Kansas - Day 1

I arrived at the Kansas City Airport on the Sunday night before Quilt Market.  My son and husband made me a steak dinner for Mother's Day before putting me on the plane in Salt Lake City.  I had to catch a connecting flight in Denver so got my exercise as I had just 25 minutes to walk across the airport to my new gate.

My sister, Lynette, is a great guide and always has great ideas for visits.  She took me to Lawrence, Kansas on Monday morning.  She knew I had just read about John Brown, the abolitionist, so took me to historic downtown Lawrence and the old Carnegie Library which had an exhibit about the history of the area.  It was informative, interesting, and a bit sad.

That is nephew, Gary, with my sister on the front steps of the old library.  He was also visiting having just finished another semester of pharmacy school at Butler University.

We had a nice stroll up and down the main historic shopping street of Lawrence.  It was busy as the University of Kansas was having graduation. There were a couple of quilt shops, gift shops, book stores, and even the stores one usually finds in a mall.  There were also great smells coming from the restaurants so we also had lunch.  We picked up some very yummy poppy seed blueberry bread from a bakery.

Lawrence neighborhoods were full of lovely old homes with well cared for gardens.  We also drove through the beautiful campus of KU.  Can you say "Jayhawker?"

From Lawrence we drove east to Missouri and Grandview.  The above home is the farmhouse on what used to be the Truman family farm.  On my last trip we visited the Truman Library and home in Independence.  Harry S. Truman worked on this farm for eleven years starting in 1906 during his twenties.  He left the farm to fight in World War I in France.

This simple farm house replaced a more substantial home which burned down in 1895. 

Truman's maternal side had built up this farm beginning in the mid-1800's.

Riding lawn mowers are a must in Kansas and Missouri.  It seemed that every country home had sweeping green lawns.

The home now sits on ten acres from the original large farm.

We found some wild strawberries on the edge of the property.

There were several large rock posts on the property remaining from what used to be the fences.  These rock posts held the gates.

The farm was a substantial 620 acres.  The green rectangle represents the remaining acreage that is the historic site.

This round post and its twin directly south of this one, mark the original entrance to the home grounds which you can see looking east.  The Truman home is the white shape in the middle of the trees. One would approach the stately home on a tree lined sweeping driveway.

I enjoyed our big triangular drive through the lovely hills of eastern Kansas and western Missouri.