American Museum of Natural History - New York City, NY

After lunch at Shake Shake, I still had a lot of time until I could check into my hotel. So I headed across the street to the American Museum of Natural History. On all my previous trips to New York City, I had never actually been. I'd seen the Metropolitan Museum of Art a twice and the Museum of Modern Art once, but never the Museum of Natrual History. So I was extremely to see what one of the most famous museums in the country had to offer.

Unfortunately, the first sight I was confronted by were hoardes of children. And I don't mean a crowd of children or even a mob. I mean a literal hoarde of children like regiments of an invading army that occupied every floor, room and exhibit available. They were not polite hoardes, they were running, screaming, shouting hoardes with screams that echoed off every imaginable surgace. It was not how I had hoped to see the museum. That doesn't mean I don't like children, I'm actually fond of them. Just not when they seem to be re-enacting a scene from Dawn of the Dead.

The first exhibit I was was the Mammals of North America. It was extremely disconcerting because it was pretty much just taxidermy animals in backlit glass cases with plaques that were difficult to read in the dark hallways. Taxidermy has always given me the willies. It was also strange to see exhibits about animals I usually regarded as road kill, included one of the oppossum. I decided to skip the rest of the exhibits on the floor, mostly because I didn't have enough time to take in the museum in its entirity. So I hopped an elevator and jumped straight to the dinosaur exhibits.

I am officially not smart enough to appreciate any of the exhibits on palentology. Everything I know about dinosaurs I learned from "Land Before Time", "Jurassic Park", and the BBC sci-fi show "Primeval". These are apparently not reliable sources of scientific information. A lot of the displays focused on the claws and wrists of the dinosaurs. I was really confused by that and when I mentioned it to my mother on the phone later she explained at great length why this was important, but I still didn't get it. So my reaction to the most important palentology exhibit in the country consisted almost entirely of: "Cool, the skeleton of a T-Rex! Cool, the skeleton of a triceritops! Cool, the skeleton of that dinosaur with the really long neck! You know, the one Little Foot was in "Land Before Time"."

With my admission, I also bought a ticket to one of the special exhibits. There were several available, including one on the world's largest dinosaurs (which given my failure at understanding the permanent exhibits, I'm glad I didn't choose). Instead, I opted for the exhibit on the brain.

It was absolutely fascinating! It started with an explanation of the parts of the brain and their function with an introductory video similar to what you could have seen on PBS. But it continued with very thought provoking displays. The sensing brain portion focused on how our brain interprets sensory signals, such as what we see and feel. For example, you stood in one spot and saw a person walking in the rain while hearing a sound. At first, my brain heard it as the sound of rain based on what I was seeing but it was later revealed to be sizzling bacon. The display on the thinking brain was probably my favorite as it showed how our learning and developing can actually change the physical nature of our brain. For example, London cab drivers have to learn every possible route throughout the city from one location to another. In order to accomodate this incredible amount of information, studies found that part of the brain associated with long term memory in these individuals actually enlarged! The final portion of the exhibit focused on exciting new developments in brain technology, such as anamotronic limbs that can be controlled by thought. This would allow ambutees to control their prosthetics with their minds, like a natural limb.

By the time I finished the brain exhibit, I realized it was time for me to check my hotel. In about three hours, I had only managed to see a few of the exhibits, which made me sad. But I still was happy to see as much as I did and especially happy to have been able to see the special exhibit "Brain: The Inside Story."

Topeka Computing Museum - Topeka, KS

The Topeka Computing Museum, also known as Ed's $48 Collection, is not so much a museum as it is a window display of old computers.

There are not really any explanations of what the computers are or their history, but I did a bit of digging on the museums website and found a list of their exhibits. You can see: Apple II computers, Atari, Commodore, CP/M machines, calculators, DOS computers, handhelds, kid's computer playthings, Pong, and other contraptions. I recognized some of the machines from my school days. For example, I used to play this great game on a Mac Computer where you would type in the words as they were falling or they would destroy the city below - basically, an educational version of Space Invaders. So that gives you an idea of just how much I know about computers.

