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.
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.
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