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PB&J Adventures' Wild West Tour 2014 - Part 2
2 adults, 4 kids, 1 cat, 20 states, 20 days

Day One - One looong day - May 30, 2014
Our first travel day started at around 1:30 pm on Friday, May 30. We planned our departure on what I expected would be off-peak traffic hours for Chattanooga and Nashville. Our timing was perfect. We breezed through both cities with little delay. Our only stop before St. Louis was a restroom break for me in Monteagle, Tennessee. A large fuel tank, bathroom, and kitchen all lend themselves to making good time. By dusk we were almost to St. Louis. We stopped briefly to refuel in east St. Louis before heading to St. Peters, just a few clicks west. We'd originally planned to dry-camp at a Wal-Mart, but friends told us about a nice little municipal park there with full RV hookups. Very good choice!

Day Two - Let The Fun Begin - May 31, 2014

We awoke to a beautiful sunrise over the lake at 370 Lakeside Park. It certainly set a positive tone for the rest of the day. I took a stroll on the walking/biking path a little enjoying the cool morning. There were people fishing, biking, and walking their pets along the path. I could see fish jumping which made me wish we had more time, but we had a pretty lively itinerary for the second leg of of our journey. 

Happy Trails
Frontier Trails Museum, Independence, MO.

Being the ever curious family, we wanted to see where the western explorers and pioneers began their journey. Famously, Independence, Missouri is that place. We arrived by late morning and began exploring the museum. We watched a short video that described the new frontier and its attraction as well as the hardships experienced by the early adventurers.  I found the kids are more familiar with this part of history than I. This knowledge is partially due to school, and partially due to a set of Carole Marsh mysteries they were all reading. As I mentioned in Part 1, we worked out a deal with them beforehand: We would pay them $5 for each  book read on the road. The challenge provided them with some spending money, helped keep their noses out of their technology, and provided a pretty good education and interest in our destinations.

We spent a good deal of time walking through the exhibits before heading across the street to the 
Bingham/Waggoner Estate. We didn't take the time to tour the buildings (we were in a hurry to see the Pony Express Museum in St. Joseph), but we took the rather steamy walk to see the swales caused by horses and wagon wheels leaving this very location. It was exciting to imagine their thoughts and excitement as they began their life-altering, and often life-ending journey.

Pony Express
Pony Express National Museum - St Joseph, MO
Continuing this day's theme of western exploration and settlement, we decided to visit the Pony Express museum in St. Joseph, Missouri. Everyone knows the basic story of the Pony Express, but this museum really tells the entire story graphically.   

As soon as we arrived, the kids got their National Parks Passport stamped in the gift shop. We paid a reasonable entrance fee and began our self guied tour. The Pony Express National Museum is much more child friendly than the Frontier Trails Museum we'd visited earlier in the day. The tour of the museum leads visitors through the origins of the Pony Express, and there are lots of life-size models and exhibits to make it enjoyable and believable. Rebecca has been working on some videos to enhance the local school systems curriculum, so we shot a little video along with taking pictures during this visit. The kids were so excited by the end of the tour, they insisted on purchasing mementos. The gift shop provided the required resources.


Across the street from the museum is a park area with several historic markers, and the one item that put a final end to the Pony Express, a steam engine. Very cool! 

 

Happy Campers
After we'd finished exploring the Pony Express Museum, we headed north toward Omaha, Nebraska. We had no campground reservations, but decided we wanted to have RV hookups for the evening, so we started looking. We lucked-up on a very clean and well groomed RV Park south of Omaha called Victorian Acres. It was just across the Missouri River from the interstate, so it was very convenient. It was also reasonably priced! The evening was cool, a welcome change from the heat back home in Georgia. Victorian Acres doesn't have fixed fire rings, but they brought us a portable fireplace that worked great! A lovely cool evening, a sunset, and a fire. Pardon the cliché' but "it doesn't get much better than this."



Sunrise at 370 Lakeside Park in St. Peters, MO


 


Carole Marsh Books helped narrate our adventure.


 


The kids wanted so bad to ride in these covered wagons. They're really quite beautiful.

 

 


The Pony Express Museum is housed in the very stable where the the whole thing began in 1860.

 

 

The Pony Express Museum features life-size models and exhibits to make it enjoyable and believable.


Day two concluded at Victorian Acres RV Park in Nebraska City, NE. Very nice!