I spent a little bit of time looking at the display, trying to have some sort of reaction. But it was like staring at a painting that you don't have the point of reference you need to understand it. All I saw was a window display of obsolete machines.

Total Time Traveled: 1 hour
Total Distance Traveled: 54 miles
Soundtrack: "Sing Loud, Sing Proud" Dropkick Murphys

Spencer Museum of Art - Lawrence, KS

Recently, my best friend and traveling buddy Anna came to visit me in Lawrence. She'd never been to my new home but she had certainly heard stories about it. We spent a few days going to restaurants, window shopping on Massachusetts Street, and catching up on our bad horror movies (this time it was Jason Goes to Hell and Hatchet, last time we got together it was Jennifer's Body).

But despite what our taste in films might suggest, Anna and I love to go to new museums whenever we get together. Some are bizarre (like our visit to the Gore Psychiatric Museum) and some are more traditional (like the Chicago Natural History Museum). So this trip we decided to take in some of the fine works at the Spencer Museum of Art on the University of Kansas campus.

The actual museum is only two floors of the building - the third and the fourth - while the rest are offices and classrooms. The museum is not just a pretty place to look at pictures but it also integrates art history theories and educational opportunities. For example, for many years there has been a debate about the placards placed next to works of art. How much information should the viewer be given? When you read the name and the artist next to a painting, it could change your opinion and how you view it. Say you're looking at a painting. Then you find out it is a Picasso. Do you look at the picture differently? Now you find out it is from his Blue period and what the Blue period means. Do you look at the picture differently, now?

The debate of how much information should be given on a placard is played out throughout the galleries of the Spencer. Galleries like the 17th and 18th Century Europe and the Renaissance had placards that gave the artist, period, location and more details about the subject or method used to create the art. Another gallery had works that had been damaged or partially restored with information and questions for the viewer, challenging them to question aspects of each piece.

My favorite was the 20/21 Gallery, the modern art gallery. These did not have any placards. The pieces stood by themselves. To find out the name of the piece and the artist, you had to check one of the binders placed at the entrances to the gallery. There were placards about some of the pieces, but they did not give information about the pieces. Rather, they posed questions to the viewers about the pieces. I liked the works of art I saw in the gallery, but I thought the lack of placards was annoying. When I see a sculpture or painting - especially as original and intriguing as some I saw in the 20/21 Gallery - I want to know who made it, what it is called and what it is made of. But, of course, I didn't know I wanted that before I went into the gallery. So in that case, I think the playout of the placard debate in the Spencer is really effective.

Total Trip Time: 12 minutes

Total Trip Distance: 6 miles

Soundtrack: "Bring It On Home" Horrorpops

Texas Prison Museum - Huntsville, TX

Texas is very proud of its prison system. I mean really proud. They're proud to the point it is a little bit creepy and terrifying. That is why they have built an entire museum dedicated to the history, development and prominence of their prisons. If you have ever thought about committing a crime in Texas, I encourage you to visit this museum. You'll rethink that plan pretty quickly.

Our introduction to the museum was a twenty minute video about the history of the prison system in Texas. It reassured us on two points. First, prisons were not as barbaric as they had been in the past. And second, Texas does not have "country club prisons." Again, I became sure I never want to go to prison in Texas.

The exhibits that followed focused primarily on objects made and works done by prisoners. There was an entire display of contraband and items such as toothbrushes that had been made into deadly weapons. There were also crafts made by inmates including board games such as a prison version of Monopoly and "Parole Pals." Parole Pals are dolls, very much like the Cabbage Patch baby dolls I had when I was a little girl, that were made by death row inmates and sold by the prison. I'm not sure what twisted parent gave a Parole Pal to their child on Christmas morning, but thankfully they are not made or sold anymore.

