KANSAS AND MISSOURI

Great Platte River Road Monument and Museum. We spent a long time here this morning.

This is the part of the river where the different pioneers took off to the West. This is where the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail and the California trail converged. The museum had some of the Mormon history as well. There was so much to see. The displays started with the mountain men and the pioneers and right up to the cars. This is also along the Lincoln Highway. The Lincoln Highway was the first highway across the continental United States.

On facebook I said we were in Hiawatha, Missouri. That was wrong. We were in Hiawatha, Kansas. We did not go very far into Kansas and would have not gone into Kansas at all if we had not had trouble trying to get across the river. We were able to access a bridge from Hiawatha and crossed the river and then we were in Missouri. Even the big trucks were using this detour. We are spending the night in St. Joseph, Missouri. The reason we had trouble crossing is that many things were damaged from the bad flooding they had this last Spring. Even now we saw where some water was over the roads. Some of the bridges were closed for repairs.

Tomorrow we will probably go into Springfield, Missouri and probably be able to see the Wilder Farm in Mansfield, Missouri.

We are having a great time. This is a trip of a lifetime for me.