Day 51 -- Bevier to St. Joseph, Missouri -- 138 Miles

I didn't expect much for today. It rained hard last night and we awoke to gray, threatening skies. Slogging around in the mud to get the gear stowed has never been my favorite past-time. And all we had on the agenda was a visit to Walt Disney's home town, which I fully expected would be only mildly interesting. Just goes to show how wrong you can be.

First of all, the gray, threatening skies of 6:00 a.m. this morning morphed into a lovely shade of slate gray tinged with pink by mid morning and we actually came to find them quite beautiful as we rolled west on Missouri Route 36. Secondly, the cleanup wasn't as muddy as I anticipated thanks to the concrete slab on which the campground folks had parked us last night. And thirdly, the Walt Disney Home Town Museum in Marceline, Missouri was just about the most thought-provoking and soul-stirring museum adventure that we've seen on this whole trip. Who would have thought?

By now you're probably wondering how a Walt Disney museum could possibly be located in the middle of endless miles of yellowing soybean plants and fall-withered corn stalks. Well, Marceline, Missouri, was where Walt Alias Disney grew up thanks to his father Elias Disney deciding that living in Chicago was not the best place to raise a family. When Elias Disney's brother, Robert, who owned 400 acres in Marceline, encouraged him to move to what he considered an up-and-coming community full of potential, Elias took Robert's advice and went west.

Marceline, current population about 2,500, lies about halfway between Hannibal and St. Joseph Missouri. It's a farming town and it's a railroad town and it's hundreds of miles from the big city. Walt's life must have included lots of room to roam, to dream, and to let his creative mind invent.

The sky was still pretty leaden when Concetta and I pulled into the parking lot as you can see by the dullish exterior photograph above. But once we ventured inside, the two docent ladies who greeted us brought a great deal of warmth and friendly inquisitiveness to our conversation. One lady even lead us to the beginning of the exhibit path so that we'd get off to a proper start. Both offered to answer any question me might have and easily conveyed their tremendous enthusiasm in the Disney museum.

Lots of museums have wonderful static displays, and the Disney Hometown Museum did admirably in that category. But the Disney went a step beyond and furnished each room, and sometimes several places in each room, with large computer monitors that, with the push of a button, would acquaint the viewer with everything you needed to know about the displays around you. Concetta and I had seen this technique nowhere else. It was truly fantastic and immensely informative.

In that the museum is housed on both floors of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad depot, constructed in 1913, you can't help but be in awe of the vintage architecture and railroad furnishings that have come to be home for the wonderful Disney family displays. Still, the museum displays are what you will remember for many years to come.

One of my favorite displays on the first floor was an authentic Autopia car that once ran on the Autopia track in Disneyland starting on opening day, July 17, 1955. As a child I know that Mom took brother Cliff and I to Disneyland around 1956. Though I seem to remember driving a color other than green, it's possible I may have sat in the exact car on display at the Hometown Museum back when I was seven years old. I liked to think I did.

There was a tremendous amount of Disney family materials that allowed the reader to get to know all of Walt's relatives, including his parents, aunts and uncles, and his brothers and sister. This material would take quite a bit of time to read and absorb if you were so inclined, and I think Concetta read a good bit of it. Much of this material came from Walt's younger sister, Ruth. Museum director Kaye Malins was a longtime friend of Ruth. She told Malins she wanted the family's "stuff" to be housed in Marceline. Malins says From Disney's daughter Diane, she learned that Marceline was all he talked about -- 'the only years,'Diane Disney said, 'when he could be a kid, to run free and roam.'"

When it came to the family biographies and correspondence, I didn't read much of that, but I did listen to the interview that Walt taped with his parents on their 50th wedding anniversary. I found that discussion fascinating, especially when Walt's mother told the listener about Walt drawing characters on the barn while she and Walt's father were away. They came home to find huge charcoal drawings all over the exterior.

Another room on the lower floor contained items on loan to the museum by collectors of Disney memorabilia. If you are fascinated by Disney collectibles, you will certainly be enthralled by this room. The most wonderful piece I photographed was the Colson tricycle that had Mickey Mouse on the "mudguard." The placement of Mickey on the mudguard with his legs and feet perched on the tricycle's pedals, made it look like Mickey was pedaling right along with the rider. The owner of the tricycle found it in a rusty condition, and decided to have Rick's Restoration in Las Vegas, Nevada do the restoration. Many of you have no doubt watched the history channel in the past as Rick and his crew turn rusty junk into museum pieces.