There was also a significant portion of the museum dedicated to Texas' death penalty. As Ron White said, "In Texas, we have the death penalty and we use it!" You can see Ol' Sparky, the real electric chair where many Texas criminals were put to death. Now, I'm not going to get into an argument on whether or not the death penalty is a good thing. That's not what this blog is about. But I will say, it was very disturbing. There was an art exhibit about the death penalty including photographs and final statements of those who had been put to death along with statements and photographs of surviving victims who had seen their tormentor put to death. I was not so much sickened by the electric chair though as I was my the labeled syringes that had been used to put a man to death by lethal injection. There is one small display about the anti-death penalty movement but little in the way of information. It is mostly just some pictures and a protest sign.

I was more interested in the twisted historical facts, such as those about Bonnie and Clyde. They aided an escape from a Texas prison and Clyde had spent some time enjoying the hospitality of a Texas penitentiary. But not all the facts are in order. For example, there is a gun on display that was supposedly used in Bonnie and Clyde's last stand against the police. But researchers found the gun wasn't manufactured until after their death. So where's the real gun? Who knows. The one thing I am sure of - I don't want to go to prison in Texas.

Total Time Traveled:

Total Distance Traveled:

Soundtrack: Country radio!

Johnson Space Center - Houston, TX

No visit to Space Center Houston would be complete without the NASA Tram Tour of the Johnson Space Center. The Space Center covers more than 1,600 acres and employs 14,000 people. The federal facility houses Mission Control where astronauts are trained and the Space Shuttle program is managed. We had an opportunity to see the real mission control, but it was largely empty on the weekend. Although in another room, there were people communicating with the International Space Station. The employees include contractors, civil servants, and doctors.

In another area, we saw the Saturn V Complex at Rocket Park. It was amazing. When you see the rockets and shuttles on television, it really doesn't do justice to how truly big the whole thing is. However, the majority of it is fuel. The actual shuttle where the astronauts are housed is a small cramped space.

I was so amazed by the sheer size of the fuel tanks, I had to know just how much fuel it took to get into space. Luckily, the Kennedy Space Center gave me the answer, "At liftoff, an orbiter and External Tank carry 835,958 gallons of the principle liquid propellants: hydrogen, oxygen, hydrazine, monomethylhydrazine, and nitrogen tetroxide. The total weight is 1,607,185 pounds." To put that in context, let's say your car holds 16 gallons of fuel at a time and you refuel once a week. You could drive around for almost a year with the amount of fuel it takes to launch a space shuttle. That means in an eight minute launch, a space shuttle could use as much fuel as you do in a year! (That is, if your car ran on hydrogen, oxygen, hydrazine, monomethylhydrazine, and nitrogen tetroxide.)

The Johnson Space Center is an absolutely inspiring example of human ingenuity and invention. The sheer magnitude of what has been invented to allow space travel along with massive manpower required to maintain it is staggering. It shows an incredible dedication to higher cause of science, knowledge and exploration. Currently, researchers on the International Space Station are conducting experiments and asking questions we could never do on Earth. Along the wall of the Saturn V Complex, there are signs about past missions and astronauts you can read as you walk along the shuttle. You get a sense of how far we have really come and all we have achieved. More than that, you have such hope and inspiration for how much farther we could go.

National Museum of Funeral History - Houston, TX

One of the many reasons I love visiting my friend Anna is that she has always planned a visit to somewhere interesting and just plain weird. In Chicago, we tried to visit the International Museum of Surgical Science but that plan was derailed by the fact there is no parking in the city. Her plan for Texas, however, was brilliant and came to full fruition with our visit to the National Museum of Funeral History. Anna and I share a morbid sense of humor, so this was a treat for both of us.

The National Museum of Funeral History has little to do with death or any of the gory details. It is more about funeral business. The first exhibit is about carriage hearses. Interestingly, they don't mention much about the person who would have been carried in the carriage. It is about the vehicle itself - how it was constructed, the materials used and the time period that influenced the design. The same follows with coffins. Mostly, they about how they were constructed (there is a 1900's coffin factory display) and what influenced different designs. There is, of course, the occasional gruesome story. One coffin was constructed to fit three people - it was commissioned by a couple after their child had died. They planned for him to kill her and then himself and then be buried with their child. They never followed through with their horrifying murder/suicide pact and the coffin is now on display in the museum.

