Happenings - April to July 2008

We have been traveling around quite a lot since our last Slutigram. Here’s a summary of April to July 2008. Hope to hear from you.

Kansas City Missouri 23 – 25 July 2008

My brother David came for a 10-day visit in July. We do enjoy his stay. Most days, we went to a local lake and had a good swim to beat the Nebraska summer heat. David is an amateur presidential historian – he knows almost everything about USA presidents. Harry Truman was our 33rd president (1945-1953). His hometown and presidential museum is in Independence Missouri. Being only 5-hours from here and having David here provided the needed motivation for us to make a road trip to see the sites. Priceline got us nice studio apartment rooms for $35 a night. We blew the savings by going to a couple of fine restaurants while there. One night we enjoyed famous Kansas City ribs and the next night we went to a German restaurant for dinner.

The main reason was to see the Truman sites. We spent a full day at the Truman Home and the Truman museum. His home is a very ordinary home and has been preserved as it was when his wife died in 1982.
Unfortunately, they don’t allow photos inside. But here’s what it looks like from the outside. Truman married in 1919 and lived in the home of his in-laws (which eventually became his home) until his death in 1972. The inside furnishings are quite modest.



Truman home

The Truman museum is a must see. Elaine & I have now been to two presidential museums this year. AT each, one learns so much more about the man and his era that we ever learned from school. Here a few photos from inside the museum.



The mural represents the settlement and history of Missouri and decorates the portal of entry to the museum.


The buck stops here

A replica of Truman’s oval office includes the actual sign that he kept on his desk.


graves

President Truman is buried on the grounds of the museum along with his wife “Bess” and daughter.

The treasures of the steamboat “Arabia”

On September 5th, 1856 the steamboat “Arabia” had reached Kansas City. The boat had left St. Louis, bound for Omaha, Sioux City and other stops along the way. It was laden with the cargo of the times.




Suddenly, the hull of the “Arabia “ was ripped open when it hit something. It hit the remains of a large tree (probably a cottonwood). The water poured in and the ship sunk within minutes. Fortunately, no passengers or crew were killed. However, the river current soon buried the steamboat and its cargo in the muddy bottom of the Missouri River. When excavated, the snag was still lodged in the hull.


snag that sank the boat

The “Arabia” lay buried until 1988 when 5 local Kansas City men 3 refrigeration workers, a construction worker and a plumber got the notion to dig her up. Two other excavation attempts had failed in the 1800s. The river had changed its course in the intervening 132 years and the Arabia was now located under 40 foot of mud and sand about a half mile inland in the middle of a local cornfield about 5 miles from Kansas City. The men got the farmer’s permission to excavate as long as he could plant his crop the next season.


excavation photo

With some difficulty, they managed to locate and excavate the ship. The boat was 200 feet in length and most was reintombed after the cargo was removed. However, they did lift out the stern and the boilers and some other mechanical items along with the entire cargo.


stern exterior

boilers

All of the cargo had been encased in the river mud for 132 years and appeared like the photo.


A barrel of nails, door knobs etc.

However, the mud had created an anaerobic environment. The result being, once the mud was cleaned off and a restoration preservative was done on the wood and organic items, they were as good as new. Here’s a view of some of the cargo:


Dishes, bottles, pans, cups etc.

Saws and grinding stones

Fine dishware (Wedgwood)

Over 3,500,000 beads for trading

Preserved foods. They actually opened a bottle and the pickles were fresh and crisp.

This is all a private operation and is still owned and controlled by those 5 guys who dug her up.




Hawaii July 5 –19 2008

It was time to revisit our time-share on the Big Island.


The Bay Club

Every other year, we arrange our time in Hawaii to match with our good friends from New Zealand, Liz and Dennis O’Callaghan and family. Most of you have read our Hawaii blogs in the past, so I’ll make this short.




Yes, that’s Anne with us. Anne graced us for 8 days. It was so nice to see her once again. Tom was not able to make it this year – we hope that he comes next time.

Most of our days were taken up at the beach or pool. Of course the scenery is beautiful.




The big treat was going to see the active volcano. Kiluaea was very active and it was very accessible to get to see the lava flows.






Another treat was a visit to an orchid farm on the way to the volcano. There are hundreds of varieties of these gorgeous blooms.








The month of June

June was a busy month for us, as we had two weddings and a family reunion. Anne drove home in her new car and her boyfriend Jackson Moore also came with her. That was fun to see Anne again (read on for our Indiana April trip. As the photos would be of people that most of you wouldn’t know, I’ll skip the photos on the weddings and reunion.

A very close friend of mine spent a day on the Platte River with me in our canoe. Kim now lives in Paris and is married to a very wonderful guy, so Kim tells me.


Honoring our World War II veterans 30 May – June 1 2008

Over the past decade, I have become interested in veteran’s issues. Our local The American Legion Post is involved with a program that sends WW II veterans to Washington DC to see the World War II Memorial which was only completed in 2005. The vets are all in their 80’s or 90’s and are accompanied by a family member or escort of their choice. We raise the money locally to pay all their expenses (air, hotel, bus, guides, food) and all but $300 for the escort’s. They get to see the various monuments and memorials in and near DC and lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. Elaine was asked to be the nurse on this trip. Here are a few of the photos she took while there.

