During most of our travels the first two years on the road we seldom saw rain and very seldom drove in rain. Since then we have seen more than our share of rain including rare daily rains in the desert of southern Arizona and a complete year's amount of rain in one week near Palm Springs, California. The rains continue. Last week we drove in rain to St. Louis to begin the Lewis and Clark Trail and the next day five inches of rain canceled events. It rained more during the week forcing us to change plans and it was still raining when we packed up to leave. There was more rain on the way to Jefferson City and when we arrive at our campground there was water standing everywhere. The campground owner told us they just had three inches of rain and he was pulling a pontoon boat across the campground. We figured that was our escape route.

Missouri's first legislators wrote in the constitution that Missouri's capital must be located on the Missouri River on a site within 40 miles of the mouth of the Osage River. A site in the wilderness named City of Jefferson (after president Thomas Jefferson) met the requirements and became Missouri's capital city. The present State Capitol which is situated on a high bluff overlooking the wide Missouri River houses both branches of the Legislature and the Executive offices. The building was constructed between 1913 and 1918 from white crystalline limestone and is 437 feet long, 300 feet wide and the dome tower rises to 262 feet. It covers three acres and contains 500,000 square feet of floor space.

The special property tax generated $1 million more than needed to construct the building so the attorney general ruled that surplus had to be used on the building. Some of the world's most noted artists were commissioned to provide paintings, murals, stained glass, carvings and statuary portraying Missouri history. The building features art work on every floor as well as statuary and fountains on the landscaped grounds. The Missouri State Capitol is one of the most beautiful buildings we have had the pleasure to visit and we highly recommend everyone take a tour. Guided tours are given daily on the hour from 08:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., except noon. We took a guided tour then stuck around and checked out the beautiful artworks on our own.

 We followed the Lewis and Clark Trail along the Missouri River to Kansas City but decided not to stop since we've been in large cities too often the last few months. Our next stop was the historic city of St. Joseph, Missouri where hundreds of thousands of pioneers began their westward journeys. Wagon trains crossed the Missouri River and headed west seeking new lands. Gold Rush prospectors left to seek their fortunes in westward mountains and California. Later the Pony Express and railroads headed west from St. Joseph. For our first day of sightseeing we thought we'd begin at the Patee House Museum, spend an hour there and continue touring the historic museums and buildings of the city. Wow, were we in for a surprise. The Patee Museum is one of the best museums we've seen and it took nearly a full day to tour the museum, study the exhibits and read all the signs.

The Patee House was opened by John Patee in 1858 to serve travelers as the railroad pushed west to St. Joseph. The hotel cost $180,000 and had 140 guest rooms and later served as headquarters for the Pony Express. The U.S. provost marshal's office and the Union recruiting office were in the Patee House during the Civil War. Over the years the building was a hotel three times, a girl's college twice, a shirt factory for 80 years, an epileptic sanitarium and held other enterprises. In 1965 it became the Patee House Museum. The museum contains too many displays to name them all, but here are a few - fire trucks, a 42- piece life-sized "Westerners On Wood" art collection by George Warfel, antique telephones and radios, buggies and wagons, antique furniture, pianos and pump organs, antique automobiles, a Pony Express office, a saloon, an old barber shop, Dr. Cronkite's dentist office (yes, news reporter Walter Cronkite was born there), murder weapons (knives and guns), a printing press, Aunt Jemima of pancake fame (originated in St. Joseph), an 1880's general store, a very unique carousel and many, many more exhibits. We recommend you visit the Patee House Museum. ($3.50 for seniors)

One block from the Patee House stood the home of notorious outlaw Jesse James who was murdered in his house on April 3, 1882 by Bob Ford, a member of the James gang. Jesse had assumed the name of Tom Howard and lived with his wife and two children in the house. He was shot from behind while he stood on a chair to straighten a picture. Ford tried to collect a reward but was arrested for murder. The house has been moved to behind the Patee House Museum and today it is a museum dealing with the life and death of Jesse James. ($1.50 for seniors)

There enterprising men, Russell, Majors and Waddell, saw need to deliver mail quickly to the west and on April 3, 1860, a lone rider left on horseback from the gates of the Pony Express stables in St. Joseph. The 2,000 mile trip to Sacramento, California was ridden in ten days by daring young riders. The venture was short lived because telegraph lines ceased the need for speedy mail delivery and 18 months after the Pony Express began it was discontinued with a half million dollars lost for the three investors. Today the Pony Express Museum houses the stables, a 70-foot interactive diorama depicting the diverse terrain of the route, and an historically accurate life-size relay station. Experience the many exciting, educational, state-of-the-art exhibits, conveying the need, creation, operation and termination of the Pony Express. ($3 for seniors) Sitting on the street was a Ford Bronco that has traveled the Pony Express route 15 times, including back roads, across steams and deserts and over mountains. Presently the Bronco has 585,000 miles and it is being prepared for one last trip.

