Day Three

Day three started in a most pleasant way.  We headed to Abilene and found the sweetest bakery to have breakfast.  Amanda's Bakery and Bistro was such a charming place for breakfast.  It is a coffee shop, bakery, and bistro, but it is also a shop with quaint things.  Lots of handmade items and housewares that remind me of country life.  The French Toast was amazing!  I highly recommend it.

While in Abilene we stopped at the Dwight D. Eisenhower home, museum and library.  The Eisenhower home is on its original site and has not been modified except as was done by the family.  Mrs. Eisenhower lived in this home until her death.  As a result the home is completely authentic.  The furniture in the house was the family furniture.  The family bible that recorded all of the family major events, births, marriages, and deaths, is proudly on display.  It is hard to imagine that six boys were raised in this home.  It is not large at all.  The original structure had three bedrooms.  Can you imagine trying to raise all of those boys with just three bedrooms, especially since one of the bedrooms was practically a large closet?  At some point Mr. Eisenhower decided to add onto the home.  He enlisted his boys help and they added on two bedrooms to the first floor.  The front bedroom became that of the parents.  The back bedroom was designed for Mr. Eisenhower's aging father until his passing.

The tour of the house was too short for me.  I would have loved being able to spend a lot more than 15 minutes seeing what the house had to offer.  All of the blankets in the house were handmade with lots of love.  The pictures on the wall begged to be studied.  The layout wanted to be explored.  Alas, that was just not meant to be.  So, onto the library we went.

During our visit the museum was undergoing some renovations and therefore not open to the public.  Luckily the various displays were moved to the library for viewing.  The exhibit consisted mostly of his presidential campaign items.  (At least that's how I remember it.)  Some of the things that stuck out to me were some of Mrs. Eisenhower's gowns and jewelry on display.

I was happy to learn that President Eisenhower was an artist.  Some of his art is on display, including one of his unfinished paintings.  This is the one I liked the most.  Even though it is unfinished it seems perfect the way it is.

Among the other buildings on the property is the Place of Meditation.  Within these walls rest President Eisenhower, Mamie, and their first born son, Doud.  It is very pretty place.  The inside so much more tranquil than the outside would ever indicate.

I enjoyed visiting, but I found it wanting after our visit to the Truman Library.  It is much smaller and contains fewer items.  I suppose this more a reflection of the fact that Truman had a major part in the development of his library.  While Eisenhower wanted to make his more about the triumphs of the men under his command than about him.  He seems to have been rather hands off about the process in comparison.

Next up on the big trip was a stop in a tiny little town called Victoria.  When we drove into Victoria I can honestly say that I was shocked.  It is a very small place.  There is one church in the town.  Just one that we found.  It is The Basilica of St. Fidelis.  Also known as The Cathedral of the Plains.

St. Fidelis is a Roman Catholic church to rival any others into which I have been blessed enough to walk.  It has an amazing history.  The land was first settled by Englishmen then by Volga-Germans.  The English, being unable to change the land to their purposes and unable to change themselves to the land, returned to England.  The Volga-Germans remained and raised a cross in the village to pray The Rosary.  The nearest priest was 90 miles away in Salina, but the village still raised the first church in 1876.  The second church was raised a year later to accommodate the growing congregation.  The third church was built on land donated by the Kansas Pacific Railway Company.  It now had a seating capacity of 600 souls and was named in memory of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen.

Finally, in 1908, the present building that houses the faithful was started.  By 1911 the building was finished and became a place of God.  At the time the building was dedicated it was the largest church west of the Mississippi seating 1,100 faithful.

In 1912, William Jennings Bryan, named it the "Cathedral of the Plains" during his campaign for the presidency.  In 1971, it was placed in the National Register of Historic Places.  Truly, this is a place that glorifies God in all its beauty.  I could have sat in the pews for hours, both studying the intricacies of the place and in prayer.

Regardless of your faith, this is a stop worth making.  It speaks to the love that we as a nation, as a people from around the world, have for God.  It may not be in a big city.  It may not be in a very convenient location.  It is worth every moment of time you can offer it.

Up Next Is...

After spending a lot of time driving and enjoying Missouri Botanical Garden we finally arrived in Independence, Missouri.  We stopped for the night at last.  That was a lot of driving for one day.

The next day we made a few stops.  First we visited the Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri.  I did not get any pictures there unfortunately.  Again, couldn't remember how to turn off the flash on my film camera.

The Truman Library was really interesting.  President Truman had a big hand in the development and building of his library.  There is a replica of his oval office in which is the globe that was given to him by General Eisenhower.  It is the same globe that Eisenhower used on the battle fields in Germany to plan his progress.  When General Eisenhower became President Eisenhower the original globe was returned to him.

Something that really struck me about the library and museum was all of the letters to his wife, Bess.  From reading these letters it is obvious that he not only was madly in love with her, but he respected her opinions, he valued her support of him through all of his years in government, and he saw her as the anchor in his life.  She seemed to be the one who helped him hold onto his humanity through all he had seen and done.

Among the vast collection of documents, pictures, posters, and newspapers you will see support and dissent of his positions and actions.  There are comics and letters.  Among the many handwritten letters from the people of the country one stands out.  Truman was a pianist.  I didn't know this, but it was apparently common knowledge around the world.  This particular letter came from a woman who survived her time in a concentration camp (I can't remember which).  When she was sent to the camp she was able to keep one thing with her from her former life.  It was a small tin piano figurine.  That little piano provided such hope to the people encamped with her.  She would tell the people around her that President Truman would rescue them and then he would play the piano for them in celebration.  She was finally liberated from the horrors she experienced, and she was able to move to America to live a new life.  All this time she had kept that little piano.  When she became an older woman, she saw fit to share this with the president.  Not only did she write the letter, but she also sent him her little tin piano so that he would know the joy and hope he brought to her and the people in the camp with her.  The letter in its entirety and the little tin piano hold a proud place among the letters from the people on display in the library.

After the Truman Library we hit the road.  We had intended to stay on I-70, but then as we were driving along we saw a sign for the Tallgrass Prairie National Preservation, so we decided to take a little detour.  Little did we know that little detour was 45 minutes out of the way.  It was so nice to get off of the expressway.  The landscape is so much more dynamic than people think.

Nestled in the Kansas Flint Hills is nearly 11,000 acres of land that is incredibly beautiful.  These lands are protected and devoted to the preservation of the animals and plant life native to the Flint Hills.  When you stop in the visitors center and speak with the Rangers on site you will be warned that the land is home to a lot of wild animals.  They are not docile!  It is a common thing to come across a herd of Buffalo while hiking any of the trails.  When you come upon these beautiful beasts you have three choices.  You can stop and wait until they move on, you can try to go around them, or you can turn around and leave them.  Regardless, don't upset them.

Among the landscape is the Spring Hill Ranch.  It is a three story home that you can fully explore.  There have been several owners and therefore not everything is original.  For example, there is an indoor bathroom and a modern kitchen.  It is absolutely worth walking through.  There is an outhouse that seats three.  One of the seats is meant for children.  It's actually enduring.  There is the ice house where ice would be cut and stored in the winter months to keep the household food safe during the summer.  There is a carriage house and a large, beautiful barn.  I can easily close my eyes while sitting on the front porch of this grand home and imagine the horses and carriages passing by.  Occasionally, one stops and the rider climbs the staircase to the house for a visit or perhaps rations and place to rest a head for the night.