their question avout the previous travel day.  Well our friend Frank Foulke noticed the doctor's office and the type of medicine he practiced plus what it was for so he was the winner

While there we also celebrated two anniversaries and three birthdays that will take place for members of our group while we are together.  Ken's birthday is in a couple of weeks so he was part of that group.