{Road Trip} Day Twenty-Three - Kicking It Through Kentucky and HOME!

We covered a lot of ground last night, driving into the early hours of the morning, and stopping in Paducah, KY for the night...

 

This morning we visited the grave of Vice President Alben Barkley...

Alben Barkley served as the 35th Vice President of the United States under President Harry Truman.

From there, we travelled down a rural Kentucky highway in Christian County to the birthsite of Vice President Adlai Stevenson, where a school now stands...

Adlai Stevenson served as the 23rd Vice President of the United States during President Grover Cleveland's second term.

We made our final stop on this summer's road trip at the birthsite of the President of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis, a memorial obelisk...

and small museum in Fairview...

After exploring the museum, we rode the elevator up to the top of the monument...

and checked out the view from way up high...

A monumental end to a truly MONUMENTAL trip...



A few more hours down the road, we dropped Grandma off at home...

and crossed into our very favorite state by far, our HOME state...

These little ones have been the epitome of TROOPERS for the past 3 1/2 weeks...

 {one of the said "three" is obviously still (very smartly) asleep}

With that, we are thankful for another family adventure in the books!

And, no odometer pic this go...  We got a (much needed) oil change once we crossed back into the country in Washington, and sadly they reset everything on the dashboard...  Boo...

 

Until next summer...

More {Road Trip} 2017 Fun

Day One - A Presidential Start

Day Two - Getting Corny

Day Three - Oh, Canada! + Happy Birthday, Hubby

Day Four - Alaska Highway - Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC

Day Five - Alaska Highway - Muncho Lake, BC to Whitehorse, YT

Day Six - Well, Hello ALASKA!

Day Seven - Icebergs, Glaciers, and Fjords, Oh My!

Day Eight - All Around Anchorage + the Parks Highway to Fairbanks

Day Nine - Denali National Park & Preserve + Go UAF Nanooks!
Day Ten - Into the Arctic
Day Eleven - JUNEAU
Days Twelve & Thirteen - Driving for Days
Day Fourteen - Hello, Seattle!
Day Fifteen - A Couple of Capital Cities with Capitol Steps to Climb
Day Sixteen - Out and About in the Portland Area
Day Seventeen - Idaho
Day Eighteen - Utah, and a Goodbye
Day Nineteen - From the Mountains to the Plains
Day Twenty - Canvasing Kansas
Day Twenty-One - Good Bye, Kansas + Hello, Missouri!
Day Twenty-Two - Finishing Up Truman's Missouri

{Road Trip} Day Twenty-Two - Finishing Up Truman's Missouri

We started our day with a little trip to the middle of nowhere...because we hadn't yet hit up enough middle of nowhere stops on this trip to satisfy me...  You know, a couple of hours up a dirt highway, miles away from civilization (aka crossing the Arctic Circle), should've checked off that block for years to come, but that was already like A WHOLE WEEK AND A HALF AGO...

And, then there was that stop in Kansas in the middle of the lower 48 states, middle of nowhere...

but we're now on Day 22 of our road trip, and at this point I'm not even certain that I can remember my children's names (just kidding), so understandably, Day 20 is totally a blur...

Since we were close enough (read that as less than 4 hours) to another middle of nowhere stop, we just HAD to go...and to make it even better, the highlight of this stop was the grave of a guy that really wasn't even a president, but some people think he was, but you know...gotta cover all of our bases, in all of the middle of nowheres that we're kind of close to everywhere...

We first learned about David Rice Atchison last summer when we stopped at his birthsite in Kentucky...

So today, we came full circle...

visiting his grave in Plattsburg, about an hour north of Kansas City...

From Plattsburg, we turned around and headed back down toward Kansas City, and stopped east of the city in Independence where we stopped by more of the places where President Harry Truman once took a breath, I mean, lived, this time, as a young boy...

The man obviously moved A LOT before he settled here, in his wife's family home...

Can you believe that when we arrived at the office, they had just cancelled all afternoon tours???

The air conditioner broke...

Yep, us South Carolinians would've been just fine, but oh well, the tour will have to wait until the next time we're in Independence...

Thankfully, we WERE able to stop by the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum and pay our respects to the president's final resting spot...

before continuing on to Grandview to check out the Truman Family Farm where President Truman lived with his family as a young man, after returning from Kansas City...

Continuing on into Kentucky tonight.  More fun on tap for tomorrow...

More {Road Trip} 2017 Fun

Day One - A Presidential Start

Day Two - Getting Corny

Day Three - Oh, Canada! + Happy Birthday, Hubby

Day Four - Alaska Highway - Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC

Day Five - Alaska Highway - Muncho Lake, BC to Whitehorse, YT

Day Six - Well, Hello ALASKA!

Day Seven - Icebergs, Glaciers, and Fjords, Oh My!

Day Eight - All Around Anchorage + the Parks Highway to Fairbanks

Day Nine - Denali National Park & Preserve + Go UAF Nanooks!
Day Ten - Into the Arctic
Day Eleven - JUNEAU
Days Twelve & Thirteen - Driving for Days
Day Fourteen - Hello, Seattle!
Day Fifteen - A Couple of Capital Cities with Capitol Steps to Climb
Day Sixteen - Out and About in the Portland Area
Day Seventeen - Idaho
Day Eighteen - Utah, and a Goodbye
Day Nineteen - From the Mountains to the Plains
Day Twenty - Canvasing Kansas
Day Twenty-One - Good Bye, Kansas + Hello, Missouri!
Day Twenty-Three - Kicking It Through Kentucky and HOME!

