Friday, July 15, 2005
ON TO ATCHISON TOPEKA AND AMELIA, EH?
ATCHISON BY ACCIDENT
Sleep Walking Bear and friends changed course a little but with a much different result than the most famous resident of Atchison Kansas. Evidently, all the nice folk moved across the river to build this beautiful little city on the banks of the Missouri River in Kansas. There, we FINALLY found a waterfront park that was well used and idyllic spot for picnicing, setting your paddle boat into the river, or just strolling along the well-maintained riverfront.
Of course, much of this improvement seemed likely to have come from the recent Lewis/Clark commemorations as this was a stop in the beginning of the expedition's journey to the Pacific. Now, I assume Merriweather Lewis became an explorer to butch up his image. Otherwise, he was destined to become the owner of a florist shop in San Francisco. As for Clark, that of course would be Dick Clark, explorer and founder of American Bandstand who has been ringing in the New Year since the 19th century! Let's not forget Sacajewa(Indian for this way white boys) who was always posing along the way so they could capture her image for the future gold coin that would bear her likeness. Sacajewa was an early supermodel you see.
Of course, for actual and true historical facts you could visit the Atchison visitor's center and museum. Manned by Auntie Em from the Wizard of Oz, it was another "find" by our intrepid group of explorers. They had lots of information on favorite daughter Amelia Earhart who, before her famed disappearance, set all kinds of "firsts" for flight not just for a woman but for everyone as a whole. She was born and grew up in her grandparents home on the bluffs in a beautiful home overlooking the river. I remember a storyboard in the museum which she was quoted basically as saying, anyone in Atchison that knew me when I was growing up never, ever would have expected much of anything to become of me, I was quite the little terror! HA! She also credited her small town upbringing for keeping her from having a big city ego! HOW TRUE!! All in all, Atchison is a must see!! Sacajewa and Amelia will leave the light on for ya!
TOPEKA(oh, by the by we are the capitol of Kansas.....right?)
We travelled across Kansas and found Topeka so we could see the capitol building. Not that Topekans wanted to make that an easy thing! I guess they figure that big, officious looking building spoke for itself once you bumped into it so who would need a sign pointing you in that direction, right? The Sleep Walking Bear Expedition found it of course!! It was very pretty and grand much like a seat of government should be. There was a homeless person, just like the US Capitol in my former home of Washington DC and, just to show your tax dollars are hard at work, there was a big construction project going on outside. No wonder they don't want to let us manage our own money, they have "home" improvements continually going on!!
We ended up in the Best Western in Abilene, which may have been where Lewis and Clark stayed during their journey too! It was an old time Motor Lodge with a big courtyard with the bouncy, rusty, tetanus plagued, injury inducing kind of playground equipment that would certainly toughen up the namby-pamby young uns of today! It was not the nicest place we stayed, but it was clean and the people who ran the place were about the nicest folks you could ever meet. Real Midwestern hospitality, which you can find here in Illinois, but is evidently a requirement you must have to live in Kansas.
Finally, I love to watch the local news broadcasts and read the local papers while on vacation. For example, every teenager in Abilene(home of the Cowboys of course) must have been particpating in the State Track Meet. Everyone with a bedsheet had the names of their local heros and heroines planted out in the front yard of their homes. On TV, I was mesmerized and perhaps a little frightened, of the KAKE news team in Wichita. Evidently, nearly 2/3 of local residents own video cameras because with every single news story, including the ones occurring DURING the news, they had highlights! I got to see, live mind you, the arrest of a man who assaulted another with an ax. Obviously, the assaulted was right there on the stretcher who was much the worse for the wear. Later, unbeliveably, they had the mug shot of, I am not making this up, the blood spattered, Lizzy Borden wannabe! KAKE was on EVERYONE'S case let me tell ya! How in the hell did BTK get away with anything there????
So, here we were in Oz and, truly, life was good! People from the coasts can poke fun at Kansas all they want but Sleep Walking Bear, Marty, Pibby, Sacajewa, Amelia Earhart, Lewis and Clark et al are finding it quite, quite pleasant. Hell, even the ax attacker smiled in his mug shot. Welcome to Kansas indeed!
