Whew, we made it back to Kansas City in one, long-ass haul. Remind us never to drive that much in one day again. It's 8:30pm and we've been on the road since 9am. John drove us most of the way, except for a very small stretch during which it was pretty clear I wasn't going to be able to drive much longer because (long story short) I'm high-maintenance. He's so even, it's amazing :)
After John's conference yesterday, we loaded up and drove into Dallas to check out Dealy Plaza, the place President Kennedy was assassinated. After being amazed yet again at the politeness of drivers and a slight hassle with parking spots for the rental Prius (GET one of these if you can), we got a ton of helpful information (a map, restaurant recommendations and buyer-beware tips!) from the friendliest cop-on-a-bike you could ever possibly meet. We set off to The Sixth Floor Museum, which is literally the 6th floor of the Texas Book Depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald parked himself to commit his horrible crime. They've got a comprehensive history of President Kennedy and Jackie O, in addition to simply covering the assassination. They give you a little headphone set for an audio tour, there's tons of information, pictures, videos and even certain realia. We could've easily been there for a few hours, but since we got there only an hour and half before closing, we hustled through it. It was pretty amazing, and though I've read about it and seen all the movies and historical accounts of the assassination, I still wandered through the place with my jaw hanging open in disbelief. I've always found the controversy surrounding that day to be most intriguing, but no matter how many times I ponder it, I'm always struck by the profound horror of it, and an incredible empathy for Jackie in the aftermath.
What struck both of us right away is the simplicity and scale of the scene. When you see it in pictures, I guess it seems like it would be a larger area, but it's literally just a little grassy knoll directly next to the freeway on-ramp. That's all it is. And that fence, the creepy, infamous fence where some reports and pictures put an unidentified, possible accomplice to Oswald...man, it just LOOKS like some creep-oid extremist would be hangin' around back there totin' his firearm! And the view of the window from the ramp is also very eerie. Personally, I'm a bit persnickety about proper behavior when visiting sites such as these, so it irks me a bit when people are acting a-fool, too jovial, or selling bogus information to make a quick buck around a place that is such a well-known scene of a brutal crime. Yes, I know people die everywhere, and place is, in the grand scheme of things, completely irrelevant, but it's like Pearl Harbor; it's a graveyard, so you act like it. It's a huge piece of our history, and you treat it with dignity. Anyway, I found it to be an important, and chilling, place to visit.
After the tour, we wandered along Market Street and patronized a great BBQ joint, Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse, that the cop recommended. It was delicious!! We took a bit more of a walk, then headed back to the hotel for a little reading and hit the sack.
As we left Kansas City, it was raining and thundering a bit, so I was apprehensive about our luck. Some of the roads already seemed to be getting a little flooded, but we forged ahead and made good time out of the rain and into the sunny, green wonder of Iowa. I have to say, I've come to really adore Iowa. There's just something very Hobbiton about it, it's lush and a bit slower paced than the states surrounding it. Quiet simplicity. I could envision running a little bed & breakfast there :) We made a stop off in Des Moines for lunch at a funky place called Hessen Haus, a nice German pub with tons of cool decor, good food (yes, more big sausages!) and we even picked up my niece the coolest shirt! John will post pics soon, but it has the restaurant name and logo on the front, and then on the back it says, "Schnitzel Happens". I can't stop giggling about it :)
We then went to the Des Moines Science Museum and caught another Omni Theatre movie: Greece. This one wasn't nearly as interesting as it could have been. It wasn't very cohesive, but the photography was beautiful, and I didn't feel like puking during this one, so that's a bonus! We were running out of steam, but we managed another planetarium showing which was a "Native American Stars" viewing, where the guy narrated some of the Native American stories around the constellations. It was very nice, although I fell asleep during the last part of it. Then we poked around the space stuff for awhile before heading on home.
The drive was uneventful, and our furbabies, as usual were happy to see us, though they acted a bit aloof at first in punishment ;) We're already planning our next adventure, likely to be in Canada! WHOO!
Thanks for tuning in! Next time we'll remember to do a podcast, cuz we're dorks like that ;)~
Love & hugs, R&J
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