On Shabbos day, after a nice davening, the shul had lunch together in honor of the one-year anniversary of a member couple. Shabbos in Leawood reminded me of how strong and special small out-of-town communities can be. After Shabbos, our RV neighbors from Brooklyn decided to drive over to a local Walmart and sleep there just to have the experience.

Today we left Leawood and continued East, crossing into Missouri. In the morning we visited Harry Truman National Historic Site in Independence, Missouri.  We parked a few blocks away and walked over.  Interesting street names:

We learned about America’s 33^rd president, who fought his own State Department to have the US vote for recognition of the fledgling State of Israel in the United Nations.  Trish posed with the president:

Our next stop was SubTropolis, a business complex built into a spent out limestone mine.  Unfortunately, access is closed on the weekends:

Our next stop was the town of Liberty, Missouri:

At this bank in 1866, Jesse James and his gang committed the first daylight bank robbery in US history.  We came here because a relative of mine was shot and killed during that robbery:

The museum was closed, but we were able to peek through the window:

We continued east to visit Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis, Missouri.  The visitor center:

I found this quote amusing considering that, that as a Civil War General, Grant issued General Order 11 which expelled all Jews from portions of Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The order was revoked by President Lincoln three weeks later.

The Grant home:

We had been watching weather forecasts throughout the day, and with only 18 hours to go until the eclipse, it looked like the St. Louis area had a good chance of cloudy weather, so we decided towards sunset to reposition to the Kentucky-Tennessee border, where the forecast looked much more promising.  We saw the St. Louis arch in the distance as we continued east:

250 miles later, we arrived in Oak Grove, Kentucky towards midnight and overnighted, naturally, at the Walmart here:

See the alternating light blue line on the trip map for today’s drive.