Home

We were on the road by 7:00 a.m.  It had rained in the night and the temperature dropped to 50.  It was chilly so we actually turned on the heater in the car.

We love driving I-80 across western Iowa especially this time of the year when the crops are beginning to ripen up.

 

We filled up with $1.95 a gallon gas at the I-80 Truckstop and had lunch.  This is the third time in three weeks that we have been here.

This is the bridge over the Mississippi River from Iowa to Illinois.  At Omaha/Council Bluff we crossed the Missouri River and, at Peoria we crossed the Illinois River.  On this day we crossed three major rivers in the midwest.

We made it to Decatur by 4:00 p.m. and quickly unloaded the car so we could pick up Sandy.  She was very happy to see us.  They treat her well at Ruff-Inn-It, but it just isn't home.  We had a great time and saw and learned so much.  We ate lots of good food, enjoyed time together, and made many wonderful memories. Covid didn't affect us much.  If the place we went into required masks, we wore them; if it didn't, we didn't wear them.  The motels substituted sit-down breakfasts with "bags-to-go."   There were no condiments on restaurant tables or refill drinks without a clean cup.  We adapted but look forward to more "normal" trips.

Back Where It All Began

After a good night's rest, we packed up and decided to have breakfast at the nearby Cracker Barrel.  

We left Missouri and cut across the southwest corner of Iowa.

Finally, we made it to Nebraska and took Highway 75 north to Bellevue and Offutt AFB.

Below is Erling Berquest Military Hospital, Offutt AFB, Nebraska, where John Andrew was born.  

Below is the main gate into Offutt AFB, Nebraska.  When mom and I drove from Salem to the base, this is where we waited for Carol to sign us in.
 

When Carol was stationed here, SAC Headquarters was  located in a building where this new building is now.  I worked in that building.  In 1982 SAC was decommissioned and renamed Strategic Command.  This new building replaced that old SAC Headquarters building.  At the time I worked here it was a three-story building with an additional three-stories underground.  I don't know if the new building has the underground stories.

This vacant lot is located just outside the Bellevue Gate to Offutt.  In 1966 when we got married, the vacant lot was a trailer park and we lived in a 30-foot trailer...our first home!  The small building in the top corner of the picture was there at that time.

This is the second place we lived in Bellevue, Apartment #3, Lindyview Apartments.

This is the third and last place we lived.  At that time, the basement was an apartment.  We lived here when John was born.  

This is the church in which we were married on Sunday, September 4, 1966.  The sign wasn't there but 

otherwise it looks the same.  The Friday before that Sunday, Carol and I had visited the pastor to see if he would marry us on Sunday afternoon.  He didn't know us from Adam, and we weren't members of the church; but he was a kind man and agreed to perform the wedding.  

  

This is Bellevue Florist and in 1966, I brought my wedding bouquet at this shop.  It is amazing that it is still in business and my memory tells me it looks the same.

When we lived in Bellevue, this was the Southroads Shopping Mall.  For Carol and I in 1966, a shopping mall was something new.  The  little town of Salem sure didn't have one.  Nearly every weekend, we would visit the mall; usually, we didn't buy anything but a record album and ice cream cones.   We did enjoy going to the mall.  Now, this shopping mall has gone by the way of a lot of malls today.  It's no longer is a place to shop but has been repurposed.  Thanks to those shopping trips, we do have great collection of vinyl record albums from 1966-1969.  Vinyl is coming back!!

After driving around Bellevue and the base, we drove into Omaha on some of the streets we had driven when we lived here.  The western edge of the city used to end around 80th street but now it stretches out to 150th street and beyond.  Boys Town was outside of town and now it is a part of Omaha.  There are new streets and highways everywhere.  We ate a late lunch at Red Lobster before driving back to Bellevue to stay at the Comfort Inn there. It has been a good day filled with old, sweet memories.  Tomorrow we head home.

St. Joseph

 

Breakfast-in-a-bag is provided by this motel.  I picked up a couple to tide us over until we got to a breakfast restaurant.

The is the contents of the bag:  Honey Bun (very tasty), granola bar, and bottle of water. 

 

 

This is the restaurant we ate breakfast.  There is a LePeep in Springfield at which we have eaten.  Carol had biscuits and gravy, hash browns, and eggs and I had a Spanish omelet and potatoes.  Both of us ate every bite and walked out very, very full.  It is a great place to eat breakfast.  Our first stop was an antique mall.  We have passed through St. Joseph many times and saw from the interstate signs for a couple of antique malls.  We never stopped because we were on our way west.  On this trip, we finally visited those antique malls.

