We arrived in Kansas around 11:30, just in time for lunch. Hannah and Robert took us to Bo Ling's, one of my favorite restaurants. Unfortunately it was right next door to Half Price Books. The afternoon was spent browsing through books and talking. Hannah and I both have a love of poetry. We also share the dislike for romance books. She works among books and she says the romance books always smell of tacos, menthol vapor rub and cigarette smoke. I am sorry if this offends some but reading a romance novel is like reading the same book over and over and over. Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. I like substance, I like variety and I don’t need a happy ever after. I am not in the norm when it comes to this way of thinking because romance sells and sells big.
I have been so busy. I feel like I am going to meet me coming in when I am going out.
I visited with my dear friend Carol in Columbia. Hopefully she will be out of the hospital and in a nursing home by the end of the week. It was great seeing her and talking to her.
I ended my Camdenton (home town) visit by meeting up with two good friends from my old workplace. Again I enjoyed a great meal, great conversation, and lots of catching up. I left Camdenton on Friday to travel back to my sister’s so we could attend the Strange Folk Festival in O’Fallon Illinois on Saturday.
Friday night a friend of my sister, Rose came by on her way to spend Saturday with her son. A little wine, lots of conversation followed by beautiful pictures of Rose’s trip to England, Scotland and Paris. Somehow all of us woke up fairly early, Rose made it to her son’s house and we made it to the Strange Folk Festival.
We left my sister’s Sunday just to travel back to Camdenton to take care of some last minute business. Monday found us in route to my daughter’s home. I am happy to say we made it. Monday night was spent watching TV and just relaxing.
Today I took the van into the Chevy dealership, which in my opinion, is the best place to go when you need service. My visor fell off about 6 months ago and it has been a nightmare to get it fixed. I would walk into a Chevy service department with it and I would get instant run around. Some would say it was a conversion van part the others would say it was a GM part. All of them would differ on cost and delivery time. I finally said “enough” because I knew I would get it fixed here without a run around.
Afterwards I drove to my daughter’s house for a day of browsing stores. Unfortunately two of the stores were used book stores. We did sell the books we had in the van but we are also replaced them twice…. Kerouac, Harrison, Reynolds to name a few authors but the best find was the Moravian church book. I didn’t find any mention of my ancestors but the book was so interesting and the price was so right I couldn’t turn it down. The book I am reading now is “Notorious Royal Marriages” by Leslie Carroll.
Tomorrow we are going to the gardens and I will be posting pictures then. It has been a great week. I am going to post a song with this post. It is sung by Wendy J Francisco who also sang “God and Dog.” The question I have is this… was it the wine or is this song funnier than heck?
I made it to Hiawatha and I was not disappointed. One word of caution.... do not go to a cemetery on Memorial Day. I had to park outside the cemetery and walk in, since mom and I needed the exercise it wasn't an issue.
The reason for my wanting to go to Hiawatha's Mt Hope Cemetery was the Davis Memorial. I had read enough information on Mr. John M Davis that it convinced me that my ex husband (as controlling as he was) was nothing in comparison to Mr. Davis.
The most famous attraction in Hiawatha, Kansas is a 1930's tomb sitting in Mount Hope Cemetery near the southeast edge of town.
John Milburn Davis came to Hiawatha in 1879 at the age of 24. After a short time, he married Sarah Hart, the daughter of his employer. Needless to say her family did not approve. Sarah and John started their own farm, prospered and were married 50 years.
Some stories say it was a love story. Most stories insist that Davis never treated his wife as royally in life as he did in death. When she snuck out to visit a neighbor someone from town would come out to let her know John was on his way home so she can be there before him. Later when they moved into town it was reported that marriage was so bad they barely spoke to each other. The residents of Hiawatha suspected this monument he built was intended more as a slap in the face to his wife's heirs than it was a tribute to Sarah. And resentment lingers over Davis' refusal to be a benefactor to Hiawatha in its hour of need.
After Sarah died in 1930, John spent $200,000 to create this monument. He died years later a pauper. Everything dime he had was spent on this.
The memorial began with a typical grave stone, but John worked with Horace England, a Hiawatha monument dealer, making the gravesite more and more elaborate. There are 11 life size statues of John and Sarah Davis made of Italian marble, many stone urns and a marble canopy that is reported as weighing over 50 tons. The last addition to the tomb was marble granite wall surrounding the memorial to keep people from entering. The statues show Mr. and Mrs. Davis through various stages of their lives.
Did he spend every dime he had on a memorial to his wife out of love and devotion? Did he build this to spend every cent he had so no one else could lay claim to it? It is a mystery. BTW – the county had to pay for his burial.
Today mom and I drove the Glacial Hills Scenic Byway. It began in Leavenworth Kansas and ends 63 miles later in northeast Kansas. Some of the towns we saw today were Atchison, Leavenworth, Troy, and White Cloud.
The byway was named Glacial Hills because glaciers once covered the northeast corner of Kansas. When the glaciers receded north, they left behind a unique landscape of rolling, wooded hills, rock-strewn soil and valleys with clear, running streams.
Since we already explored Atchison Kansas we made a quick stop at the visitor center to purcharse a pin and browse the brochures. Mom and I decided not to put a map on the outside of the van to show folks where we have been. Instead we buy souvenir pins of the states and places we have been. I purchased some adia cloth and created a banner to display them.
From Atchison we traveled to Troy Kansas to walk the downtown and to see "Tall Oak" a sculpture created by Peter Wolf Toth. Troy is also famous as being the only town in the state of Kansas that Abraham Lincoln visited and gave a speech. It is reported that the Troy speech was a trail run of his Cooper Union speech in New York.
From Troy we drove to White Cloud Kansas. White Cloud was named for James White Cloud, son of Chief White Cloud of the Iowa Tribe. In its heyday the population was over 2,000. Today the population is below 300. White Cloud is featured in episode 4 of the 2008 television documentary Stephen Fry in America. Some scenes from the 1973 movie, Paper Moon, were filmed in White Cloud. White Cloud is also famous because in 1910, ten-year old Wilbur Chapman sold a prized pig to raise money for a leper colony. Coin savings banks were created in the shape of pigs, manufactured, and sold, resulting in the origination of the "Piggy Bank" as we know it today.
White Cloud today is known for its many historic buildings; in fact the entire downtown district has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Unfortunately time is running out on several buildings.
We ate a very late lunch by the river. Mom was getting tired so we found a RV park with amenities. Tomorrow has 50% chance of thunderstorms or as mom likes to say "50% chance of sunshine.” If mom is right we will be heading to Hiawatha and then into Nebraska.
My name is Pepper and I live with my mother in a little house on wheels. These are my stories......
Interests
Historical sites, main streets, taphophilia, nature in all her glory, quiets nights, glorious sunsets and sunrises, quirky roadside attractions, water, deserts, all things licorice, monsoon season, “critters,” these are just a few of my favorite things.
You may travel this wide world o'er
And sail its seas from shore to shore;
You may search from pole to pole
For a place to rest your soul,
But you'll never find a land
That is quite one-half so grand
As my own beloved Land,
America!
~WW Peavyhouse~
