National Frontiers Museum, A Puppet Show, An Historic Train Depot, and Whiz Burger

 Independence, MO

I couldn't find a place to dress up at this museum

The National Frontiers Museum

Missouri is the place where The Santa Fe Trail, Oregon Trail, and California Trail meet.  It's also an important point on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  This is what The National Frontiers Museum focuses on.  At the time, Independence, MO was the starting point for many travelers heading west just as The Lewis and Clark Expedition did years earlier.  In 1804 President Jefferson sent The Lewis and Clark Expedition west to explore land west of The Mississippi, part of which was The Louisiana Purchase and the rest was land occupied by various tribes of indigenous peoples.  President Jefferson was worried that the Brits might come and take the land to the west away from the indigenous peoples before we could after reading Voyages from Montreal by Alexander Mackenzie which strongly encouraged the British to "settle" the west.  This caused the first recorded case of FOMO to set in and so in 1803 President Jefferson got the support he needed in Congress to form The Corps of Discovery and funded the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Too soon?

Each member of the Lewis and Clark expedition got 5oz of whiskey each day until they ran out around the halfway point of the expedition when the expedition went dry.  You can read more about the importance of alcohol on the expedition here  and here.

I'm a birder and I hadn't entirely put together that the Lewis's Woodpecker and Clark Nutcracker were named after Lewis and Clark. 

President FOMO

Name That Fur reminded me of Denver's What's That Smell

The Missouri Birthday Bash Puppet Show

The entire reason for this trip to Independence was to see a free puppet show about Missouri's bicentennial.   Missouri is wrapping up their bicentennial year and the puppet show is in its final performances.  I took some photos to try to give you an idea of what it was like but I have also found a video on YouTube that shows it all.  It's been up for over a year and already has 20 views and 2 likes (one of them is mine).  I am sure we can blow up the views to like 25.  Are you with me?

We learned that The Jumping Jack was invented right here in Missouri and it's the official state exercise.  

Chicago & Alton Railroad Depot Independence MO

In 1879 the Chicago & Alton Railroad depot was completed.  The stop was the 2nd to last stop on the Chicago Alton Line before Kansas City.  The Chicago Alton line connected Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City.  In 1972 the the depot was closed permanently and sat deteriorating until 1996.  In 1996 a group of citizens helped purchase the depot and moved it to its new location and began restoration. It's now open for visitors and on the same property as The National Frontiers Museum.

Not the Train Depot

The Restored Train Depot

Our private tour started with a short video talking about the moving and restoration of the depot

Like Lighthouse Keepers, Station Managers got free housing for them and their families as a part of their compensation.  The living area is on the 2nd floor of the Depot.

Cocktail! or maybe for coffee.

A Taste of America

After the museum visits we headed to the historic Mugs Up Root Beer Drive In.  This place has been operating since 1956.  It's a drive in so you stay in your car and a server comes to you. They serve what's called a whiz burger.  The "Burger" features loose ground beef, pickles, onion, and mustard all held together with cheese whiz.  We also got their homemade root beer and whiz fries because if you are going to get stuff with whiz on it, it should be here.  It was really fun and a nice stop on our drive.  With lunch in hand we continued east and picked up Lafayette County, MO.  We aren't in major county collecting mode because there is a lot to see and do but we do grab them when we have good opportunity.

We have crossed 500 counties now.  This year, obviously, will be our biggest county collecting year yet.  Here is what our progress looks like as of today.  

The colors represents what year we first entered the county.  Purple is this year.

That's all for today.  If you didn't read about our BBQ and Jazz experience yesterday you can check it out here.