Kansas Trip

Michael and I just got back from a business trip to Manhattan Kansas. I've never been further east than Colorado, so this was a first, also it was my first time on an airplane. The flight was interesting, especially considering we took out 17 month old baby with us. I never knew someone that small could have that much energy. You never know what children are capable of until you get them in a small, confined area with lots of other people they can bother and no escape. She did alright though. Thank heaven for pop tarts.

About the trip itself: if you're planning a trip to Manhattan Kansas, my suggestion is keep it down to one week. Five weeks was a wee bit too much to see the sights of the mideast. We got to see cows. And fields. And trees. And lots of tattoos (I think that's the only thing to do in Kansas: drink and get tattoos. I saw a girl there who was covered with tattoos with various degrees of artistic ability--my favorite being simple a stick figure.)

This was my favorite sight from Kansas:

We also had the opportunity to be in Abilene Kansas for D-Day. Abilene is where President Eisenhower was from. They had an impressive museum there and, for D-Day, they had a lot of WWII memorabilia and people walking around in WWII uniforms and costumes. I was reading the Children of the Promise series at the time, and everything just seemed so realistic to me that I walked around the displays bawling my eyes out.

Just as we entered the museum, Michael nudged me and pointed to this little old man in class A uniform surrounded by a group of people. "There's President Eisenhower," he stated.

"Are you sure?!" I hissed back.

"Absolutely. Look, you can see his nametag and his Five Stars."

Here I started thinking thoughts like: "Wow! The real President Eisenhower! Won't my dad be jealous!" I asked Michael if he would get a picture of the president for me, but he said he was too shy. I understood that, but I simply COULDN'T let the opportunity pass me by, so I begged him to go ask until he gave in.

Michael got the picture. I asked him what happened. "Well, I just went up to him and said: 'Excuse me, sir, but would it be awefully rude of me to ask for a picture?' He said it would be alright, so I took the picture." I grabbed the camera and held it carefully. What a souvenir!

As we continued to walk the museum, we actually stayed pretty close to the president, which meant that I could hardly pay attention to any of the exhibits. I was too busy trying to keep one eye on Pres. Eisenhower. But I started to notice something fishy: no one was paying any attention to him! I keep thinking "Wow, these people have no idea who is in their midst!"

We were just about through the whole museum when things started falling into place. I turned to Michael. "Are you positive that was President Eisenhower and not one of his sons?" I asked.

"Oh, that was him alright, " he assured me. "No one can wear those stars unless they were the general."

"It just doesn't make sense...he fought in WWI." I started doing the math to see how old he must be, and just when I reached the conclusion he would have to be about 120 years old and he looked really good for his age, Michael realized what was going on.

"Pamela, you do know that he's just an actor, don't you?"

Michael had me going for upwards to an hour that he was the REAL Eisenhower. And he didn't even know it! He was even shy to take the actor's picture! I made him make it up to me by buying me Cold Stone Ice Cream. But here is our picture of the REAL fake President Eisenhower.

You know, he really doesn't look that much like President Eisenhower after all.