Day 07

Day 07

Today went pretty quick.  On the schedule it looked like a lot of stops but most of them were cool hotels.  Several of them were closed and some of the open ones had simply removed their iconic neon signs leaving me with nothing to photograph.  I hit these before today's main event.

The big deal for me today was the Jesse James Wax Museum.  I love the wild west so this place was a real treat.  The guy there, Lee West, was awesome to talk to.  He knew a ton about the Route.  He was telling me all his stories about travelers (mostly Europeans)  He told me about a tour group of 40 or so Brits that had their own '40s and '50s classic Jaguars sent to the U.S. so they could drive 66.  He told me that about 200,000 Europeans come to the U.S. every year to drive the Route.  Apparently it's like a 2000 mile long museum to them.  His words.  And the Route has so many different geographic regions between Chicago and LA that aren't common to them. 

So I went to this museum and I'm crazy about Western stuff but I never believed that Jesse James faked his death and lived into the 1950s.  But the evidence there has mostly convinced me.  Mostly that old records from the Pinkerton agency had described all of his scars and other bodily markers and J. Frank Dalton matched all of the markers including the rope marks around his neck from the attempted hanging.  They also had several eye witnesses still alive that proclaim the authenticity of his claim. A lot of things about the proof could have been faked but it makes no sense to me anymore why anyone would.  One odd thing I should mention. They clearly procured their wax figures some where else because they were mostly black. Jesse, his brother, and his mother were portrayed by black mannequins and their slave cook was spray painted literally black so it was clear who he was. 

There's no pictures allowed in the museum but I snuck this picture of Jesse's revolver.

Saw some more signs.  Cuba, MO is the mural capital of the world I'm sure of it.  Every building had a mural.  I couldn't possibly have taken all the pictures and I didn't want to choose favorites.  You know how jealous murals get.  Here, just look at them here  http://tinyurl.com/mvnglp6

One more sign

Got to see the real Largest Rocking Chair today.  That one yesterday was a gypsy trick to get people to stop and by their weird smelling wares.  This place was also a tourist trap to try and sell junk but at least it smelled pretty normal.

I didn't buy anything but I used their restroom and saw this awesome strange painting there.  Rams beating the crap outta some wolves.

The last place I stopped, which it was still pretty early, was the Mule Trading Post.  It sounds cool right?  Not to be negative but quite a lot of the place was filled with absolute junk.  There were some interesting things but mostly it felt like a hoarder had filled up a warehouse and is now trying to sell it off piece by sad piece.  The windmilling sign outside was pretty cool.  This dudes arms spin in the wind.

That's all I have for right now.  Slow news day.