We’re on the road again; this time it’s our annual Thanksgiving holiday trip to Denver, Colorado. Originally, we flew from our home to visit relatives in the Mile High City. But in recent years, we’ve taken to the I-80 interstate. And we’ve learned a lot.
Of course, if you want to make time you set your speed control at seventy miles an hour and never veer from the course. That’s what we did when we first started driving to Colorado. But now we meander. Instead of taking two days to drive eleven hundred miles, we’re taking four. It’s not that we’ve turned into wimps – although age is becoming a factor – but rather there is so much to see along the way. We’ve decided to see it.
Today, for instance we paid our annual pilgrimage visit to the I-80 truck stop just inside the Iowa state line at Exit 285. It’s Earl’s opportunity to eat chicken fried steak, and he relished every bite along with the pepper gravy. Thirty miles down the road we visited the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library. We’d heard from other Iowans that it wasn’t to be missed, even though Hoover himself was blamed for bringing on the Great Depression single-handedly.
However, there was a lot more to the man than the fact that he was in the wrong time at the wrong place. Both before and after his one term as President, Hoover acquitted himself with great accomplishments and kindnesses. He labored tirelessly to relief such human problems as hunger during and after the two world wars. He was known for his philanthropy and his ability to get things done.
President Hoover and his wife, Lou Henry Hoover, are buried on the grounds of the Presidential Library. Theirs are modest tombstones, with only their names, birth, and death dates showing. There is no giant statue, no huge stone. No monuments to his accomplishments. Just a peaceful setting amid prairie grasses.
Tonight, we’re in Des Moines, IA, watching a football game with more adventures along I-80 tomorrow.
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