Grand Tour - Missouri, Kansas, Illinois - Day Six

We left Maize and drove to Kansas City back through the Flint Hills in Kansas.  We stopped at the Knute Rockne service area where we visited the display honoring Knute Rockne, the legendary Notre Dame football coach. Rockne died in 1931 in a plane crash near this point in the Flint Hills.  He had just coached Notre Dame to the national championship and was on his way to Los Angeles to assist in the production of a film, "The Spirit of Notre Dame."  I thought of my good friend, John Crowe, whose father, Clem Crowe, played for Rockne at Notre Dame.  He played end for "The Seven Mule Team" at Notre Dame and was named an All American for two seasons.  He went on to his own storied coaching career.

"The Flint Hills are designated as a distinct ecoregion because it has the most dense coverage of intact tallgrass prairie in North America. Due to its rocky soil, the early settlers of European origin were unable to plow the area, resulting in the predominance of cattle ranches, which are in turn largely benefited by the tallgrass prairie."  We pulled over at the Cattle Pens Crossing to enjoy the view and take a few pictures.

Jill Claxton and Mom

We drove on to Kansas City for lunch with Mom.  Marilyn headed out for some shopping in the Brookside area which she enjoys so much.  Mom and I went down for Happy Hour where we were entertained by Bo Claxton and Wynn.  We were alerted to his appearance by Jill, his wife, who called Mom earlier in the day.  Jill is the daughter of Hilda, one of Mom's best friends at Grand Court who died a couple of years ago.  He played one of Mom's favorites - "I Am My own Grandpa" - which he had played at Mom's 100th birthday party in July.  "My Happiness" was always special to me because the melody was written by Borney Bergantine, a Kansas Citian, who wrote the melody in the 1930's and played it regularly with his band, The Happiness Boys.  The lyrics we are familiar with were written by Betty Peterson, another Kansas Citian whose husband founded Cardinal Records, the publisher of the standard version which was first recorded in 1948.  The song was the first song every recorded by Elvis Presley at Sun Records.  By the way, Elvis is Mom's favorite recording artist.   You can hear and see his rendition of "My Happiness" in the screen below.

Alex Carroll and Mom

The family gathered for dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, one of Mom's favorite places to eat.  There we met Alex Carroll who was the manager on duty.  He was very engaging young man and we learned that had been adopted from Russia in 1987 when he was 10 years old.  He was raised here by his mother and was very close to his grandfather who just celebrated his 95th birthday.  He and Mom had a lovely visit topped off by his giving her a couple of free meal coupons.  Mom thinks he is great!

When we got back to the apartment, Marilyn decided to work with Mom about her hair.  When I went to bed, she was using some "product" on Mom with a promise that she would consult with the hair dressers in the beauty shop on site in the morning before we left for Clyde.  I will let you know tomorrow how that all worked out.