Roadtrip Memories - Remembering the Glore Psychiatric Museum while Snowed In

I'm snowed in! Today I was going on a yellow brick roadtrip to Planet Comic, the comic book convention in Overland Park, Kansas. But I didn't make it a full block before my car was skidding off the road. Don't get me wrong, several years in Chicago made me a great driver even in snow and ice. But this was just ridiculous! After a few minutes weighing my own mortality against meeting the Playmate who was the model for Red Sonja, I decided it was better to spend the day with comic book, a cup of coffee and reminiscing about past trips.

So I share with you a trippy little video I made from photographs of the Glore Psychiatric Museum, and in doing so discovered the proper use for techno music!

Enjoy everyone! Hopefully I'll be able to shovel my car out tomorrow.




SNOWED IN UPDATE: I tried to leave my house again to meet up with some friends. Last time I made it almost a block before the snow got too bad. Well this time I didn't make it out of the driveway! Yup, my car got stuck in the snow only a few feet after I pulled out of the garage. Looks like I'm not going anywhere for a while! But don't worry, I'll still be updating!

Roadtrip Music - "You Can Take the Girl Out of the Country, But Not the Red Out of Her Neck"

While on the road, Anna was eager to play with my iPod and to enjoy some good ol' country music. Apparently, her life in Chicago has lacked the twang we had back in Oklahoma. I was happy to oblige with an old playlist I made as an homage to my redneck youth.


"You Can Take the Girl Out of the Country, But Not the Red Out of Her Neck" Playlist

1. "Sweet Home Alabama" - Lynard Skynard
2. "No Riders" - Shannon Curfman
3. "Redneck Woman" - Gretchen Wilson
4. "Hicktown" - Jason Aldean
5. "Broken and Ugly" - Beth Hart
6. "Sin Wagon" - Dixie Chicks
7. "Wild One" - Faith Hill
8. "Way Back Home" - The Wreckers
9. "I Go Back" - Kenny Chesney
10. "Not Ready to Make Nice" - Dixie Chicks
11. "Red Dirt Road" - Brooks and Dunn
12. "My, Oh My" - The Wreckers
13. "How Do You Like Me Now?" - Toby Keith

Abraham Lincoln Traveling Exhibit - St. Joseph, MO

When we finished our tour of the Glore Psychiatric Museum, Anna and I decided to check out the Abraham Lincoln exhibit of the St. Joseph Museum.

Abraham Lincoln: Self-Made in America is a traveling exhibit featuring seven different stages. They are mostly hands-on (I particularly had fun playing with the Lincoln logs!)

The best part of the exhibit was playing dress up! You can try on a top hat and other apparel President Lincoln would have worn, then stand on a box to be closer to his height of 6 feet, four inches. Given that I am 5' 3", I'm pretty sure standing on that box with a top hat is as close as I will ever get to an impressive stature.

For those of a more feminine nature, you can try on Mary Todd Lincoln's clothing. Or you could watch others do it. The traveling exhibit includes a "Mrs. Lincoln's Closet" fashion show.

If you can't make it to St. Joseph to see the exhibit, it may be coming to you soon! Check out the exhibit's website to see if it will be making a stop in your town!

Click here to see more photos!

Glore Psychiatric Museum - St. Joseph, MO

This weekend the Yellow Brick Road Trip was joined by my bestest best friend in the whole wide world - Anna. She has known me through all my travels and took part of her spring break to join me for a trip to St. Joseph to see the Glore Psychiatric Museum.


The Glore Psychiatric Museum used to be a state lunatic asylum but now patients rooms are full of exhibits rather than troubled people. Mannequins are used to show different treatments of the past, the ancient past and the present. The mannequins themselves are freaky. Some are faceless white statues, others are relics from department stores in the fifties. They are chipped, cracked, decaying and barely holding together. Seeing them strapped in old straight jackets and restraints with their faces peeling off is just plain creepy!

Fun fact: Lobotomies were discovered when a guy got a railroad spike through the head and lived!

One floor was devoted to medieval and outdated methods of dealing with mental illness. These ranged from the bizarre to the cruel to the "oh my god, I can't believe they freaking did that!" There was the lunatic box, an upright coffin where a crazy person was locked in. There was a surprise bath where a person fell through a trapdoor into a pool of cold water - resulting in injury and death more often than sanity. There was a spinning cage, a human sized hamster exercise wheel, dioramas of stomping and bleeding patients, and even a mannequin tied to a stake as an example of witches burned at the stake. (A sidenote: Tom Cruise should really look at this exhibit, maybe then he won't be so opposed to psychiatric medication. Or we could just put him in the exercise box so he never makes another movie).

