My target for today is St. Joseph Missouri. This relatively small town looms large in western lore. The lore is based on real events. Today, I explore some of them. Jesse James House The first site I saw is the url=http://www.ponyexpressjessejames.com/patee/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=6&Itemid=53Jesse James house. url=http://www.biography.com/people/jesse-james-9352646?paidlink=1&cmpid=PaidSearch_Google_BIO_criminals_biography%2Bof%2Bjesse%2Bjames&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=criminals&utm_term=biography%20of%20jesse%20jamesJesse James was a legendary outlaw who robbed dozens of banks and at least six trains. His life has been much mythologized, so people forget how brutal he was in real life. He committed at least six murders. He ultimately married his s... read more

I spent today in Independence, Missouri. Independence likes to promote itself as the hometown of Harry Truman. That it is, but more important for me it was the starting point of all three major overland trails in the 1830s, the Oregon, Santa Fe, and California trails. The stories of the pioneer families who made the trek, and the hazards they encountered, are told in a museum called the National Frontier Trails Museum. Deciding to Migrate West The museum opens with a display on the reas... read more

St. Louis is one of those cities that is indentified with one particular item. This item dominates the skyline for miles around. Nearly every business in town has it on their logo. A local tourist magazine has a picture of a family looking up at it, with the quote “Now what?” The item is so iconic that someone once produced a coffee table book consisting of nothing but pictures of it. Its official name is the “Thomas Jefferson National Expansion Memorial” but everyone calls it what it looks like: the Arch. (The title of this section comes from the Missouri Valley Conference’s annual college basketball tournament; I hope the bad pun is obvious) St. Louis Art Museum I came to St. Louis ... read more

For tourists, Springfield Illinois means seeing two things, Abraham Lincoln and Route 66. Unbelievably, they are related. The original path of route 66 goes only a block from the main Abraham Lincoln attractions, so they were major stops during the road’s heyday. I saw the Abraham Lincoln Home first. Abraham Lincoln National Historic Site This National Historic Site centers on the house that Lincoln owned while living in Springfield and the surrounding neighborhood. In an amazing feat of historic preservation, virtually every building on these three blocks is original. The streets have been blocked off and converted back to dirt, so the area is remarkably accurate to the period. My initial reaction was that I was back in a recreation like Greenfield Villag... read more

I spent the day in another of Chicago’s major museums, the Field Museum of Natural History. It is named for department store founder Marshall Field (see ), who provided a large donation to build the building. The museum is one of the finest of its type. It focuses on four things, geology, animals, plants, and anthropology. Given my tastes, I focused on the first two. A word of warning: this is not a place for those who hate kids, because it attracts them with more power than an ice cream truck. The first notable thing one sees is the url=http://www.chicagoarchitecture... read more