US Capitol Bldg

World War II Memorial

WW II & Washington Monument

Air Force Memorial

Wreath laying at Tomb of Unknown Soldier

Buffalo County Nebraska WW II veterans

Elaine & Lincoln Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

The trip was so successful, that we have raised the funds for another to take place in late September and possibly next May, as we have many local veterans who have applied to go. We do this all within our county and get no government money for this.

At the Libertarian Party National Convention – May 22-26 2008



Those of you who know my politics, know that I am a fervent believer in small government and maximum personal liberty, as Elaine is also. AS the Republicans and Democrats don’t offer but a dime’s worth of difference in their big government and regulatory outlook, I found my political home in the Libertarian Party back in 1976 and have been a supporter of it and it’s candidates ever since.

The presidential convention was to be held in Denver, Colorado this year. This is only a 5-hour drive from home. Elaine & I decided to attend as observers back last fall. As it turned out, the Nebraska delegation had no delegates as of January, so Elaine & I volunteered our services. The end result was that I was head of delegation and Elaine was a delegate. We picked up another Nebraskan and added him to our delegation at the convention.



Nebraska delegation

Denver is the Capitol of Colorado and the convention was in a fancy hotel downtown near the capitol building




Unlike the two major parties, the choice of presidential candidate is not settled until the convention. There were 14 people asking to be the nominee. Some were serious candidates and others were not so serious and frankly, odd ducks. The convention was organized just like the ones Americans see on TV: there are bylaws and platform committees, which are discussed in depth before being voted on. Most of the delegates are just normal people who want the type of government that the Constitution supposedly guarantees, rather than this large monstrosity that has occurred over the past 80 years.



And a few were sort of different.





The candidates all had social rooms so that you could get to know their positions on the issues and there were many breakout sessions on various topics of concern. In order to even have the ability to be nominated, 30 delegates must agree to place a person’s name into nomination, and to get to speak in the debates 10% of the delegates must agree to give their support to that candidate. There were 8 candidates nominated and 7 got to make speeches. The seven from left to right in the photo were:

Bob Barr (former Republican congressman from Georgia, Mike Gravel (former Democratic senator from Alaska), George Phillies from Massachusetts (not visible in photo), Mike Jingozian (California), Mary Ruwart (Texas), Steve Kubby (California) and Wayne Root (Nevada).


Presidential debate

The balloting process eliminates the lowest candidate and any that does not get at least 5% of the vote. It took six ballots and late into the evening to end up with the party’s choice – Bob Barr



If you are tired of the two party shenanigans and want your freedoms, take a look at Bob Barr this November.

After the convention, we spent a few days with friends in Fort Collins. We had planned to do some hiking, but the weather turned cool and rainy. So, we had a nice visit and took the opportunity to plan a joint trip to the northeast USA for this September-October.

My first piano recital – May 17 2008

After 8 months of piano lessons, I worked up the courage to play in my first recital. It is humbling to be outdone by 12 year olds – but hey, they’ve been at this longer than I. I chose a piece that I really like. I was from Antonin Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” and is commonly known as simply “Largo”, which means play very slowly. Alternatively it is also know as “Goin’ Home”. We play our recital on a grand Piano that has a very rice sound. Without further ado, here I am at the keyboard.



A short visit to Anne in Bloomington, Indiana – April 23-28, 2008

Elaine & I had not seen Anne since Christmas, so we decided to make the 700-mile drive to have a visit. When we travel to see Anne, we often like to break the trip into a 2-day trip, with one day spent at some historic or scenic area along the way. We had stayed in Springfield, Illinois once before to see the various Abraham Lincoln sites. However, since our last stop, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum had opened (Oct 2006). The museum bested our high expectations and is well worth a visit should you find yourself in that area of the USA.

We arrived in Bloomington on Thursday evening and met up with Anne. Anne decided that it was time to buy another auto, as her “White Stallion” is getting old – a 1995 Acura. Anne asked if we would accompany her on the buying excursion, more for moral support than anything else. She had used the Internet to identify the area dealers that had the type of auto she was seeking – a Mazda 3, 4 door sedan, with sunroof. Being a detail person, she had contacted her bank to pre-approve a loan, if needed and had gotten quotes on insurance for several different years of the Mazda 3. Friday the 25th was spent at a single dealer that had the most of the Mazdas – 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008 models. The salesman asked where Anne worked. It turned out that Anne’s employer, Boston Scientific (BS), is a supplier somewhere along the line to the Ford Corporation, which owns a stake in Mazda. This made Anne eligible to by a new a Ford at invoice. The result was that a new vehicle turned out to be less costly than a used one. Made the decision process pretty easy.



With that completed, we spent the next couple of days enjoying our time with Anne and some of her friends.




The guy with his arm around Anne, is Jackson Moore, her boyfriend. He is a carpenter by trade and a really nice guy. Anna and Adrienne (sp) are both engineers at BS, who also live in Bloomington and are also both graduates of Rose Hulman.

Anne keeps very active with interests outside of work. She goes to Yoga sessions, has taken photography classes, took a class in belly dancing and is on the mixed-league company softball team. We had the good luck to get to see Anne in action.





As we all enjoy nature, we spent an afternoon at Griffey Park, enjoying the walking trails.



Griffey Park near Bloomington

To top things off, we visited the local winery, Oliver Winery, and enjoyed some of their product. Actually purchased a couple cases to bring home. The grounds of the winery were fabulously landscaped and all the early spring flowering trees and flowers were in bloom.


Oliver Winery Bloomington Indiana
The days flew by and soon we were on our way back to Nebraska.