Country music.

I must admit I used to hate country music and thought it sentimental crap and rather embarassing. Well it can be cheesy, but it's very infectious and the more you listen and get into it, the more you like it. It may just be a question of age!
It's particularly good driving music. Maybe it wouldn't have quite the same appeal if you were stuck in a traffic jam on the M25, but round here it seems just right.
Even if you can't stand the stuff, you have to recognise it is a living, evolving, much loved music tradition. The people can sing well and they can all play an instrument, quite often, half a dozen. You will often get family groups, where they have been playing and singing together since they could stand up. It has a huge following and the centre of it all is Nashville. There is a television channel devoted entirely to country music and we quite often listen in for a while. The concerts all sell out and if you watch the audience, they all know the words to all the songs.
The songs are sentimental, patriotic and religious. Pretty straight forward stuff and the words are important. They are about life, love, God, patriotism, kids, having a job, drinking beer, cars, being ordinary, your mum and dad and the like. The words can be very funny and quite clever.
I'd never heard of any of the artists before, except a few who cross over into the mainstream. The men, for the most part, are not things of beauty. They tend to have deep voices and southern accents. They mostly dress like cowboys, jeans, open shirts, cowboy boots and hats and look very different from your regular singing star. The women are it seems usually blonde, pretty and have southern accents. Difficult to describe the way they dress. Shall we say tasteful is not what springs to mind.

I think music traditions are to be cherished, and this one is alive and well and very american.

Try a few of these:

Billy Currington 'Pretty good at drinkin' beer' and 'People are Crazy'
Easton Corbin 'A little more country than that'
Craig Campbell 'Family man'
Chris Young 'I hear voices all the time'
Brad Paisley 'This is Country Music'
Jason Aldean 'She's country'
Blake Skelton 'Old Red' and 'Honky Tonk Man'.
Dierks Bentley 'Rovin' gambler

See if they do anything for you. They might make you laugh, if nothing else!

Two Presidential Libaries.

We are heading off to Kansas again to the small town of Abilene. This is the real mid west.
The drive there takes over 5 hours, but you just get onto interstate 70 and keep going west.
The scenery is very open and green and not the flat, dull landscape I was expecting.

It is one enormous chalk plateau, like the south downs only much bigger. You are just aware of space and a huge expanse of sky.

The feature of all the highways round here are the bill boards, which are huge and often very high up. They advertise a weird and wonderful mix of things:
So called pro life, a term I object to, anti abortion and strong round here.

So called adult supermarkets.

And the alternative point of view sneaked in just after a few of these. Made it large so you can read it.

This also caught my eye.

Had to get that off the internet, I wasn't quick enough with the camera. So plenty to keep you amused on a long journey!

Abilene is a small, unremarkable but very typical mid west, agricultural town, with the railroad going through it. It is different in that bang in the middle, between railway tracks and grain silos is the rather extensive grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, house he grew up in and final resting place.

The museum is dwarfed by the grain silo in the background. It does look a bit like an up market bunker, which it is, if there is a tornado.

It is a rather interesting mix and very different from other Presidential Libraries. The centre of the complex is his small boyhood home, which housed his parents and 6 boys!

Nothing humble about the Library though. It is lined with Italian marble.

This place was set up when money was not short.
There are murals in the entrance which give Britain equal prominence to the United States, which we thought was interesting.

There is a huge amount of information here about the man himself, the second world war and American society at the time. The film about him is a bit on the adulatory side for my taste, but I suppose that is not surprising. He seems, particularly in later life, to have become quite a pacifist, reflecting perhaps his upbringing in a branch of the Mennonite Church. An odd mix for a soldier.

 As a President he was a bit too much of a conciliator as far as people like McCarthy were concerned.
Roland gives a lecture to a very appreciative audience. He is rather taken with the background noise of trains!!
We get the VIP treatment and taken out to dinner. It's hot! 92 F, so a bit on the sweaty side. This is where we ate, a very attractive house, but bang up against a silo.

We have to go and look at the trains- of course. As is usual, you can just walk straight out onto the track. Fist the working one.

Then the tourist one.

Lots for Roland to get excited by.

The Holiday Inn Express we are staying in, is the usual comfortable room, with crap breakfast. Objects they call cinnamon buns are always featured, which are warm, artificial cinnamon flavoured large lumps of something that defies description, but is definitely not a bun. It sticks to the roof of your mouth and sits like cement on your stomach. 

After our tour and lunch, we get on the road again, back into Missouri and the Truman Library in Independence.

This is the view as you come into Kansas City. Independence is really now a suburb.

It is hazy, hot and stormy feeling. We are pleased the car is air conditioned.