Not all the coffins are simple or gruesome. Some are extravagant like a coffin with real dollar bills and coins in it. In this case, I guess he can take it with him. There are also the whimsical coffins from the "A Life Well Lived: Fantasy Coffins- Kane Quaye" exhibit. Ghanaian sculptor Quaye created coffins to symbolize aspects of the deceased's life. It includes twelve coffins carved to look like a KLM Airliner, a Mercedes Benz, a Fish, a Fishing Canoe, a Leopard, a Chicken, a Bull, a Crab, a fish Eagle, a Lobster, a Shallot, and a Yamaha Outboard Motor.

Other exhibits are devoted to the funerals of the famous. In one area is an exhibit for Presidential funerals. It displays small keepsakes from the historical occasions. Most of these are items specifically for the occasions such as programs from the memorial service, mourning ribbons and newspaper article about the event. There are also personal items from attendees such as the boots worn by a member of the armed guard at the funeral. But like the coffins, there is also the occasional gruesome tidbit - like a piece of scalp taken from Abraham Lincoln's head after he'd been shot.

One of the largest exhibits is "Celebrating the Lives and Deaths of the Popes." The papal exhibit includes a full-scale replica of Pope John Paul II's crypt, an exact reproduction of the coffin used in the funerals of three previous Popes as well as replicas of other Papal vestments. As a result of my good Catholic education, I already knew most of these traditions. But I was thrilled to see something I've never seen before - a Popemobile! Oh I'd seen it on television and seen pictures of it in books, but never had I seen real live Popemobile. For those unmarred by a Catholic school education, the Popemobile is a white Range Rover with a plexiglass case on the back where the Pope stands and waves to people.

There are smaller exhibits describing ancient and current funeral rituals from other cultures, such as Mexico's Day of the Dead and Egypt's mummies. But I was quickly distracted by exhibits on embalming. After reading Mary Roach's "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers," I got curious about embalming. (Really Weird Fact: The Father of Embalming, Dr. Thomas Holmes, went insane in his later years and lived with parts of cadavers he had embalmed - such as heads on tables in the living room.)

Embalming gained notoriety during the Civil War when 10,000 to 40,000 soldiers were embalmed so they could be transported home for burial. The process has developed and improved over time, often by accident. In nineteenth century Paris, a well-known man died and was embalmed before burial. Later the police suspected he might have been murdered and dug him to re-examine the body. They found arsenic in the body and charged the man's mistress with murder. The embalmer, Dr. Gannal, came forward and revealed arsenic was a component in his embalming fluid so the woman could not be found guilty on that evidence. As a result, Europe outlawed the use of arsenic in embalming fluid in the 1840's. The United States followed suit in the 1870's.

It is was a weird, morbid and educational museum. I left feeling oddly upbeat - like the museum's slogan says, "Any Day Above Ground is a Good One."

Total Travel Distance: 80 miles
Total Trip Time: 3 hours
Soundtrack: You guessed it - Country radio!

The Forbidden City of Forbidden Gardens Chinese History and Cultural Museum - Katy, TX

Between 1420 and 1922 AD, the Forbidden City in Beijing was the home of the imperial family. When it was first build during the reign of Yongle, it is said to have had 999 buildings along with 9,999 rooms and courtyards. The Forbidden Gardens Chinese History and Culture Museum has created a miniature version of the Forbidden City to educate people about the beauty and magnitude of this landmark without the long trip from Texas to Beijing.

There are two main parts to the Forbidden City - the Inner Court and the Outer Court. Each is marked by three main buildings. The Outer Court contains the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Middle Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony. Each served an important function of imperial business (although Anna and I wonder why they weren't a little more creative in naming the buildings). The Inner Court has the Palace of Heavenly Purity, the Hall of Union, and the Palace of Earthly Tranquility.