When we climbed the stairs to the second floor was when the real fun began. In one room, which I gravitated to immediately, a TV screen was showing Disney's "Great Locomotive Chase," with Fess Parker as the head of the Union spies who hijacked the Confederate locomotive "General" and took her on a spectacular and destructive spree across Georgia in 1862.

Here's Wikipedia's take on the chase: "The Great Locomotive Chase is a 1956 Walt Disney Productions CinemaScope adventure film based on the real Great Locomotive Chase that occurred in 1862 during the American Civil War. The film stars Fess Parker as James J. Andrews, the leader of a group of Union soldiers from various Ohio regiments who volunteered to go behind Confederate lines in civilian clothes, steal a Confederate train north of Atlanta, and drive it back to Union lines in Tennessee, tearing up railroad tracks and destroying bridges and telegraph lines along the way."

"Written and produced by Lawrence Edward Watkin and directed by Francis D. Lyon, the 85-minute full-color film also features Jeffrey Hunter, John Lupton, Kenneth Tobey, Don Megowan, and Slim Pickens. Paul J. Smith composed the score. Filmed in Georgia and North Carolina, along the now abandoned Tallulah Falls Railway, it was released in U.S. theaters by Buena Vista Distribution Company on June 8, 1956, and capitalized on Parker's growing fame as an actor from his portrayal of Davy Crockett. The film re-teamed him with Jeff York, who had portrayed Mike Fink in the 1954-1955 Davy Crockett miniseries."

As you may know, the name of the locomotive chasing Andrews and his crew in the stolen "General" is the "Texas." Both of these locomotives somehow survived the Civil War and are on display in or near Atlanta, Georgia. I probably haven't seen Walt Disney's "Great Locomotive Chase" since I was a youngster, so imagine my surprise when I saw that the Confederate hero onboard the Texas, as it chased the Andrews Raiders through the southern countryside, was Jeffery Hunter who you may remember from the John Wayne movie of that old-west era, "The Searchers." In addition, I was likewise astounded to see that the engineer on the Texas was none other than Slim Pickens, whom you probably know from dozens of western-themed movies and TV shows.

It took me awhile to tear myself away from the movie, but I eventually I moved on to view a number of great displays. The first one I came across was a limb taken from Walt's "Dreaming Tree." There was once a very old cottonwood tree that grew on the Disney farm in Marceline. Walt called it his dreaming tree as he would often go and sit in the welcoming shade of that tree and think about his love for art, and dream his BIG dreams.

In fact, as time went on and Walt became nationally, then internationally famous, he would still sometimes return to his home town and walk out alone to sit beneath the "Dreaming Tree." When the tree finally succumbed to old age in 2015, it was discovered that the venerable survivor had lived 150 years. The museum maintains a single limb from the tree in memorium, however seeds from the tree have been planted at all Walt's various properties so that the "Dreaming Tree" may live again.

Also on the second floor, and occupying significant floor space, are scale models of the buildings Walt wanted to have built on Main Street in Disneyland. According to the museum's descriptions, Walt took many of the designs from actual buildings in his beloved hometown of Marceline, Missouri.

Adjacent to the models is a giant portrait of Walt which I think captured the spirit of our whole experience perfectly. Though we neglected to note the artist's name, he also painted an impression of the "Dreaming Tree" on the stairway wall as you climb to the second floor.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the story of Walt's life plays continually in a second-floor classroom which captured us as soon as we entered and kept us riveted to our seats throughout the showing. The film left us both a little teary-eyed at the tragedy of Walt's untimely death, but incredibly hopeful that there are people in this world willing to dedicate their time, their fortunes, and their very lives to making the world better for all they come in contact with. The film we watched was for us the most beautiful part of our incredibly wonderful experience in Walt Disney's home town today. If you are anywhere near, please stop and see this truly wonderful museum for yourself.

And while you're out exploring the wonders of our great land, The Happy Wanderers wish you happy travels and exciting adventures.