Often the last leg of my trips is simply about getting home. However, this time I wasn’t shooting to break land speed records so I wove in a few interesting distractions into each day. Given the new path I had chosen for my return, finding new things wasn’t difficult.
Of all the official Presidential Museums since Herbert Hoover, I had been to 9 of 13. Passing through Abilene, KS allowed me to enter double digits with a visit to the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. As often happens, I came away very impressed. He was a great man both in wartime military and peacetime government and he had the good fortune of being President during an amazing decade: the 1950s.
Next I headed south to Wichita and why not? With a name so interesting I ought to at least be familiar with the city. I found it much more interesting than I expected. Seems Wichita was where much of the aviation industry got started and where several airplane and space companies still call home. They have a museum district full of appealing options which they’re midway through sprucing up. An old mid-sized American town along a river. What’s not to like?!
A geographic oddity was my next stop. At the southernmost tip of Illinois is an old fortress where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers merge: Fort Defiance. The oddity? On one side is a bridge to Missouri over the Mississippi River, on the other side a bridge to Kentucky over the Ohio River, and in between is only a few hundred feet of Illinois. Three states, two bridges, one short drive.
Superman was my next stop in Metropolis, Illinois. Seriously!
“Cumberland Gap” sounded so familiar but I honestly hadn’t a clue what it was. I saw that a short detour would lead me there so I added it to my agenda. At the time of the Revolutionary War many wanted to go west to seek safety and their fortune. Daniel Boone charted the first practical path across the Appalachian Mountains starting through a pass called the Cumberland Gap. Over 300,000 people eventually found their way to Tennessee and Kentucky through the Gap. The area has been restored to how it was in those days and a wonderful National Park Visitor Centerprovides an excellent orientation.
I was now in Virginia, getting close to home. On the way was the
University of Virginia where I hoped to visit with my daughter who last I’d seen six weeks ago when I embarked on my trip. Thankfully she was available and we had a great lunch. Only one stop left till I’d see my wife and daughter #2: New Market Battlefield. What? Squeeze in a civil war landmark on the way back to my loved ones? Why not?!
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