These six buildings were obviously not the only important buildings out of 999 total. While calling a building the Hall of Supreme Harmony may not reveal much about its purpose, most of the buildings' names made their purposes much more evident. The Hall of Literary Glory was a reading room and also was used as a lecture Hall. The Hall for Worshiping Ancestors was...the hall for worshiping ancestors (do I really need to explain that one?)

Even in its miniature form, the Forbidden City is expansive. Looking down on the buildings, courtyards and gates at this small scale, it is difficult to imagine just how huge and impressive the real thing must be.

Terra Cotta Army of Forbidden Gardens Chinese History and Cultural Museum - Katy, TX

As Anna and I were driving, I saw a green sign by the road that said, "Forbidden Gardens" with an arrow leading the way. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what qualified as a "forbidden garden" in Texas. But a quick internet search revealed it was actually the Forbidden Gardens Chinese History and Cultural Museum, built to promote knowledge of ancient Chinese history and culture.

Katy may seem like a strange place to find a Chinese History and Cultural Museum, but it is actually quite fitting. The museum was privately founded by Mr. Ira Poon, a businessman from Hong Kong. He chose Katy because it is close to Houston (Fun Fact: Houston has the third largest Asian population living in the United States). Also, the rice fields of Katy reminded Poon of China.

After watching a 20-minute educational film about the history of the ancient Chinese empires and the Forbidden City, we wandered around to see the different exhibits. We could examine weaponry, carriages, and art from the empires but the two most impressive exhibits were the Terra Cotta Army of the First Emperor and a miniaturized version of the Forbidden City.

Before his death in 210 BC, Emperor Qin commissioned an elaborate burial site including a 8,000 terra cotta soldiers to protect him in the afterlife. The statues are life-sized, some standing almost 6 feet tall, and no two are alike. The Forbidden Gardens in Katy features 4,000 soldiers that are a third the size of the originals.

It's an amazing site to take in all at once. Thousands of clay soldiers stretched out, standing at attention while a plaster Emporer Qin commands them for a distance. The neat and careful rows are impressive in their symmetry and careful detail.

There are largely soldiers on display so you can examine the intricacies that would be in the original. Each statue is unique. The way they braid their hair or wear their armor is different in each soldier. More amazing to me was the difference in facial features and expressions. It's not that they are different soldiers - they are different people!

There has been some damage to the soldiers as the result of bad weather and a hurricane but it doesn't take away from the exhibit.

Check out The Yellow Brick Road Trip on Monday to find out more about the Forbidden Gardens and the miniaturized Forbidden City exhibit!

Real Pirates Exhibit at The Field Museum - Chicago, IL

One of the highlights of my trip to Chicago was the "Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship" exhibit at The Field Museum. It is hard to explain just how deep my love of pirates run. I could tell you about my pirate re-enactment with paddleboats on a canal in Amsterdam, but then I'd have to kill you. So let's just suffice it to say: I love me some pirates.

The exhibit is built around the Whydah, which began as a slave ship and later was used by pirates. The opening deals primarily with the viscious tragedy of the slave trade. It describes how slaves were brutally captured, transported and sold in heartbreaking detail. Artifacts such as chains are on display and excerpts of first person narratives are posted to help viewers to understand just how real and viscious the human slave trade was. Or should I say is. Sadly, the slave trade still exists in the world although it has become less recognizable.

Pirate Captain Sam Bellamy (nicknamed "Black Bellamy") later took control of the ship. While black men were once slaves now they could be crewmen. Pirate crews were actually much more racially diverse and provided a greater sense of equality, freedom and opportunity than most people were able to find on land. The potential of riches and the chance to be one's own man encouraged many to sign the articles, or officially swear in as a pirate.

But good fortune couldn't last forever. On April 26, 1717, the Whydah sank in a storm. Of 146 crewmen, only Thomas Davis, the carpenter, and John Julian, the pilot survived. John Julian, a 16-year-old Miskito Indian, was sold into slavery. Thomas Davis was set free according to his lawyer's claim he had been pressed into piracy by Bellamy's crew because they needed another carpenter.

