We only played catch for a little while until we decided to do something else. We drove around looking for things of interest, and one rather large one stood out. In the city of Independence, Missouri lies the spiral-shaped headquarters of the Community of Christ. It was a very nice looking building, but none of us were in the mood for scripture readings and church ceremonies. I'd find out more about their religion but I'm quite happy with my own thank you. Besides, there were other things in Independence worth looking at, as we would find as we kept moseying down the trail...

Brewers Games in Kansas City

On the way back to our car I stopped to listen to these guys play for a second. I figured that anyone who rocks out on the harp is worth checking out. I wish I would have had more time to sit and listen to them because despite the lack of an audience, they were quite good.

The Boulevard Brewery tour was all filled up so we sought a place to play some catch. We finally found a park along the Missouri River that would suit our needs, but we had to be careful not to overthrow the ball lest we have it wind up in that river.

While we were at play Mother Nature stepped in and tried to ruin our day. We could see the rain coming from a distance and herd forecasts on the radio that this storm may last a while, which essentially end our plans of attending a baseball game tonight. Not every Major League Stadium was built with the weather in mind, but since Miller Park was, I have not witnessed a game called or postponed due to weather since the old days at Milwaukee County Stadium. There was a chance it might pass us by though, we had to just wait and see...

By now it was pouring like mad outside, which left us with very few options to waste some time. Luckily for us, Independence, MO was the staring point of the historical Oregon Trail. This means that there was a museum dedicated to all things about the Trail. We watched a video about the trail then poked around the rather small museum. We came upon this rock that was a mock up of one on the trail where people left their names and messages for future travelers. Like our ancestors, we also needed to leave our mark so that fellow travelers would know we were there.

Balkman stayed inside the car and slept while we (I) goofed around inside of the museum. There was some cool historical stuff the check out and things to read, but I was more interested in learning about the Oregon Trail that I learned about when I was young. So I scoured the museum, looked in every nook and cranny and from floor to ceiling for a classic PC computer with the big floppy disk drive for the Oregon Trail computer game, but it was nowhere to be found. How can this place seriously think that it can attract the younger generation (read: not old people) to visit this joint if it doesn't offer them the chance to  experience the Oregon Trail in the only way they knew that it existed? Since I couldn't ford a river, go hunting for buffalo, or lose my family to cholera, I did the next best thing - partied with a covered wagon. It looks like the oxen have fallen ill or the wagon has broken an axel, so we left to go to the nearest trading post to sell some clothes and supplies so we could get to Oregon.

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