We also learned about the history of the hospital itself. One interesting story they told was of a patient who was lost in the system for years! Her family never found her until after her death. A doctor requested her records after hearing about the case to review her treatment. In an ironic twist, those records were then lost for eleven years! They lost the patient, found her and then lost her records!

The museum was amazing! Really freaky but really awesome!

Total Distance Traveled: 146 miles
Total Trip Time: 5 hours
Soundtrack: "You Can Take the Girl Out of the Country, But Not the Red Out of Her Neck" Playlist

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The Pony Express National Museum - St. Joseph, MO

Not far from Jesse James home is a museum that commemorates another aspect of St. Joseph's Wild West history, the Pony Express National Museum. On April 3, 1860, the first rider left the Pony Express Stable in St. Joseph to carry saddlebags full of mail more than 2000 miles to Sacramento, California. In our digital age when I wouldn't trust the post office with anything truly important, it's hard to imagine when a guy on a horse was the height of speedy mail service. St. Joseph was a logical place to start the Pony Express. During western expansion and the gold rush, more people left from St. Joseph than any other city on the Missouri River. So the mail followed as people headed out into the frontier.


The museum is amazingly hands on and provides a wealth of historical information. You can see the first rider, Johnny Fry on horse back and the stables with fake horses preparing for their adventure. There is a fully stocked covered wagon and a multitude of maps to show the past to the west and the routes the riders took. You can also see figures of William Russell, Alexander Majors and Waddell who founded the Pony Express. In addition to the basic facts, museum also provides interesting little trivia tidbits. Check out this piece of trivia: The founders only managed to obtain half of the million dollar government contract they aimed for and ended their business bankrupt.

The museum honors the riders, the settlers who went west and also the equine adventurers. A portion of the exhibit is dedicated to the horses of the Pony Express. There are saddles you can sit on and also a place where you can interactively see which kinds of horses were used and which weren't suited for the fast, long journey westward.

The museum was interesting to visit - maybe not as thrilling as seeing Jesse James' skull cast but interesting none the less. It is definitely an educational experience.

Soundtrack: Jenny Lewis "Acid Tongue"

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Jesse James Home - St. Joseph, MO

On April 3, 1882, Jesse James was murdered in his home. Bob Ford, a member of the notorious outlaw James' gang killed him to collect a $10,000 reward being offered by the governor. At the time, 34-year-old James was living as Tom Howard with a wife and two children. As he was straightening a picture, Ford shot him in the head from behind.

At the entrance of the home, is a small display of news articles showing the history of the museum and the famous people who have come to visit. Most interestingly, was a middle-aged Johnny Cash with a mustache that made him almost unrecognizable in the newspaper picture. In the next room is a series of portraits showing Jesse James at various stages in his life. The museum is not about his adventurous outlaw career. It shows Jesse James as a man. There is a leather vest of his namesake uncle in a glass frame. In another room is the bed he once slept in and the safe he kept in the kitchen. It is a museum occasionally mundane in its details, but in that aspect it memorializes Jesse James as a human being and not just a Wild West caricature of pop culture.


One aspect of the museum is just plain morbid. In 1995, the body of Jesse James was exhumed by forensic scientist James Starrs. There had long been rumors that James faked his death and actually lived to a ripe old age under another assumed name. However, DNA tests concluded with 99.7% probability that the corpse was Jesse James. But that's not the really morbid part. They made a casting of his skull to show where the bullet entered his skull behind the right ear. The cast is displaying in a rotating class case in the museum along with casts made of his teeth. So at the Jesse James home, you can see where he was shot and...well, where he was shot.

As I looked through a small glass case that is the museum's gift shop trying to find something to commemorate my visit, I talked with the curator about all the history St. Joseph has to offer. Really, it is a sort of roadside attraction goldmine. A place proud of its history and always looking for a way to memorialize it. There are at least four other museums I can see from the entrance of the house. As we talked about where my next stop should be, I saw my souvenir - a cowboy hat!

But this was only the first stop in St. Joseph! I had one more place to go see. And this won't be my last trip here either. Like I said, this town was like a roadside attraction goldmine. I have lots more to see and many more trips back to see it all.

Travel Time: 4 hours roundtrip
Distance Traveled: 160 miles roundtrip
Soundtrack: Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins "Rabbit Fur Coat"

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