Missouri State Lunatic Asylum No. 2 opened in 1874 in St. Joseph and at one time housed over 3,000 patients plus many workers. The large grounds contained vegetable gardens, woodworking and blacksmith shops, an electric generating plant, a water plant and other industries needed to run the "Lunatic Town." Today a new building houses 108 patients and one of the old building has been turned into Glore Psychiatric Museum. The four story museum has displays and exhibits explaining therapy and treatment of lunatics (err, the mentally ill) from the early days through the 1970's and it is quite enlightening. Most of the original asylum has been turned into a prison and the two are separated by a fence. Honestly, we don't want to be on either side of the fence - a lunatic or a prisoner.

From St. Joseph we crossed the Missouri River and drove south in Kansas to Leavenworth, the First Incorporated City in Kansas (1854). In 1804 the Corps of Discovery camped north of town on the Fourth of July and celebrated by firing their cannon, giving an extra ration of whiskey to each man and dancing all night. We had picked up brochures showing a walking "Waysides" tour of downtown Leavenworth with 13 displays with audio explaining the scenes and history of the town. Well, the Waysides had been removed so that was a big disappointment. The town should recall the brochures or reinstall the Waysides. After lunch we went to Fort Leavenworth.

Security was tight entering the Fort and we each had to show our drivers licenses and get out of the CR-V while security searched under the seats, under the hood and in the hatchback. Once they decided we were not terrorists we were allowed to enter the grounds. Our first stop was the excellent Frontier Army Museum that tells the story of the fort. It was established in 1827 and is the oldest continuously operated fort west of the Mississippi River. Branches of the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails transverse the fort whose mission was to protect people traveling those trails. Later the fort became the supply depot for all forts westward to the Pacific Ocean. The history of the army on the frontier is explained with exhibits and displays beginning with Lewis and Clark in 1804 through 1917 (the conclusion of the expedition into Mexico). We got about one-fourth way through the museum when we were told to leave. Bad weather and possibly tornados were in the area and the museum was closing. We were told to leave the security of the large building and get in our car and drive away. Didn't make any sense since high winds could flip our CR-V.

But we stayed on the grounds of the fort and visited other places of interest. The "Buffalo Soldiers," black troops comprised of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments were headquartered at Fort Leavenworth. They were sent to the most difficult jobs in the west protecting wagon trains and settlers, and fighting Indian Wars. They were respected by Indians and completed their assignments with honors becoming know as the best troops on the frontier army. In 1992 a monument, initiated by General Colin Powell, was erected in their honor. On a nearby hill we found part of the Berlin Wall that was torn down in 1989. The wall was presented to President Reagan who gave the wall to Fort Leavenworth.

Fort Leavenworth's early history shows some famous soldiers stationed there - George Custer, William Sherman and Robert E. Lee. It is now a training base with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. It was previously named the School of Application for Cavalry and Infantry with graduates Generals George C. Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar N. Bradley, George S. Patton and Colin Powell.

Before leaving town we stopped at the famous Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Construction was begun in 1897 by inmates from the fort and the first prisoners were incarcerated in 1906. It is the largest maximum security prison in the United State and presently houses approximately 2,200 inmates. Some of the inmates have been Al Capone, George "Machine Gun" Kelly, "Bugs" Moran and Robert Stroud (the Bird Man of Alcatraz). Stroud spent 28 years at Leavenworth and did all his bird work there before being transferred to Alcatraz. We were not allowed to enter the prison and come to think of it, we really didn't want to spend any "time" there. Actually, there are four prisons at Leavenworth housing over 6,000 prisoners.

Back at the campground in St. Joseph, rain, heavy winds, hail to baseball size and several tornados on the ground were all around us but we escaped damage. About twelve tornados swept across ground north of us and about six to the south. We're heading up the Missouri River and understand many roads are under water. But Lewis and Clark made it through bad weather and we will too.