Kansas City, MO, 2012

We are here in Branson, Missouri to see the sites and some of the shows. Our drive down from Tom"s was very long as we drove by mostly corn and soybean fields. They were doing a lot of combining - big machines that harvest the crops and tip the earth for next years crop. My cousin, Carol's, family does this and travels all over the Midwest with their machines, which are very big as we found out. They can do a 10,000 acre field in 2 hrs. Can you imagine doing this by hand? The dust created is unbelievable and my allergies have been in full bloom. I never imagined that it could be this bad and I am on medication.
Well, Kansas City is a beautiful city. We went to the Federal Reserve and the WWI Memorial. I have pictures of both.

on our way to Kansas City, we stopped at a McDonald's in Mound City, MO to use the facilities and noticed a sign in front of my parking space. Are we in the Bible Belt yet? Looks like we will have a lot of prayers coming our way.

should have turned this picture so look sideways. this is the Federal Reserve in Kansas City

some early currency

 

newer bills

I recognize this

the oldest form of currency in the US

 

have you ever seen one of these bills, which is no longer used todat?

this is the WWI Memorial in Kansas City. Inside the bunker are artifatcs, displays and movie slips of WWI. One can take an elevator up the Memorial and walk another 45 stairs to get an aerial view of the city. On both sides are buil;dings that hold exhibits - on the left is holding the Panteon de la Guerre exhibit. On the right is the sports and games exhibit during WWI. We saw the first.

this is not the aerial view but a view from the base of the exhibit buildings

 

begun a month after WWI broke out in Europe, Pantheon de la Guerre, an oil painting featuring 5000 full length portraits of wartime fures from France and her allies, was led by artists Pierre Carrier-Belleuse and Auguste- Francios Gorguet and other artists. It was completed 3 weeks before the Wars Armistice. The original was 4 football fields long and 45 feet high. Below is only the American segment of the painting, which was displayed in the Chicago World's Fair and later forgotten about. In 1957, a Kansas City artist got it for the Memorial Museum.I had to take pictures of it in sections so you could see it. the entire mural contains: Moument to the Dead, dedicated to soldiers whose bodies had not been recovered; 120 mm Howitzer; US, Greece, Latin America, China, Siam; Serbis, Montenegro; Russia, Romania, Japan;Trench Mortar; Cuirassiers (Cavalry); Temple of Glory, Staircase of Heroes; Goumiers (North African and Arab French Colonies); Trench Mortar; Great Britain and Commonwealth; Belgium; and Italy, Portugal. American segment:

left

middle

right

 

There were many other painting and interactive stations relating information about the War. The is one Memorial worth seeing. We didn't have time to see the other exhibit.