Sleep Walking Bear and friends changed course a little but with a much different result than the most famous resident of Atchison Kansas. Evidently, all the nice folk moved across the river to build this beautiful little city on the banks of the Missouri River in Kansas. There, we FINALLY found a waterfront park that was well used and idyllic spot for picnicing, setting your paddle boat into the river, or just strolling along the well-maintained riverfront.
Of course, much of this improvement seemed likely to have come from the recent Lewis/Clark commemorations as this was a stop in the beginning of the expedition's journey to the Pacific. Now, I assume Merriweather Lewis became an explorer to butch up his image. Otherwise, he was destined to become the owner of a florist shop in San Francisco. As for Clark, that of course would be Dick Clark, explorer and founder of American Bandstand who has been ringing in the New Year since the 19th century! Let's not forget Sacajewa(Indian for this way white boys) who was always posing along the way so they could capture her image for the future gold coin that would bear her likeness. Sacajewa was an early supermodel you see.
Of course, for actual and true historical facts you could visit the Atchison visitor's center and museum. Manned by Auntie Em from the Wizard of Oz, it was another "find" by our intrepid group of explorers. They had lots of information on favorite daughter Amelia Earhart who, before her famed disappearance, set all kinds of "firsts" for flight not just for a woman but for everyone as a whole. She was born and grew up in her grandparents home on the bluffs in a beautiful home overlooking the river. I remember a storyboard in the museum which she was quoted basically as saying, anyone in Atchison that knew me when I was growing up never, ever would have expected much of anything to become of me, I was quite the little terror! HA! She also credited her small town upbringing for keeping her from having a big city ego! HOW TRUE!! All in all, Atchison is a must see!! Sacajewa and Amelia will leave the light on for ya!
TOPEKA(oh, by the by we are the capitol of Kansas.....right?)
We travelled across Kansas and found Topeka so we could see the capitol building. Not that Topekans wanted to make that an easy thing! I guess they figure that big, officious looking building spoke for itself once you bumped into it so who would need a sign pointing you in that direction, right? The Sleep Walking Bear Expedition found it of course!! It was very pretty and grand much like a seat of government should be. There was a homeless person, just like the US Capitol in my former home of Washington DC and, just to show your tax dollars are hard at work, there was a big construction project going on outside. No wonder they don't want to let us manage our own money, they have "home" improvements continually going on!!
We ended up in the Best Western in Abilene, which may have been where Lewis and Clark stayed during their journey too! It was an old time Motor Lodge with a big courtyard with the bouncy, rusty, tetanus plagued, injury inducing kind of playground equipment that would certainly toughen up the namby-pamby young uns of today! It was not the nicest place we stayed, but it was clean and the people who ran the place were about the nicest folks you could ever meet. Real Midwestern hospitality, which you can find here in Illinois, but is evidently a requirement you must have to live in Kansas.
Finally, I love to watch the local news broadcasts and read the local papers while on vacation. For example, every teenager in Abilene(home of the Cowboys of course) must have been particpating in the State Track Meet. Everyone with a bedsheet had the names of their local heros and heroines planted out in the front yard of their homes. On TV, I was mesmerized and perhaps a little frightened, of the KAKE news team in Wichita. Evidently, nearly 2/3 of local residents own video cameras because with every single news story, including the ones occurring DURING the news, they had highlights! I got to see, live mind you, the arrest of a man who assaulted another with an ax. Obviously, the assaulted was right there on the stretcher who was much the worse for the wear. Later, unbeliveably, they had the mug shot of, I am not making this up, the blood spattered, Lizzy Borden wannabe! KAKE was on EVERYONE'S case let me tell ya! How in the hell did BTK get away with anything there????
So, here we were in Oz and, truly, life was good! People from the coasts can poke fun at Kansas all they want but Sleep Walking Bear, Marty, Pibby, Sacajewa, Amelia Earhart, Lewis and Clark et al are finding it quite, quite pleasant. Hell, even the ax attacker smiled in his mug shot. Welcome to Kansas indeed!
