Milford State Park, KS
Traveling through St. Joseph, MO we stopped by the Walter Cronkite Memorial housed in the very non-descript Western Missouri State College. What a great exhibit, more like a museum exhibition.
We learned so much about Mr. Cronkite. Some favorite facts: he received 11 Emmy's for his different broadcasts and he was good friends with several astronauts. You can watch all his major broadcasts thru interactive exhibits. Some things never change. Spiro Agnew blasted him and the TV media saying, "their views do not, I repeat, do not represent those of America." Mmm...sounds vaguely familiar to someone else I know in office today.
We loved playing at his desk and being filmed on TV. We also got souvenir photos of us doing a broadcast to take home.
A few miles down the street are the St. Joseph Museums. They are housed in a former Mental Institution that butts up to a penitentiary. Sounds weird, right? After visiting, I can attest to the fact that it is super weird, if not very discomforting. The Glore Museum is about the history of treatment for the mentally ill. I think Dr. Glore's intention was to bring awareness to mental illness, and kudos to him for that, but my experience was that I was just super, super creeped out.
These rooms illustrated, in great detail, the following "cures" - lobotomies, hydrotherapy, electric shock, colonic irrigation, and heat therapy for curing syphills. And these were the modern era treatments.
How about an art exhibit made from the thousand objects (nails, safety pins, buttons, needles) that some poor woman ate?
There was also a room of 17th & 18th Century treatments such as burning at the stake, surprising the patient out of mental illness by dropping him in a cold bath and locking him in a treadmill. Trust me, I'm not going to even show the coffin like boxes and strapping devices.
And then there was the "Secret Room". There was a disclaimer before you entered that this probably wasn't appropriate for minors. (Like you'd take a minor to any of this other stuff???). In the Secret Room lots and lots of people wrote their hidden secrets and they were on display! (Murder, incest, rape, torture...) All righty then. We only did the one floor of this exhibit too.
We decided to go visit the other museums housed in the mental institution. What could possibly go wrong?
I don't care how great an exhibit is, it's not going to do it justice if it's housed in mental patient rooms. Even tho we toured the American Indian Exhibit, The African American Exhibit, a doll collection and Missouri's greatest musical artists, it still just felt depressing. Seriously, the exhibits were inside tiny patient rooms.
The one bright star were some photographs taken from the late 1840's to the turn of last century. I really enjoyed the clarity and beauty in the faces of these people.
X-ray one way, lab work another? Nope, The Black Archives one way and the American Indian Exhibit another. So weird...
Walking out of this bleak place and into the sunlight didn't make us feel any better. We were parked alongside the barbed wire fence of the prison. We looked at each other and decided to go find some sunshine and happiness.
Be careful what you wish for. The temperature hit over 100 and the sun was beating down. All we wanted was to get to our campground and do some soaking in a Kansas lake.
When we finally reached the campground, at about 4, it wasn't what we were expecting. Most state parks have "no alcohol" signs. This one had a "no keg" sign. There were hundreds of 5th wheels just parked helter shelter all over the place, lots of big white tents set up, a humongous stage, and a fenced off area saying, "vendor parking." Turns out it's the Kicker Country Stampede! A three day country music and camping festival. Uh...no thanks. Time to find a plan B. As we were driving along we spotted these cows. I was kinda envious of their soaking action going on.
We took our chances about 45 miles down the road at another State Park. Sweet!!! Hardly anyone here and we got a campsite and private beach to ourselves.
Those cows got nothing on us.
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