My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
Duke and I have completed the first week of our road trip. Yesterday we were in Memphis visiting my sister and her family. We hadn’t see them for three years so it was great to be able to visit.
Memphis was the farthest south and the farthest east we will be on this trip. Today we head north. We crossed the Mississippi and the Missouri and are in Hannibal Missouri tonight.
Duke and I had a busy day today. We started the day in Topeka, Kansas where we walked a short couple of blocks from our hotel to the state Capitol building. The Kansas Capitol building is one of the prettiest I’ve seen. We did a self guided tour.
From Topeka we headed east and stopped to see my cousin just north of Kansas City.
We had a nice visit and then drove to Jefferson City the capital of Missouri. We took a guided tour of the Missouri Capitol building.
We left Jefferson City and headed a few hours south. Tonight we are in a comfort in Willow Springs, Missouri.
Duke and I like to visit state capitols. We have never been to the Kansas Capitol building so today Topeka, the Kansas state capital was our goal. We drove across Kansas from Coolidge on the western border to Topeka not far from the eastern border. We are very much on the Great Plains now.
We have been on highway 50 since soon after we left Reno. Today we left 50 and headed a bit north. We stopped in Abilene where the Eisenhower Presidential Library and boyhood home are located. The library and museum were closed because of covid but we enjoyed walking around the grounds.
I’ve just started reading the Robert A. Caro’s book, The Path to Power, about Lyndon Johnson’s early years. The book talks about the big cattle drives after the Civil War when unbranded cattle were rounded up and driven north from Texas to the rail yards in Abilene, Kansas. Johnson’s ancestors ran some of these early drives and made a lot of money doing it. I enjoyed seeing Abilene, where the cattle drives ended.
In Wichita we are staying at the Cyrus, a very nice old refurnished hotel about two blocks from the Capitol. We had burgers across from the hotel at a restaurant called the Pennant.
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