The exhibit was almost exculsively about the Whydah. There was not much information about piracy in general. I was disappointed to see only one sign about female pirates and that mentioned only Anne Bonney and Mary Reed by name. While I understand the need for brevity, I was disappointed that an exhibit that took so much time to show how pirates were creating a more racially equal community at sea failed to give anything more than lip service to the great freedom piracy gave women.

Swedish American Museum - Chicago, IL

I've done it again! I'm traveling too much and too fast for the blog to keep up! I'm currently in Katy, Texas with my friend Anna visiting her family, but still have so much more to tell about our time in Chicago. So I'll eventually get to our current adventures. In the mean time, I'll tell you a little more about our visit to the Windy City. (Fun fact: The windy city nickname has nothing to do with the weather, it is actually a reference to the blowhard politicians.)

When I lived in the Andersonville neighborhood, I used to walk by the Swedish American Museum several times a day but I never stopped to visit it. I always planned to eventually go inside, but after so many times I just kept walking past and sort of forgot it was there. Like the Swedish flag painted on the water tower or any number of roadside attractions, you get so used to seeing them everyday you just seem to stop seeing them. But on this visit, I was a tourist and after a lovely meal at Ann Sather, Anna and I decided to finally see the museum.

As we stepped out of the heat and into the cool museum, we were promptly shaken down by a little old lady with a think Swedish accent. She reminded us they requested donations. We asked if we could use a debit card since neither of us had any cash handy, but in a very stern yet grandmotherly voice she reminded us that the museum requested "donations." So our adventure began after we went to the ATM across the street and gave the little only lady our "donations."

The first floor features the special exhibit "Roundtrip: New York-Gotland" by Peter Åström, a Swedish-born artist who has been living in New York since the mid 1970s. According to the museum website, the exhibit "depicts his Swedish and American locations and lifestyles in the bustling city to the natural countryside." Truthfully, we didn't get it. I thought the paintings looked like they were done by a drunk five-year-old. Anna couldn't figure out why a crude drawing of a duck cost four figures. So we quickly moved on to the second floor, which was about Swedish immigration to Chicago and the prominent Swedes who helped to make the city, the country and the world great.



The exhibit begins by telling the story of Swedish immigration. People certainly didn't leave their homes to cross an ocean - they were driven there by hardship, crop failures and promises of a better life or at least a more fruitful struggle. The displays continue and follow the immigrants journey across the sea, the place they craved for themselves in American society, the traditions and heritage they maintained despite their diaspora and the amazing Swedes who changed Chicago, the country and the world. It would be impossible for me to tell every story I leaned in my visit or even convey even the smallest amount of knowledge I gained. There was simply too much. Instead I will offer the one story that moved me the most and encourage you to pay a visit to the museum yourself, should you ever get a chance.

The most fascinating exhibit was the room dedicated to the life of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish humanitarian and diplomat who worked from Hungary to save thousands of Jewish lives during the Holocaust. He was asked to save as many lives as possible. In return, he was granted generous liberty and freedom with how he went about accomplishing his mission - essentially given license to do whatever it took such as bribing an official - to save lives. He issued "protective passports" to Jews in the country, though they were not legal the documents looked official and saved many from being sent to death camps. He rented 32 buildings, claiming they were covered by diplomatic immunity, and hid almost 10,000 people within them. Once, he even saved dozens of Jews already on a train headed for Auschwitz by handing out the protective passports while armed Nazis looked on, dumbfounded by his determination and bravado.


Though Wallenberg saved tens of thousands of lives, he was detained by the Soviet Union and never seen again. It is unclear when he actually died. The exhibit in the Swedish American Museum does not mention the controversy regarding his death year, whether it was in 1945 or in a Russian prison in 1957, only his great works. I was amazed reading the plaques in his honor and the numerous stories of his heroic acheivements. If you ever have an opportunity to visit the museum, I cannot encourage you enough to stop in this room and take your time examining all you can about this extraordinary Swedish man.

