dannykuconn
Cheerman of Board
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2011
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The whirlwind tour continues. After leaving beautiful downtown South Bend, we headed to Springfield Illinois, to tour the only home owned by Abraham Lincoln. It was a great insight into some of the years leading up to his Presidency. After that, we headed to the State Capitol and took a tour of the building, which has the highest domed capitol in the US, higher than any other state and higher than the US Capitol building.
We drove to Kansas City, where it was good that we had advance reservations, as the Raiders were in town for Thursday night football, and rooms were scarce. The Chiefs won, but we were asleep before the game finished. The following morning, we drove to Independence museum to tour the Truman Library. I learned a lot about this President and this time in history.
Phil wanted to visit the State Capitol in Topeka, two hours weest on the way to Kansas State, but they were not open on Saturday, so we drove out to Topeka and back. We took the Capitol tour where they told us that the dome was the second tallest, and we knew who was the tallest. Just as the building tour ended, a tour of the dome itself was about to start. We weren't sure whether to stay for the additional tour, but a state trooper on our tour said he has done it when in high school and it was worth it, so we should do it, so we did it and it was worth it. We climbed 294 steps, starting on the inner wall of the dome, then onto a catwalk up the center of the dome and finally climbed outside, a few feet below the statue perched on the top. The pedestal made it hard to see, so you had to go to a corner and lean backwards over the railing several hundred feet up, to see the statue. We didn't lose anyone.
After the dome tour, we visited the Brown v. Board of Education museum, which chronicled the events leading up to and the aftermath of the famous Supreme Court decision ending the fiction of “separate but equal” in the schools, and the beginning of the dismantling of segregation in education and other aspects of life.
On Saturday, we started with the WWI museum, which had excellent exhibits with insights about the “Great War”. Then it was back to basketball, as we took in the University of Missouri at Kansas City Kangaroos against Omaha. Despite being a home game for UMKC and part of a double-header with the men, the announced attendance was 174, and three quarters or more were Omaha fans. Omaha won 80-57.
After the game we headed over to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. A bittersweet visit, with the positives being the learning experience about a relatively unknown chapter of our history, while the negatives being the reminders of some ugly aspects of our history.
Late in the evening, headed to the airport to pick up David, flying in from Colorado. He hasn't stopped his extreme interest in the history of the team, challenging us to name the 14 losses since Maya Moore's freshman year. When Phil started with Stanford, he interrupted, explaining it wasn't enough to name the team, we had to identify the circumstances surrounding each game. For example, one Stamford loss ended our 90 game winning streak, another finished our season in the Final Four in Tampa, and one was the last loss before the current streak. However, we were unable to remember the Rutgers loss – maybe because we had subconsciously erased it from our memories.
Finally, it's game day! We had a two hour drive to Manhattan, and a mostly pleasant drive, except one panic moment, an hour and a half from the hotel, when I could not find the tickets for a few minutes. They turned up, panic averted. We received a text that the school would be opening their doors a half hour earlier than normal, but we were already planning to be their ahead of that time.
We talked to quite a few fans, who were incredibly gracious. Many of them came up to us to welcome us to the area, and were surprised to learn that we drove out. We met some of the elementary school teachers of Napheesa. We were surrounded by Wildcat fans, but they were all extremely nice, even when we lead by a fair amount. No point recounting the play by play in detail, you saw the game, but it stated like it could be a blowout, and turned into a much closer game than many expected. They had a lot of tips of entry passes, which will be fodder for game film analysis.
We had a nice chat with Morgan Tuck, who was filling in for Debbie Baer Fisk on the radio show. We drove back to Kansas City, to get ready for the long drive home, and watched the score updates for the Texas-Tennessee game, which was surprisingly close. Luckily, Texas held on for the win.
The next day, we began our drive east. We arrived at Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri, at precisely 11 am. Tours are typically scheduled on the hour, so we raced in, hoping to catch up with a tour in progress, Henry, the tour guide, told us we were three minutes late. He laughed at our crestfallen faces, then told us he would lead us on a tour. Another tour guide joined us, so we had two guides for the two of us. We had picked the right day to come, as there was a full orchestra and a hundred or so students in a chorale, practicing for a Christmas event. They were all from Jefferson City High. They were wonderful, although they discombobulated Henry, who normally starts his tour a few feet from the group, and it was impossible to hear, so he modified his tour route to start in a quiet area. We saw some impressive murals, as well as the usual visit to the legislative assembly rooms.
At one point, he pointed out a number of busts of prominent Missourians. We asked about the location of the Maya Moore statue, and he said his daughter went to school with her, and they lived a few blocks away. He remembered her always dribbling a basketball. We will work on getting her bust added to the group. Henry doesn't think it is likely.
The rest of the day was driving, finishing Missouri, a bit of Illinois, a bit of Indiana and now Kentucky to watch some football and rest.
