On my way to a conference in Omaha, I stopped in KC for a couple days. Like usual, I had to see my favorite grand-niece and nephew. I finally got to give Violet the space shuttle I made for her American Girl dolls. That's Bob laying on the ground wearing his new astronaut suit. Violet told me I forgot to bring shoes for him, but after quick thinking, I told her that he couldn't wear shoes, because he would kick all the other astronauts when he was floating around in zero gravity.
She and Lincoln both had fun with it, but I think Lincoln enjoyed all the little scientific "extras" I'd loaded into the storage bins.
I've been cleaning out my closets trying to trim down the number of physics toys I've got. Lincoln really enjoyed the Hot Wheels track and the pack of plastic bugs I gave him (that's a giant beetle on the track in the right side of the photo, not a car).
On Friday night, Janet and I met my cousin, Gary, for dinner. I think this is the first time I've seen any of my cousins outside of a funeral in years.
It's only a 3-hour drive to Omaha, so I decided to stop in St Joe at the Pony Express Museum. They had so many really interesting things to see.
One thing that made me laugh was the sign advertising the qualifications required for a good Pony Express rider. It sounds a bit morbid to me.
St Joe was a much more important town back in the 1800's. It was under consideration for the starting point of the transcontinental railroad, but neither St Joe nor Kansas City were chosen, because of fighting during the Civil War. (The starting point ended up being Council Bluffs, Iowa - the town just across the Missouri river from Omaha). There was an old train car on display in the museum with a mail sack hanging from the platform. When my dad was younger, he used to work for the Post Office delivering the mail this way. I remember him telling me how he had to hang out of a moving train in order to grab the sack.
One tidbit I didn't know was that Walter Cronkite's dad was a dentist in St Joe. They had a recreation of his old dentist's office.
It wouldn't be a true small town if it didn't have some quirky items on display. This used to be the World's Biggest Ball of String highlighted in the Guinness Book of Records, but it has been surpassed by a bigger ball of twine in Branson, MO. I wanted someone to stand next to it while I took the photo, because the ball was bigger than me.
I finally made it to Omaha and worked my conference - Computer Science Teachers this time. Supposedly the conference was held here, because Omaha considers itself the "Silicon Valley of the Midwest." (hmmmm...) But, of course, I had to bring several robots with me. Computer programming teachers need to do something fun to spice up their classes.
