Day Two: Abilene, KS -- Kansas City, MO (179 mi)

Boy, are we ever in trouble; only 500 miles north of Waco and my wife and I froze last night.  What will we do when we get to the Canadian border and it's REALLY cold outside?  Oh, well.  The AAA campground we stayed in last night, The Covered Wagon RV Resort, was a nice five-acre compound.  Tonight we're in a modest 75 acre campground, Basswood Resort, north of Kansas City. But I'm ahead of myself.

Our goal today was to get up, break camp and be at the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum when it opened at 9:00 a.m.  We were there at 9:03.  After viewing a 25 minute film on his life and the significance of his contribution to the two decades (40s and 50s) that bear his name ("The Eisenhower Years") we roamed the estate, toured his boyhood home (no indoor plumbing for Ike until he was 18 and about to leave home), and ambled through the museum, taking careful note of the many interesting artifacts and informative displays.  Three hours after our arrival we were on the road again.

A couple of notes, among the countless scores of things learned today about our 34th president, bear mention here.  This 2-term president oversaw the inception of the interstate highway system now taken for granted.  This was a massive undertaking for the federal government; it now includes over 46,000 miles of roadway at a cost of over 190 billion dollars, but money well spent I'm sure we'd all agree. The second point I'd like to make is that this former military leader's biggest contribution as president may well have been that he kept our nation out of war during an extremely tense era in relations between the U.S. and Soviet Union.  I was impressed with just how committed to peace this quiet-spoken man was.  Dwight David, his wife Mamie, and one of their two sons are laid permanently to rest on the grounds of the complex.  This was the 8th presidential grave site that Veritas students have visited in a two year period of time.

The weather today (as was the case yesterday) could not have been better.  We stopped a little early tonight because we didn't have it in us to take in another presidential library today and we have arrived at our next destination, Independence, Missouri, and the library and museum for the 33rd U.S. president, Harry S Truman.

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