The shortest route from Kansas City to Memphis is via Springfield, MO and rural Arkansas where highway is controlled by the roaming gangs of deer who stand around the road contemplating if they will let you live. I wouldn’t recommend driving there in the dark.
I didn’t want to go to Memphis. Even though I learned English trying to sing along with Elvis (and that’s why people often ask me if I am from Tupelo), I didn’t feel the need to visit his house and other Memphis attractions didn’t really seem worthy of a fairly boring 8-hour drive. Usually we try to see things along the way, but there wasn’t much to see and the only memorable item was a town called Cabool, mostly because of how out-of-place the name seemed somewhere in rural Missouri.
Memphis turned out to be a fun place for a weekend trip, with enough things to keep you busy for a few days.
If you ever wanted a scale with an opinion, this one is for you. Currently the display says “UH-OH”, you must be getting heavier. If you continue gaining weight, the scale will just make a disgusted face and possibly puke. Cut out from the sales flier.
You may be able to read this billboard now, but the only way you can do it from your car is if you crash right into it. Too bad that would be after “the bad things happen”. This one is located at the merge of I-35 and 71 HWY.
This one required a second look to decipher. Does it actually say “Our 4 little ones?”. I guess this pattern would work up to and including 9 little ones.
Berl Berry automobile dealership organization, founded by Berl Berry in 1940 with Ford and Lincoln-Mercury automobiles, moved to two locations in 1950 at 19th and McGee Streets and 1818 Independence Boulevard.
Leaving for work:
I wasn’t really impressed by the new TV series “The Kennedys”, which briefly touched on many controversies, rumors and conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy family. The only new revelation for me was the fact that both President and Mrs.Kennedy were receiving amphetamine shots from Dr.Feelgood. One of the more interesting episodes covered the Kennedy Administration handling the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962.
The true story of the Cuban Missile Crisis may not as glamorous as it’s generally portrayed in the American official history books, but what’s not in dispute is the fact that during these weeks in the fall of 1962 was the closest the world have ever been to a nuclear war. I wanted to see the headlines the American people were seeing in their daily newspapers, so I went to the library and scanned some microfilm. However, the most telling find was probably this article, talking about the dedication of the first of the 612 nuclear fallout shelters planned in Kansas City. The article is readable, click on it if you need it magnified. Imagine the mood in the city and the country, not even 20 years since the WWII, having to prepare for another confrontation.
Being my own awesome tipster I took this picture of the billboard recently placed around 17th and Jefferson facing the southbound traffic on the I-35.
Not only this billboard is in direct view of the few coveted Kansas City visitors who are probably attending one of the “bored meetings”; Mayor Funky himself can probably see it from his vantage point high atop the City Hall. City of Rogers, AR is poaching guests straight from the Funk’s Front Porch.
It’s not unusual to see signs like this on the highways but they are mostly located in the middle of nowhere so a person may be convinced to visit a city down the road. But as any tipster with a map knows – Rogers is not on I-35; in fact I-35 doesn’t even pass through Arkansas.
The fact that this billboard wasn’t burned down to the ground by the few remaining employees of the Kansas City Convention and Visitor Bureau shows a complete ineffectiveness of the Funky Administration and is probably somehow racist, but I am still working on this part.
Visit Rogers, it’s only 218 miles away on a different highway!
