Earl and I traveled to Colorado for Thanksgiving and arrived home tonight after driving a total of 2300 miles to share in my family’s turkey traditions.
This trip was blessed with good weather and even better road conditions, but we still had to clock approximately 600 miles a day to stay on target. Along the way we found various sites and sights we wanted to stop and visit. But we didn’t. What we did do is decide to take a leisurely trip to Colorado sometime to visit the local claims to fame.
Among them is The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument that straddles I-80 near Kearney, NE. Over the years we’ve probably passed under it a half dozen times; but we’re always in a hurry. We’ve promised ourselves that we’ll stop next time.
Fulton, MO, claims a special connection with Winston Churchill. There, at Westminster College, he gave a speech after the end of World War II where he coined the phrase ‘iron curtain’ to describe the dichotomy between self-governing Western European nations and those Eastern European nations that Russia has recently gobbled up. Today, there is both a church and a museum at the school.
The church bears special acknowledgement. It was originally built in the twelfth century and redesigned by Christopher Wren in 1677, after the Great Fire of London. After enduring German bombs during the Second World War, it was marked for demolition. However, Westminster College offered to save the building by moving it from London to the Missouri campus. Stone by stone, the building was deconstructed and then reconstructed in its present home. Today it is also a museum about Churchill, who visited in 1946.
But these are not the only two highlights of traveling through Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. There are the Amana Colonies, the largest truck stop in the world, a Pony Express station, Fort Leavenworth, Fort Kearney, and a myriad of other local historic sites. So Earl and I have decided that sometime soon we’re going to visit these four states and take our time immersed in the local lore. It might not rival the Empire State Building or the monuments in our country’s capital; but we think it will be most interesting and informative nonetheless.
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