After a somber moment of reflection, Anna and I took the elevator up to the third floor to look at the children's museum. We considered making a visit but realized when we saw it that despite our child-like hearts, we were definitely too old to play there. Instead, we finished off our tour with a visit to the gift shop so we could buy our own Swedish toys.

It was a wonderful visit to a wonderful museum. My only regret is that I never went sooner, perhaps when I was living only a few steps away and might have been able to make more visits.

Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum - Atchison, KS

On sunny but extremely windy Saturday, I took off for Atchison, Kansas. No major highway or interstate goes there so around the halfway mark I turn off onto a two lane road that follows the railroad tracks. For twenty miles there's nothing but farmland, trains and the occasional other car.

The museum is easy to find, Atchison is very small and very proud of it's heritage so it isn't hard to miss the signs that lead the way. It is a beautiful stately house that has been maintained for many years by the Ninety-Nines, an international group of female licensed pilots. Amelia Earhart was their first elected president.

It is a stately house filled with homages to Amelia's life - from a bathing suit she wore when she was four-years-old to a model of her plane to multiple portraits of her throughout her life. The parlors and formal dining room downstairs are finished to the full former majesty while the upstairs bedrooms have a cozy comfortable feeling, complete with quilts and clothing laid out as if to be worn the next day.

The museum shows Amelia Earhart mostly as a woman but also for the amazing pilot she was. The first woman to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger, the first woman to make a solo flight around the United States, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, not to mention her numerous speed and altitude records.

In addition to her courageous acts as a pilot, the museum also records her works as a writer and fashion designer. She was an accomplished poet and published multiple books. She also designed clothes for her fellow female pilots she eventually developed into a fashion line for "the woman who lives actively."

Atchison may be out of the way, but it was worth the trip to see the museum. But I have another stop to make - the Haunted Waggener House - before I go home.

Click here to see more photos!

Total Trip Time: 3 hours
Total Distance Traveled: 138 miles
Soundtrack: "The Ascension" Otep

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

Click here to see more photos!

The Oz Museum - Wamego, KS

We went to see the wizard! Last weekend, my friends Kelly and Jessica joined me on a wonderful trip to Oz...also known as Wamego, Kansas. On Saturday morning we climbed into my car armed with mix cds and the Wicked soundtrack to set off to see the wizard!

The drive was a little over two hours but it was great. We gossiped about our lives, sang along to the music and saw some very interesting road signs in little towns, such as the auto shop offering "Brain Surgery while you Wait." Finally we arrived in the wonderful land of oz...I mean, Wamego.

The museum was absolutely lovely! You walk through different rooms based on different characters. The first introduction is Dorothy, of course. Along with a manaquin dressed in her classic sundress were commemorative ruby slippers and all sorts of memorabilia, including a swatch of cloth taken from the original costumes hem. There are rooms commemorating all the favorite characters - the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, the Wicked Witch of the West (I still think she's just misunderstood), and Glenda the Good Witch.

For those fans of the movie, there are several television sets showing the classic film staring Judy Garland as well as the originial silent film of Wizard of Oz, although it was a terrible failure both critically and in the theaters. For those fans of the original books, you can see original printings and learn amazing things about the author L. Frank Baum. (Fun Fact: Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, derived the Wicked Witch of the West's name "Elphaba" from the initials of L. Frank Baum).

My friends and I went through the museum oohing and ahhing over everything we saw. Only after we left did we realize we should have stayed just to watch the movie again and again and again. But there was still more to see in Wamego, Kansas.

Click here to see more photos!