We have a hotel right opposite the Truman childhood home. This is not very grand, but bigger than Eisenhower's. Neither Presidents came from wealthy backgrounds.

Again we get the VIP treatment and personal tour. I've told Roland to make the most of it. He is only going to be important for another 3 weeks!

The Truman Library is in attractive grounds. Not as big a complex as the Eisenhower one, but pretty impressive.

The entrance has a mural by the Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton. His style of painting works very well as a mural.

Apparently Truman wasn't over keen on having Benton until they bonded over drinking bourbon!

The garden is attractive and it is apparent that although they are talking of having to cut back, these libraries are in a different league to the Fulton library and museum when it comes to funding.

Presidential Libraries are built firstly with private subscriptions, then they get handed over to the Federal government to run.

The library also has an exhibition of the other great Missouri artist George Caleb Bingham, who I think is really good.

He painted a lot of scenes of elections and electioneering, which is unusual, and some beautiful ones of the Missouri and Mississippi River. A very versatile artist.

We have a very nice meal out and a stroll around the odd mix that is Independence. 

This is President Andrew Jackson on a horse. He was a hero of Truman's. In the background a wonderful Art Deco cinema, still up and running.

A recently added to war memorial. Notice the term 'War on Terror', which I don't think would be used in Britain.

The Military is much more high profile in this country. You see soldiers in uniform all the time, particularly at airports. They have separate waiting areas for them. There are a lot of adverts on the television aimed especially at them. There seems to be a great deal of pride and open appreciation of the military.

We came across a taxidermy shop. The man inside claimed to have killed all the animals, birds and fish on display and there were hundreds. He was a man of few words.

We were also rather taken by the Temple of the Community of Christ. The design is based on the nautilus seashell.

It was enormous and was a little scary inside. You felt you were in some horror film about cults. All the staff were incredibly nice..........  It must have cost a fortune to build.

Back on the road to Fulton with a few views from the road back.

As you can see the road just keeps on going and is pretty straight.

Back for the final round of farewell do's, packing up and our trip to the Grand Canyon. The temperature has dropped 40 degrees again and we are back in winter clothes. We are also getting torrential rain, which is not good news for the areas further south that are already flooded. This is truly a country of extremes.

Last guests and Graduation.

Last but not least, Caelia and Ben have arrived for a week of fun and relaxation, before they head off to the rigours of New York. I feel they have probably done it the right way round. The weather has turned quite cold again, but it's been so hot in Britain for the last few weeks, they don't seem that bothered.
We start with a winery visit. We haven't been to one yet and they are all around us. This is Stonehill Winery and is at Herman, on the slopes overlooking the town.

The cellars are impressive and it is sad to hear how the old, barrels, with carvings of the twelve apostles on them , were destroyed during prohibition. These are the largest series of underground vaulted cellars in America and you feel as if you could be in France.

We have a wine tasting and buy some of their prize wines, including a bottle of Norton. The Norton grape is very small. The size of a blueberry. It is consequently more difficult to pick and so costs more. Personally, I don't like it. It tastes homemade and not quite right and certainly not worth the $20 a bottle.

We have a very tasty German style meal in their restaurant and then head back via Graham Cave, which I think is worth seeing. There are some baby foxes inside the cave, who keep on peeping out. Caelia and Ben have super, zoom zoom lenses on their cameras and get amazing shots. I don't. I go for bigger targets!

We are driving in Ben and Caelia's rather large rental car. A SUV, supposedly medium size! I think Ben couldn't resist. He doesn't like that it is an automatic, but that is the norm here.

The spring flowers are starting to appear everywhere and I got rather carried away taking photos of them. I have never seen some of them before, but others are famiiar.

This almost looks like a wild garlic. A very pretty star shaped, white flower.

A long stemmed daisy with pink tinge.

This is a wild Sweet William.

This is a pink Dogwood.
This is the more usual white one that looks very delicate, like white lace amongst the green.

We are into the tourist routine now, which we are getting pretty good at. We are off for a session of shooting, this time with Roland on board.
I don't enjoy it so much second time. I think the novelty has worn off. Ben, Caelia and Roland all find it pretty easy to kill, although Roland manages to cut his thumb quite badly while reloading, which lessens his enthusiasm. We are all still amazed by how easy it is to get your hands on lethal weapons.

These are some of the targets you can choose. I hope you can read it.

Interesting shop. Lots of guns, ammunition and ways to kill or maim people. The lady behind the counter is petite and pretty and handles guns with great authority. She is in this place, in the middle of nowhere, all by herself, surrounded by guns and ammunition. I don't think I would be happy with that.
 Guns are just part of everyday life here. Strange country.

