Author: marionvermazen

One of the reasons we are taking this road trip is to attend Duke’s High School Reunion in Manchester, Iowa. Today we made it to Manchester. We started this morning in Hannibal, Missouri. Hannibal was Mark Twain’s boyhood home so we walked around downtown and along the Mississippi a bit and then went by Twain’s home before heading north into Iowa.

As we were driving through Cedar Rapids, Iowa we saw a sign for the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library. Duke and I agreed that we should visit the museum someday then a few seconds later Duke said, “We should visit it now!” So we did!

The museum was fascinating. It tells the history of the Czech and Slovak peoples and the stories of the Czechs and Slovaks who immigrated to America. The building itself was interesting because it was badly damaged in the flooding in 2008. As part of the repairs it was moved 480 feet and elevated 11 feet higher.

Before we left Cedar Rapids we walked around Czech village and had kolach in the bakery.

All the motels in Manchester are full this weekend so we are staying in Independence, Iowa about twenty miles west of Manchester. We met our friends in Manchester and chatted with many of Duke’s classmates at a bar overlooking the river.

Tomorrow tnhere is going to be a motorcycle observed trials competition in Manchester. A couple of the competitors gave a demonstration while we were visiting and having dinner.

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 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.

Today we continued to travel east on highway 50. We crossed the continental divide at Monarch Pass (elev. 11,312 ft.) and from there it was all down hill across Colorado following the Arkansas River.

Tonight we are staying Just over the border in Kansas in the little town of Coolidge (population 171 and elevation 3,356).

We are staying in a very nice little cabin at the Trail City Bed and Breakfast.

The restaurant in Coolidge is closed this week so we drove 15 miles east to Syracuse and had a good steak dinner at the Black Bison Pub.

If you would like to see more pictures of our trip let me know and I’ll add you to the Apple shared album our the Google photos shared album.