Monday, July 30th - Kansas City Sights

This morning we went to Arthur Bryant's BBQ in Kansas City, Missouri for lunch. I have heard about Arthur Bryants for years and it is mentioned on our Roadfood book. MA had a half slab of ribs and I had a brisket and ham combo sandwich. The lunch was very good.

After strong endorsement by many of our Kansas City relatives, we visited the Steamboat Arabia Museum near the riverfront in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. it was VERY interesting! In 1856, the side-wheeler Arabia, on a trip from St. Louis to Sioux City, Iowa, struck a "snag", a thick trunk of a huge, fallen walnut tree. It sunk in a matter of minutes. All passengers were rescued; one mule died. All 222 tons of cargo were lost, sinking into the river bottom. Thru the 130 years, several futile attempts were made to recover the cargo. Meanwhile, the Missouri River changed its course and the boat was buried under 40 feet of silt. In 1987, several Kansas City businessmen located the boat, made many test drillings. In four months, they had dug out hundreds of crates of merchandise originally destined for the western frontier. They acquired the old produce warehouse building and made it into the Museum. This is a short video of a replica of one of the two side wheels of the Arabia.

After the Museum, we went to the Liberty Memorial World War I Monument. This is a pic taken of Union Station and downtown Kansas City, Missouri from the Memorial.