Total Trip Time: 27 hours

Distance Traveled: 245 miles

The Freak Show Exhibit - Leavenworth, KS

I love freak shows! As a tattooed, pierced woman who used to have purple hair - I'm sure this not surprising in the slightest. So I was super excited to see the historical freak show exhibit at the C.W. Parker Carousel Museum. It includes pictures of some of the "freaks" - from giants, to a crab handed boy, to a woman swallowing swords. There are also artifacts from the tents - a horrifying little petrified mermaid (seriously, this thing looked more like Gollum with fangs than Ariel), a mummified toad, and a two-headed chick. It was deformed but still so cute and fuzzy! If it wasn't taxidermy I would totally cuddle it. Oh, who am I kidding? I still wanted to cuddle it!

One thing that caught my eye was the display case of shrunken heads. I really want to know how they were made. Call it morbid curiosity but I really badly want to know what they are made of (assuming of course they are not real heads). When I was a kid, my mom showed me how to make a fake shrunken head with an apple. These were obviously not the crude, fruit skulls of my youth. So if anyone knows how to make a shrunken head - please let me know!

Finally, there was an animal hidden behind a sheet in a glass case. The sign posted in front of it said, "Obscene animal. For adults only." I thought about it for a moment and decided I am an adult (legally anyway, I don't know about mentally). I lifted up the sheet and took a peek. Yep, the animal was obscene. But I'm not going to tell you what it was! You have to go to Leavenworth to find out for yourself!

C.W. Parker Carousel Museum - Leavenworth, KS

A few more miles down Highway 7/73, also known as Fourth Street, I came to the C.W. Parker Carousel Museum. The museum tells the history of the carousel and of C.W. Parker, who made his fortune designing and building carnival entertainment. It also features an exhibit about freak shows - something that intrigues my morbid curiosity.

The opening of the museum tour is a short film about the history of the carousel and the life of Parker. No one knows who invented the carousel or when, but according to the film at the beginning of the tour there are drawings of carousels that date as far back as 500 B.C. It's current form - a spinning platform with horses - was originally designed for military training. Eventually, of course, they fell out of favor as a martial exercise and became a more popular form of entertainment.

C.W. Parker started out at the age of 17 when he purchased a high striker machine for cowboys to test their strength on in Abilene, Kansas. He continued to expand his carnival enterprise by acquiring a shooting gallery and then built his first factory in 1894 in Abilene, Kansas. By the early twentieth century, he had four traveling carnivals and was supplying other carnivals with equipment - needless to say, he had become a very wealthy man. But after a falling out with the town about the location of his second factory, he built his new operations in Leavenworth in 1911. (Fun fact: Although the factory was only two stories tall, Parker advertised the Leavenworth factory in pictures as six stories.)

But the good times would not last forever. After Parker's death and the Great Depression, Parker carousels were doomed. At the height of their popularity, there were 5,000 working wooden carousels in the US but now only 160 remain. Of the thousands of carousels made by Parker, two are restored in the museum. One was made between 1850-1860, making it the oldest known working American carousel.

After the educational video, Bill W. was kind enough to show me around the museum. It was fascinating! You can see the development of the carousel horses, the intricate wood carving, the painstaking restoration process and artifacts from different times in the carousel's history. You can look into the workshop where the horses are restored and see them in different stages - from the replacement of lost limps to the detailed painting of the saddles. (Fun fact: Carousel horses are actually hollow inside! That is to prevent moisture from building up and rotting the wood.)

At the end of the tour, I got to ride one of the carousels. Initially, I was very self-conscious. I was the only rider so I felt like some creepy twenty-something trying to be a kid again. In the video at the beginning, the narrator said, "The carousel places no limit on fantasy." I think that is absolutely true. As soon as the ride started and Scout (that was the name of my horse) and I took off, I wasn't a creepy twenty-something any more. I was five-years-old riding the carousel in Tulsa, Oklahoma waving to my grandfather. It is funny how something so simple can take you back. My grandfather has been gone a long time, but I miss him still. Riding the carousel was something fantastic, it brought some beautiful childhood memories that I didn't just get to think about - I got to relive all over again.

The C.W. Paker Carousel Museum was a great experience, but I'm not done telling you all about it! There's still one more bit to cover - the FREAK SHOW exhibit!

Special thanks to Bill W. for being an awesome tour guide!