Wish You Could Come Back and Give 'Em Hell, Harry

Hot diggity.

Independence, Missouri, featured our best bathroom stop and picnic area of the day. The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum. It wasn't solely a bathroom stop, I must declare. For we honor and respect the man from Independence far too much for that. But it was a timely stop. We were in the area and it was lunch time and where better to find manicured grounds, shady trees and a nearby playground than this?

Stuart, being the swift and inquisitive type, was taken with the history of Truman and his once-little town. He sat riveted through the biographical film and enjoyed taking in the memorabilia on display. There was the "The Buck Stops Here" desk plaque and the recreation of Truman's Oval Office. It was truly a wonderful museum and a great little stop on our journey.

Where is Harry Truman, a straight-talking man, when we most desperately need him? Friends and family from the Left and the Right, I feel compelled to dare you to find as true and honest and thoughtful and simple a man in politics today as Harry Truman. I won't actually do it because I don't want the Comments section filled with your failed attempts to find someone.

But Harry S. Truman? Once again, America, you have rocked my world. And I thank you for it and for "Give 'Em Hell, Harry" Truman. And thanks for not letting Dewey defeat him.

Afterward, we dined at the McCoy Municipal Playground. Nice.

Tonight, we find ourselves deep inna heart of Kansas. McPherson, Kansas, for those of you following along on the map. We have been traveling on Kansas Route 56, and head for Dodge City in the morning. Everyone is well and happy and, of course, a bit tired. But we've found another motel with a pool, and that was great. And we are seeing the most viscerally honest areas of this great state, it's small farm towns, its rolling, verdant prairies, its majestic grain elevators, and we are meeting its fine citizens. We made it to Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve too late for a tour, but we were surrounded by its beauty and, to be honest, seeing it made you realize just how flippin' crazy the pioneers were. It took a pair of brass somethings to settle this area.

Kansas, so far, I salute you.

And 65 mph on your secondary routes? Suh-weet!