{Road Trip} Day Twenty-One - Good Bye, Kansas + Hello, Missouri!

From Abilene, we continued east to Topeka so a certain someone (and his sweet sidekicks) could run up the steps...

 

 

of his 40th set of state capitol steps...

 



 

From there, we made our way around both downtown Topeka and North Topeka, just across the Kansas River...

We stopped at the grave of Vice President Charles Curtis...

Charles Curtis served as the 31st Vice President of the United States under President Herbert Hoover.

He was born along the banks of the Kansas River near what is now the intersection of Curtis and Harrison Streets...

There's nothing there now but some empty green space along the river...

but, I am a "completist" to a fault...

From Topeka, we crossed over the border into Kansas City, MO where we drove past a lot of empty and overgrown lots where houses once stood where President Harry Truman once took a breath, I mean, lived as a young man when he was off and working on his own...

See?  Total "completist" to a fault...that'd be me over here...

We finally stopped at the Research Hospital and Medical Center where President Harry Truman died in 1972...

 

More of President Harry Truman and places where he once took a breath, I mean, lived, tomorrow...

 

More {Road Trip} 2017 Fun

Day One - A Presidential Start

Day Two - Getting Corny

Day Three - Oh, Canada! + Happy Birthday, Hubby

Day Four - Alaska Highway - Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC

Day Five - Alaska Highway - Muncho Lake, BC to Whitehorse, YT

Day Six - Well, Hello ALASKA!

Day Seven - Icebergs, Glaciers, and Fjords, Oh My!

Day Eight - All Around Anchorage + the Parks Highway to Fairbanks

Day Nine - Denali National Park & Preserve + Go UAF Nanooks!
Day Ten - Into the Arctic
Day Eleven - JUNEAU
Days Twelve & Thirteen - Driving for Days
Day Fourteen - Hello, Seattle!
Day Fifteen - A Couple of Capital Cities with Capitol Steps to Climb
Day Sixteen - Out and About in the Portland Area
Day Seventeen - Idaho
Day Eighteen - Utah, and a Goodbye
Day Nineteen - From the Mountains to the Plains
Day Twenty - Canvasing Kansas
Day Twenty-Two - Finishing Up Truman's Missouri
Day Twenty-Three - Kicking It Through Kentucky and HOME!

{Road Trip} Day Twenty - Canvasing Kansas

So, today we set out to explore Kansas...

{the Kansas square from my favorite Lilly Pulitzer dress.  the pattern is called State of Mind, and I'm pretty sure we've got it in every size from 4-12!}

First of all, I can't believe that I am actually in Kansas!  Most people would not think it too exciting at all, and I get that, but I am sooo excited to be in Kansas...seriously...  We have been all around it more than once, yet we have never actually been here...  Well, Hubby has actually been to Kansas for an oil marketers conference (& actually Colorado, too, for a bachelor party), but now we are all 5 evened up at 47 states...  Whoo hoo!

Sooo, Kansas...  Where do I begin?

For the most part, it is vast, flat, and yellowish, with a big, beautiful sky, and honestly, a very relaxing drive after the crowded Rocky Mountains...

We happened upon our first stop because it was in Goodland, where we spent the night...

So, here I present...

this GINORMOUS easel with a GINORMOUS replica of a Van Gogh sunflower painting...

because, seriously...

what else is there to do there, but pass the time by staring up at a GINORMOUS fake Van Gogh...  

 Right???

From Goodland, we traveled through a whole lot of nothing to the even tinier town of Lebanon, where on the outskirts stands a monument marking the center of the 48 contiguous states...

You see, we've already been to the center of all 50 states up in South Dakota...

Bonus...this one is NOT in the middle of a cow pasture...  Hooray! 

 

but, it IS in the middle of nowhere...

{the road leading from the middle of nowhere to more middle of nowhere nothingness, but look at that big, beautiful sky!}

There is a tiny little chapel there, too...

but really, there were actually more people at the Arctic Circle when we visited there!

From Lebanon, we continued on to Abilene, and the town that President Dwight D. Eisenhower called home for most of his childhood...

where a large portion of the center of town occupies his boyhood home...

presidential library, museum, and final resting place...

Headed on to Topeka tomorrow...  We've got one more set of state capitol steps to run up on this trip!

More {Road Trip} 2017 Fun

Day One - A Presidential Start

Day Two - Getting Corny

Day Three - Oh, Canada! + Happy Birthday, Hubby

Day Four - Alaska Highway - Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC

Day Five - Alaska Highway - Muncho Lake, BC to Whitehorse, YT

Day Six - Well, Hello ALASKA!

Day Seven - Icebergs, Glaciers, and Fjords, Oh My!

Day Eight - All Around Anchorage + the Parks Highway to Fairbanks

Day Nine - Denali National Park & Preserve + Go UAF Nanooks!
Day Ten - Into the Arctic
Day Eleven - JUNEAU
Days Twelve & Thirteen - Driving for Days
Day Fourteen - Hello, Seattle!
Day Fifteen - A Couple of Capital Cities with Capitol Steps to Climb
Day Sixteen - Out and About in the Portland Area
Day Seventeen - Idaho
Day Eighteen - Utah, and a Goodbye
Day Nineteen - From the Mountains to the Plains
Day Twenty-One - Good Bye, Kansas + Hello, Missouri!
Day Twenty-Two - Finishing Up Truman's Missouri
Day Twenty-Three - Kicking It Through Kentucky and HOME!