7/18/2012
We spent the night at a Motel 6 on the outskirts of St.
Joseph. Laura has become super awesome at packing enough food for our trips. (A
good trick is to make sure you stay in hotels with fridges.) We used to eat
fast food a lot, which is convenient, but deceptively expensive. Dollar menus
seem cheap at first glance, but they add up fast – especially now there are five
of us. Nonetheless, since there was a CiCi’s pizza buffet right by the motel we
gorged ourselves on gross pizza that night. (It satisfies my important “kids
eat free” love.) CiCi’s is Daniel’s favorite restaurant, so it replaced “See
boat” as the best part of the day. Of course, we could have stayed home and
just gone to the one down the road instead, but…
In the morning we headed over to the Pony Express Museum.
You may remember that St. Joseph, Missouri was once the end of American
civilization. The Pony Express Company delivered mail on horseback across the
western frontier to far-off California. The company only lasted 18 months
before it went bankrupt, but the image of the Pony Express rider has lived on
as one of the most enduring images of the Wild West.
The small facility is housed inside the stables from
where the riders once set out. We arrived right as it opened, so we were the
only people there. Michelle at the front desk was very accommodating to us and
assured us the museum was very kid friendly – which it was. Lots of fun photo
opportunities.
We usually skip the cheesy video introductions in these
museums, but we decided to watch this one. It was as deliciously hammy as we
had hoped. We copied “conflicted Pony Express founder staring dramatically out
the window” poses from then on, whenever we could.
The museum was small, but it had a lot of fun things to
look at and do – plus it was only $5. As mentioned above, the Pony Express only
lasted 18 months, so it would be unreasonable to expect a museum to be much
larger – unless they just started making stuff up or adding boring filler. For
what it was, we enjoyed it and the kids had fun. Who could complain?
When we got there something very mundane was happening
that caught my eye. The mail was being delivered.
Since we spent a lot less time at the Pony Express Museum
than I had planned for we decided to make an impromptu stop at Patricia’s
“other” St. Joseph suggestion – the Patee Museum. A former hotel, it was here
the actual Pony Express business office was located. Today it’s a fairly large
museum dedicated to St. Joseph’s 19th century role as the end of the
railroad – and hence, American civilization at the time.
It was $6 to get in here, but we’ve been to similar
places that charged a whole lot more. Different displays try to recreate the
streets of St. Joseph as it was in frontier days. There’s even an on-site
saloon. They weren’t serving while we were there, but we put a quarter in the
nickelodeon (a player piano) and the kids danced around. They were called
nickelodeons because they cost a nickel to play, so I kind of wanted my twenty
cents back. Yes, I am that cheap.
There was a lot to see here, and there was a special
emphasis on Jesse James – the notorious outlaw was killed next door. There’s a
minor display dedicated to local hero Walter Cronkite and his ancestors, which
no doubt becomes more obscure with each passing day. Of course, the full-sized
train was the highlight for the boys.
No comments:
Post a Comment