Ben discovers that Fulton has a bowling alley and we have an afternoon of bowling. Ben goes for brute force but I'm afraid it's a case of the hare and the tortoise. He bowls at twice the speed of everyone else, but Roland goes for accuracy. Roland, the tortoise, wins! and is rather pleased with himself. I didn't manage to capture the smirk on camera.

I insist everyone has a go with their other hand and Caelia wins! Oh well, can't be good at everything.
The revealing scoreboard.

Roland is marking exams, so we go off without him for an afternoon of mini golf, thwacking baseballs and other delights. There is a machine that shoots baseballs at you at varying speeds. I decide my one hand might never recover and give that a miss. Ben thwacks away with great enthusiasm and pretty much hits everything that comes at him. A good way to use up all that youthful energy!

Ben is still going for the hard hit and in mini golf his ball spends as much time off the course as on. I haven't played it for ages and I had forgotten what good fun it is. The weather is perfect. Ben gets a red neck, which calls for quite a few pathetic jokes on our part.














We visit the Berlin wall for 'that photo'. It has just been touched up, which seems a little weird.

And of course, Walmart. A thing of loveliness as you can see. There is no attempt to beautify or landscape. They all look the same- big, brown and ugly.

Ben casts a critical eye around and is not impressed. He is after all a supermarket manager. The main criticism- a lack of fresh produce and a piddling wine section. That just about sums it up.

We do the walk round Stinsons creek and Ben and Caelia compete over who can get the best photos of the bright red Cardinal. It is a difficult subject. It will insist on moving about all the time and posing behind leaves, but they do get some rather good pictures with their superior cameras. This is my attempt!

You need a bit of imagination and good eyesight.

The walk is in bright sunshine, with blue skies. The green is particularly fresh and bright.

This is the flower on the Tulip tree, which I think is stunning.

There are also lots of wild flowers emerging. I think this is the most attractive time of year so far.

I have seen lawns which are almost all violets. Very pretty.












We have all been eating too much all week, but we still have to do the diner breakfast. This place has lots of atmosphere, but is nothing to look at.

 There are a bunch of old men up near the counter having a good natter about all things important. Cars, food, tractors etc. They seem to spend a lot of time here.
This establishment is also not pleased with the non smoking regulations that came in at Christmas.

They don't like being told what they can and cannot do round here.

Mid week, we have a little party at the museum to launch Roland's book 'British Prime Ministers and Democracy'. A cracking read and a must for anyone's Christmas list. It's actually very interesting, but being an academic book is priced ridiculously high. The do goes well, with some nice speeches, good friends and wine, beer and food. A pretty good combination.

The swing seat is popular as always and needed for rests between eating and endless activities.

Poole is requested again and Liz from archives and boyfriend Chuck join us for a hamburger at Becks and a game afterwards. Fulton is buzzing. This is graduation weekend and mums and dads are in town.
The bar is fuller than last time and I was interested to note that the young men at the bar were all watching the Playboy channel on a TV at the bar. I suppose if you can't drink you have to have fun in other ways!
Despite the fact that Chuck is not feeling the best, he and Liz win. Ben is good, but he keeps on accidentally potting the white ball. A little too much zoom on the ball. Will he ever learn...

The campus looks pretty good in the sun. It has been spruced up for Graduation.

Caelia and Ben will miss it. They have opted for a Cardinals match in St Louis en route to New York. Caelia has got the T shirt and a red dress to blend with the crowd.
That's the medium SUV in the background.
 I think they have enjoyed their stay in Fulton and caught up on their sleep in time for the city that never does!

Saturday morning the mess in the bedrooms upstairs magically disappears into suitcases and we are left in our little house on our own. It suddenly seems very quiet. No time to ponder though- it's Graduation!!!

The town enters into the spirit of graduation and all the shops are selling graduation goodies. The walk to college is lined with flags.

The hall is full and it is the usual mix of religion, patriotism and sentimentality. The staff and students process in to 'Land of Hope and Glory', which I think of as being rather British, but good stirring stuff.
The emphasis is a bit too much on the grim world they are about to inflict themselves upon and the fact that they have a never ending life of service ahead of them. Enough to make you go away and top yourself. I think it could have been a bit lighter and not so pessemistic about the future. Too much about service, leadership, responsibility etc....... Not that the students look the slightest bit overwhelmed by all this. They are all on a high. The ceremony ends by the whole college processing across to the columns and all the graduating students walk through a line of professors, through the columns and out into the world. All very symbolic and actually rather effective.

Roland is done up in his robes, which are rather too much for the 80 degree heat, and in the procession.

They even have bagpipes. The piper is a rather solid lady, whose a bit wobbly on some of her notes.

Roland's robes are rather fetching!

It's the last time he will wear them. This is the end of term. The students and quite a few of the faculty will leave town and Fulton will revert to it's summer mode. Deserted!