Link KC State UConn Game With My Son At KC State | Facebook
Link Brown vs Board of Education Also Visted Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site | Facebook
Link Kansas State Capitol Visited Kansas State Capitol Yesterday | Facebook
Link Harry s Truman Musuem And Library Visited Harry S. Truman Library & Museum Yesterday | Facebook
We drove to Kansas City, where it was good that we had advance reservations, as the Raiders were in town for Thursday night football, and rooms were scarce. The Chiefs won, but we were asleep before the game finished. The following morning, we drove to Independence museum to tour the Truman Library. I learned a lot about this President and this time in history.
Phil wanted to visit the State Capitol in Topeka, two hours weest on the way to Kansas State, but they were not open on Saturday, so we drove out to Topeka and back. We took the Capitol tour where they told us that the dome was the second tallest, and we knew who was the tallest. Just as the building tour ended, a tour of the dome itself was about to start. We weren't sure whether to stay for the additional tour, but a state trooper on our tour said he has done it when in high school and it was worth it, so we should do it, so we did it and it was worth it. We climbed 294 steps, starting on the inner wall of the dome, then onto a catwalk up the center of the dome and finally climbed outside, a few feet below the statue perched on the top. The pedestal made it hard to see, so you had to go to a corner and lean backwards over the railing several hundred feet up, to see the statue. We didn't lose anyone.
After the dome tour, we visited the Brown v. Board of Education museum, which chronicled the events leading up to and the aftermath of the famous Supreme Court decision ending the fiction of “separate but equal” in the schools, and the beginning of the dismantling of segregation in education and other aspects of life.
On Saturday, we started with the WWI museum, which had excellent exhibits with insights about the “Great War”. Then it was back to basketball, as we took in the University of Missouri at Kansas City Kangaroos against Omaha. Despite being a home game for UMKC and part of a double-header with the men, the announced attendance was 174, and three quarters or more were Omaha fans. Omaha won 80-57.
After the game we headed over to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. A bittersweet visit, with the positives being the learning experience about a relatively unknown chapter of our history, while the negatives being the reminders of some ugly aspects of our history.
Late in the evening, headed to the airport to pick up David, flying in from Colorado. He hasn't stopped his extreme interest in the history of the team, challenging us to name the 14 losses since Maya Moore's freshman year. When Phil started with Stanford, he interrupted, explaining it wasn't enough to name the team, we had to identify the circumstances surrounding each game. For example, one Stamford loss ended our 90 game winning streak, another finished our season in the Final Four in Tampa, and one was the last loss before the current streak. However, we were unable to remember the Rutgers loss – maybe because we had subconsciously erased it from our memories.
Finally, it's game day! We had a two hour drive to Manhattan, and a mostly pleasant drive, except one panic moment, an hour and a half from the hotel, when I could not find the tickets for a few minutes. They turned up, panic averted. We received a text that the school would be opening their doors a half hour earlier than normal, but we were already planning to be their ahead of that time.
We talked to quite a few fans, who were incredibly gracious. Many of them came up to us to welcome us to the area, and were surprised to learn that we drove out. We met some of the elementary school teachers of Napheesa. We were surrounded by Wildcat fans, but they were all extremely nice, even when we lead by a fair amount. No point recounting the play by play in detail, you saw the game, but it stated like it could be a blowout, and turned into a much closer game than many expected. They had a lot of tips of entry passes, which will be fodder for game film analysis.
We had a nice chat with Morgan Tuck, who was filling in for Debbie Baer Fisk on the radio show. We drove back to Kansas City, to get ready for the long drive home, and watched the score updates for the Texas-Tennessee game, which was surprisingly close. Luckily, Texas held on for the win.
The next day, we began our drive east. We arrived at Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri, at precisely 11 am. Tours are typically scheduled on the hour, so we raced in, hoping to catch up with a tour in progress, Henry, the tour guide, told us we were three minutes late. He laughed at our crestfallen faces, then told us he would lead us on a tour. Another tour guide joined us, so we had two guides for the two of us. We had picked the right day to come, as there was a full orchestra and a hundred or so students in a chorale, practicing for a Christmas event. They were all from Jefferson City High. They were wonderful, although they discombobulated Henry, who normally starts his tour a few feet from the group, and it was impossible to hear, so he modified his tour route to start in a quiet area. We saw some impressive murals, as well as the usual visit to the legislative assembly rooms.
At one point, he pointed out a number of busts of prominent Missourians. We asked about the location of the Maya Moore statue, and he said his daughter went to school with her, and they lived a few blocks away. He remembered her always dribbling a basketball. We will work on getting her bust added to the group. Henry doesn't think it is likely.
The rest of the day was driving, finishing Missouri, a bit of Illinois, a bit of Indiana and now Kentucky to watch some football and rest.
Link Brown vs Board of Education Also Visted Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site | Facebook
Link Kansas State Capitol Visited Kansas State Capitol Yesterday | Facebook
Link Harry s Truman Musuem And Library Visited Harry S. Truman Library & Museum Yesterday | Facebook
