Kansas City

We are spending the night in Kansas City after having a wonderful mid afternoon meal at a really good BBQ.  Smokebox BBQ Cafe doesn't look like much but it is just a mile from the hotel so we stopped on the way in.  They were serving lunch and if dinner is any bigger you won't be able to walk when you are done.  You get your choice of meat and two sides.  I had brisket with beans and potato salad while Mia had pulled pork and beans with slaw.  Best damned BBQ we have every had.

We left Omaha this morning and changed states what seemed like ten times.  Omaha is partly in Nebraska and Iowa and we seemed to change states every few minutes.  It was kind of fun jumping back and forth between states near the airport and again just south of the city.  Since we had some extra time, I thought it was time for Mia to visit some Quilt shops, so I looked some up and we proceeded to go looking for them.  The first, Debbie's, turned out to be a house in a quiet neighborhood in Bellevue, Nebraska.  As it turned out, we figure it was a quilter with a long arm that was doing piece work since there was no indication of a Quilt store.

Next we went back into Iowa and traveled south on I29 to Nebraska City.  Yep, we crossed the state line four times on that trip.  We found out that Nebraska City is the home of Arbor Day.  J Sterling Morton arrived from Detroit to the Nebraska Territory with many other pioneers.  While the countryside was perfect for homesteads, the land had no trees and the pioneers missed them as they make excellent wind breaks in a place where the wind blows most of the time.  They help to keep the top soil from blowing away.

He grew in predominance and became Secretary of the territory.  On January 4, 1872, Morton proposed a tree planting holiday to be called Arbor Day to the state Agricultural Board.  It was to be
April 10, 1872 and it is estimated that more than a million trees were planted in Nebraska that day.
Interesting facts along the highways and byways.

In Nebraska City there are two Quilt shops but, sadly, only one was open.  Just want you all to know that I am doing what I can to give Mia her quilt fix as we travel south.  Honey and I sit in the car and let her go explore.  Sometimes Honey gets impatient and I have to move my hat up on my head and take her for a walk.

Even captured the sign over my left shoulder

Back to Iowa for a short trip to Missouri.  Once in Missouri, we traveled down I29 to Savannah, Missouri and went looking for another Quilt shop.  We didn't get to town because the GPS told us to turn down a county road and suddenly it was like we were back in Dunn Center, North Dakota.  The county road is a dirt, section divider that travels about three miles off the main road to a house with farmland all around it.  I didn't take a picture of the building because it was a non-descript manufactured home.

We are off to Lebanon, Missouri tomorrow morning.  There is laundry to do, museum's to visit and another Quilt shop.

Hope all is well.