Buddy's Different Adventure

I decided that since Buddy accompanied me on all my traveling adventures he should accompany me on a different type of adventure I embarked on - a trip to the hospital. He didn't make it to surgery with me, but he enjoyed a little relaxation in the newly made bed I had abandoned for a little stretch of my legs.

Let me tell you, I wouldn't wish a couple days and nights in a hospital to anyone. It's enough to drive anyone crazy!

Some of the jewelry the hospital gave me!

Greyhound Hall of Fame

Another high spot in Abilene, KS (along with Eisenhower's museum) is the Greyhound Hall of Fame. When you enter you are greeted by Jade, a four year old former champion, and watched closely by TalentedMrRipley - a ten-year-old Hall of Famer:

Knowing practically nothing about greyhound racing it was interesting - did you know they wear the white muzzles for judging photo finishes? Admission is free and the dogs are the sweetest there is.

Eisenhower

I don't know if it's because I just visited Truman, but I'm not impressed. His museum, library and memorial are impressive, and I had high hopes of being impressed by Eisenhower himself but basically Truman handed him the presidency, he rode the initiatives already in place into the prosperous 50's and was reelected because of his fame (the world worshiped him because of what he did in WWII). He was also key to leading Nixon toward the presidency.

Fully three quarters of Eisenhower's museum is made up of exhibits about World War II - many of which don't have anything specific to do with Ike himself. During my visit there was also an exhibit about Abilene, KS his hometown. His presidency exhibit repeated much of what I already saw at Truman and then montages about life in the US during the 50's.

He does get originality points, because so far he's the only president who is buried in his own chapel - a meditation spot.

A(n) Hotel Story

When I was a teen I worked as a chambermaid at a hotel, a literal mom and pop place with about 30 rooms. Every year we got Blue Knights as visitors on their way to bike week. The Blue Knights (as I understand it) are cops/ex-cops who ride motorcycles. Every year the hotel owner's wife got livid because the riders cleaned their bikes with the hotel towels during their stay.

I'm staying in a hotel and parked next to a nice Harley. I was walking through the back door and it was politely held open by a gentleman with a hotel room trashcan in his arms. As I walked through the door, I had a flashback to my chambermaid past and wondered if he had water in the trashcan to clean his bike (with the hotel towels). Yep, when I got back to my room I looked out the window - he was cleaning off his bike with water from the trashcan. I couldn't tell if he was using a hotel towel as a rag. I guess things never change, but now I wonder if all motorcycle types do this as a matter of course.

Harry Truman

Another dead president. Harry Truman is buried (with his wife Bess) at his presidential library in Independence, MO. I'll give Harry about a 3 on ostentation of his burial site, really one of the simplest I've visited.

His library was interesting, I wasn't sure what was going to be highlighted as the high spots of his presidency. Three things stood out as pivotal: the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan, the Truman Doctrine/Marshall Plan, and the Red Scare.

While watching his bio film (narrated by David McCullough, not Martin Sheen who has done several others I've seen [I later found out McCullough wrote a book on Truman] I was struck by the similarities between Truman's challenges and those of our current president - then as now there are some serious partisan splits that ensures that no matter what the president does someone will be seriously unhappy. All the talk lately about how the two sides have in extreme directions really doesn't take history into consideration. Joe McCarthy anyone?

There's an interesting plaque in the courtyard where Truman is buried. It basically thanks him for giving permission for the military to use the atomic bomb on Japan. I understand the two sides of the issues: it saved millions of American military lives on the attempt to invade the Japanese mainland; and the Japanese would have surrendered soon anyway so everyone killed in Nagasaki and Hiroshima were killed violently for no reason. My thoughts have always been: it's kind of good we used it when the bomb was as weak as it was. We (humanity) learned what a terrible weapon it was and have so far not used it again - especially now that the weapon has been developed to be so much stronger. But then again, since we haven't learned our history about the continued partinsanship of the Democrats and Republicans through history we'll probably forget this too. Or am I being too cynical and preachy?