There used to be a Pony Express Motel and this was its sign

This metal depiction of a pony express rider is outside the Pony Express Museum.

Next stop was the Pony Express Museum.  The foundation of this building is the original 1850's stable.  The pony express headquarters was in St. Joseph.  The first pony express rider left from St. Joseph on April 3, 1960 .  The  nearly 2,000 mile would take 10 days with a relay of riders and horses carrying the mail and newspapers.  The idea was successful for nearly two years; then, the telegraph was invented and wires strung across the west making the pony express obsolete.

                                                        

 There were nearly 200 men who rode for the pony express.  One of those men was Buffalo Bill Cody.

This is a reproduction of a pony express station.  It  contained a bunk bed, table and chairs, and cooking area.  Riders would exchange mail and rest in the station while waiting for their next shift of ride.

This mural was painted on the side of a building in the area.  St. Joseph uses the Pony Express name in its businesses, etc.  This is pony express country.

 

This is the Patee House Museum.  It was a hotel built in 1858 and was used as the pony express headquarters.  It served as the U.S. provost marshal's office during the Civil War.  St. Joseph contained both union and confederate supporters.  The Patee House served as a hotel three times, a girl's college twice and a shirt factory for 80 years.  Finally, in 1965 it became a Western history museum.  Now it contains the history of St. Joseph.   One fact we found interesting was that the owner, John Patee was a Confederate sympathizer and was short of cash so he had to sell his hotel by a lottery.  He had to buy the last 100 tickets himself in order to get the tickets sold.  When the winning ticket was drawn, it was one of the tickets he had bought.  

This was the office of the pony express.

This is called a mochita and carried the pony express mail.  The rider carried it to the next relay station.  He would take it off his horse and place it on the next rider's horse, who would then mount his horse and carry the mochita to the next relay station.

The museum was a very interesting display of St. Joseph in the early years of the city.  It revealed events and people who played a part in the history of the city. 

Who knew...Walter Cronkite was born in St. Joseph.  In fact, his grandfather and father were dentists practicing in St. Joseph. 

This the check-in counter in the lobby of the hotel.

The Studebaker family owned a wagon and carriage business.  They went from building wagons and carriages to building the Studebaker car.

This Studebaker was called the "President's Car."

I caught Carol coming out of the saloon!

The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was the first in the nation to extend as far west as St. Joseph.  The last Hannibal steam locomotive and railway mail car are on display here.

Robert Wadlow was born in Alton, Illinois, and was the world's tallest man.  He filed a lawsuit against a doctor who lived in St Joseph so he was in the city for the length of the court proceedings.  Carol looks like a shorty standing he Brown in front of this life-sized photo of Mr. Wadlow.  He worked for the Brown Shoe Company as the advertising face of the company.  They supplied his shoes.

This is a 13-star American flag.  It was carried by an early military troop.  I don't know what its connection to St. Joseph was.  I had never seen a 13-star flag before.

Arthur Pryor was from St. Joseph and played in John Phillip Sousa's band.  This is his trombone and band uniform.

Aunt Jemima pancake mix was invented in St. Joseph.  It was originally milled here but was eventually brought out  by the Quaker Oats Company.  Quaker Oats retained Aunt Jemina as its trademark.

One of the things St. Joseph is known for is Jesse James.  He was shot by a member of his gang in this house. He and his wife and children were renting this house in 1882 when he was shot.  He was 34-years old and had spent half of his life as a bank robber and murderer.  

The bullet went through his head and into this wall in the living room.  The hole has been made bigger by people visiting the house and taking pieces of the wallpaper as a souvenir.

We left the old downtown area on Penn Street.  The street took us out to the newer parts of the city.  It was a small two-laned street on rolling hills.  I noticed that the original street signs were on the corners.  One side showed Penn Street and the other showed the cross-street.  I had never seen street signs like these.

We ate supper at Fazoli's which is a fast-food Olive Garden.  They have unlimited bread sticks and delicious Italian food.  It was very good and should keep us from getting hungry the rest of the evening.  We got back to the motel about 4:30 and are just relaxing.  It was a great day spent on our feet and those feet need to rest.