July 2019, Missouri, Day 2

Gut bomb pizza. It’s what’s for breakfast. Neighbor Becky, who hails from St. Louis, told us that we couldn’t properly visit St. Louis without having a slice of this uniquely St. Louisan treat. It features a cracker thin crust and some sort of processed space cheese called Provel. We were there when they opened at 10am. It’s Prilosec time somewhere.

Mile 636- Pass your devices to Mommy Dearest, my sweets. It’s time for a podcast about Harry S. Truman (Did you know that the "S" doesn't stand for anything?) I do love some foreshadowing and I do love it when my kids sleep in the car!

Mile 800-Leila’s Hair Museum (pronounced “Lee-eye-lah”)-The Bullingtons were first exposed to this “art form” when we were in Salt Lake City a few years ago. Well, a little internet research revealed that we would be passing through Independence, Missouri, home to the ONLY HAIR MUSEUM IN THE WORLD! I wasn’t even looking! I swear! This stuff just finds me!! I began my campaign to win over Mr. Bullington to the idea (which I knew he would hate). He was not as impressed as I with the intricacies of homemade hair flowers. I finally convinced him and promised we’d only be there for like, 20 minutes. And, it’s not just a collection of human hair jewelry, hair buttons, hair bookmarks… what really lead me down this hairy rabbit hole is the locks of hair from famous people! Fair reader, you know I’m gonna pay the $15 admission to see some of Abe’s hair. And, in another bit of foreshadowing, there was hair from Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr! And Michael Jackson! Other famous folicles included Jenny Lind, Ronald Regan and Ozzy Osborne! 

One shot!

First haircuts of the 1800s

Oh...We didn't know there'd be a docent....With lots of Hairlarious details!

Next stop, The Harry S. Truman Presidential Library! A little dose of presidential history won’t kill you, children! It’ll just made you wish you were dead. As far as presidential libraries go, this one probably isn't at the top of my list, but there were some interesting parts. Aside from learning about his many impactful decisions like desegregating the military and nuclear bombs, we also learned he had a little pet squirrel named Pete.

The Buck Stops Here!

Obligatory Oval Office Picture

After the library, we headed toward Kansas City to settle into our hotel for the night. We didn’t have a ton of time to spend in KS but we knew that our dinner stop had to be Joe’s BBQ. It was literally the #1 BBQ joint in America on some list at some point in time. And, the line down the block told us we were onto something good. As always, the kids were so jazzed that they got to wait on something! Joe’s is housed in one side of a gas station, so at least they could peruse the gas station wares while we waited. #snapintoaslimjim  The long snaking line gave Mr. Bullington and I the opportunity to chat up our neighbors who represented many hometowns across the Midwest. And thanks to Jacob from Omaha, we now know where to get a world-famous Rueben when we are there tomorrow night. After our two hours, I dove into the “Rocket Pig” which involved pulled pork, fried jalapeños, bacon, and cheese in no particular order. We rolled ourselves back to the hotel to get ready for tomorrow. Kansas!

All our friends are here!

#1

We ate all the things