I am officially retired from teaching! To celebrate that and to give myself a little time off between ending 30 years of teaching and starting my full-time writing career, I added a few days to a wedding I had already planned to attend. Kim and I spent a little time in Columbia, Jefferson City, and Kansas City, Missouri, simply roaming around on foot, as we both enjoy doing.
Aside from attending a special wedding, we wandered around the campus of the University of Missouri, or Mizzou as it's popularly called. It's Missouri's largest university; we only traversed a small, yet, meaningful part of it. The campus is beautiful, and we really enjoyed having it mostly to ourselves since we were there at the end of May when classes were out for the summer. Not knowing a thing about Mizzou prior to this visit, we quickly learned that the six Ionic columns preserved in the middle of a large grassy area are very important to the university. They originally supported the portico of Academic Hall, which was the first building built on the campus in the early 1840's; however, that building burned down in early 1892. Some leaders wanted to tear down the columns -- each stands at 43 feet high -- but the alumni came to their rescue, and the columns still stand today as a symbol of the university.
A couple other things of note that we saw while we were on the campus were two statues. One was of a prominent American historical figure and the other was of a prominent American comical figure. The statute of Thomas Jefferson sits near his original grave marker, a large engraved stone that was gifted to the university. I'm going to share here what the plaque next to it says: "This original monument, designed by Thomas Jefferson, was placed at his grave at Monticello, in 1833. In 1883, it was given by the Jefferson heirs to the University of Missouri, the first state university founded in the Louisiana Purchase Territory. It was first dedicated on this campus at commencement, June 4, 1885." In the following photos, you will see the monument as well as the statue of Jefferson. In his statue, he is writing the Declaration of Independence. After taking the full photo of the monument, I realized there was a cool reflection in its covering glass, so I stepped closer for another photo -- the famous columns are reflected perfectly.
The statue of the prominent American comical figure is Beetle Bailey. It sits beside the Alumni center, which is fitting since Bailey's creator was a 1948 graduate of Mizzou, and apparently Bailey himself was a student of the university before entering the Army. He's been sitting at this same bench since 1992. This surprised me because it looked almost new. Since I used to love reading about his misadventures in the military, I had to sit a moment and ponder about life with this beloved character.
The architecture on campus is very beautiful, and we loved the attention to detail found all over the place. Here is one of our favorite finds -- a little scribe tucked up in a corner of the walkway through the Memorial Union Tower. Near him you'll find the names of the 117 MU men who died in World War I inscribed on the walls.
Our main objective in Columbia was to attend a wedding, so that took up most of the time, but during our short stay in the town, we were impressed with all it has to offer. Our meals at Gumby's Pizza and at the Heidelberg (a Mizzou staple) were delicious, and we learned from a slew of framed news clippings at the Berg that it burned down in 2003. It's been rebuilt in such a way that it seems to have been there much longer. I had a meal called Kevin's chicken wrap because my brother's name is Kevin. I asked our server who Kevin was, and he said he'd been a regular a long time ago but that he'd never met him. A bit anticlimactic, but the wrap was good at least.
With the capital, Jefferson City, only a half hour drive south, we had to take advantage of its proximity for a short visit. Since it was the Sunday before Memorial Day, not much was open, but we did find a great (and very popular with the locals) restaurant called Sweet Smoke BBQ that was open and bustling. The meat there was delicious, and we highly recommend the turkey. After lunch, we walked around the capitol and various historical monuments surrounding it. The Governor's mansion just up the hill from the capitol is very impressive and would be worth a repeat visit from us someday when it's open to tours. I was tickled to find a Little Free Library loaded with books right in front of the mansion. We marveled at the size and beauty of the exterior of the capitol, the views of the Missouri River from it, and its serene and respectful veterans' memorial.
After leaving Jefferson City, we drove to Kansas City. Since we were arriving on Sunday afternoon with the next day being Memorial Day, we were a bit worried that we wouldn't find much open during our short stay. Our objective had been to eat at a few of the restaurants visited by Guy Fieri for his Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives show, but most of them were closed. We did luck out, though, with one that wasn't too far from our hotel, so we went to Pigwich where I had a pigwich, a pulled pork sandwich. We saw Guy's trademark stenciled on the wall and then enjoyed our meal al fresco. On the way back to the hotel, we walked a different route and stumbled upon a dive bar owned by Guy Fieri himself, so, naturally, we had to go in for a drink.
The next day was Memorial Day. We woke to a rainy and gloomy day, which I guess is fitting weather for a day in which we should be remembering all those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms. We grabbed the umbrella and walked the few blocks to the World War I museum. There were many Memorial Day tributes taking place both in the museum entryway and on the expansive grounds surrounding the museum. One of them had special significance to us since Kim's son died by suicide while still an active member of the U.S. Air Force. There were 140 flags on the lawn in front of the museum to represent the 140 veterans lost to suicide each week. This tragedy touches us deeply, so we lingered a bit to pay our respects to the tribute -- in Trever Erickson's memory.
To enter the museum itself, you have to cross a glass bridge that spans a field of poppies. Fortunately for me (with my fear of heights), they had carpet runners to help people like me over the bridge. Once I'd become accustomed to the bridge, though, I did venture onto it sans carpeting at one point.
The museum is extraordinary and simply chock full of enough information, displays, and memorabilia that a person would need days to absorb even half of it. The staff were very friendly and helpful. I would definitely recommend a visit to this museum to anyone planning a visit to Kansas City. Being motorcyclists and American Legion Riders, we both enjoyed the display about the 1917 Harley-Davidson motorcycle. According to the information posted in the museum about the bike, "over 20,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycles were sent 'over there.' They were used by dispatch riders, medical personnel, signal corpsmen, and military police in traffic control escort duties." This particular bike came from the "Fred Hoppe Collection of Malcolm, Nebraska."
Union Station is near the museum, so we ventured there next to gawk at more impressive architecture. What a building! It's massive, and the interior ceiling is simply lovely. Since it was Memorial Day, I was happy to see a huge flag hanging in the main room.
At the end of that long room there is a doorway that leads to the footbridge which allows you to pass over the train tracks. For some inexplicable reason, there was a pterodactyl lying on a cart in front of a train engine in a work bay. I seriously have no idea why it was there, but I had to take a photo for my daughter to see since she's studying to become a paleontologist.
On our walk back to the hotel, we happened upon a bar that was actually open on Memorial Day, so we went it. It was Taps on Main. We'd never experienced a bar quite like it, but it allows you to pour your own beer, so you can choose how much to consume. It also allows you to sample as many as you'd like that way, but we only had one each - a mango one for me and a pineapple one for Kim.
The only nearby restaurant that was open for supper was Johnny's Tavern, which we were told is open every day of the year. We wandered over to an area by the window and were pleasantly surprised to find the only Huskers table available.
Even though we live fairly close to Kansas City, we've both had limited exposure to it and all it has to offer. We managed to get in one more quick stop on Tuesday morning to Banksia, another Triple D restaurant, but it was truly just a quick stop before we headed home. Hopefully, we'll return to savor more that the city has to offer, but for now, we leave agreeing with this sign.
