Hello From the Front.....
This journey has already been amazing and a bit overwhelming. Sometimes we feel like we're in some rock band that has a new gig every night..... "Hello Detroit! - What? We're in Cleveland? Oops.... Hello Cleveland!". We (especially Rodney) keeps forgetting where we are and have already been.
On that note, a couple of things from Day 4 were omitted:
1. International Quilt Study Center - Lincoln, NE
Susan is a quilter and this institution is highly respected within that arena. It was a large and impressive facility. The quilts on display were diverse and beautiful; some craft and some taking the media to a level of fine art. See photo below of exterior; not allowed to photograph actual quilts - bummer.
2. The National Roller Skating Museum - Lincoln NE (in the USA Roller Skating Confederation building). Welcome to the "Twilight Zone". As I try to describe this experience, imagine my voice as one of those NPR ladies - soft and painfully sincere with a lilting tempo (think the women in the SNL "Schwetty Balls" skit). The only thing weirder than the museum itself was the strange silence in the room. The reverent mood was surreal. Add some minimal fluorescent dim lighting and you get the idea. It was informative as well as kitschy. If this was the shining celebration of the sport, thank your lucky stars this is not an Olympic event. OY! See the photos below and note the second one is a shot of Susan and Rodney as they leave the museum.
That wraps up Day Four.
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Day 5's goal was St. Joseph, Missouri and the Glore Psychiatry Museum:
1. On the way to that part of the world we passed through Nebraska City, NE and went to the Wayuka Cemetery. It had some extraordinary grave markers/sculpture -- a roll top desk, a large polished ball and another in very black stone of a tilted cube. Being from the southwest, we were also fascinated with the moss that was enhancing most of the older memorials; beautiful and expectedly creepy. In the same town we visited the John Brown's Tunnel and the Mayhew Cabin that were part of the underground slave railroad - yes we are capable of learning and experiencing history along the Oddasee path. It's just all that annoying literacy and timeline stuff - "Hey where's the largest/smallest ball of chain?"
2. The Glore - oh my, what to say? This was previously housed in part of the original Missouri State Asylum #2 (aka - The St. Joseph Mental Health Hospital) but moved to a more academic and sterile location over ten years ago. The goal of Dr. Glore (sounds like Vincent Price role) was to display the history and development of the treatment of mental illness. The asylum, like most in the US, was closed due to budget restraints and changes in treatment theory. At one time the institution was a not so small city of close to 3000 patients, hundreds of staff, a self-sustaining farm and medical hospital. The museum seeks to show not just what we now view as horrific treatment but that "at the time, many of the techniques were considered the peak of mental health science."
The displays were focused on treatments as well as the many items that showed the activity and actions that were a result of mental illnesses. The other unavoidable reality is that many of the displays are a bit silly looking with their mannequins calmly being subjected to various forms of torture. Some of my favorites were the little dioramas with action figures engaged in "therapy" sessions; including one where the therapists are intentionally stepping on and kicking the patient to "calm him." Sorry but it was funny in that form and scale. It was like looking at Ken the Psycho-doctor and nurse Barbie Cratchet.
To be honest, the creepy factor did not dominate. It was fascinating and interesting to ponder what the asylum must have been like. Many of you know me (Rodney) well enough to think that perhaps this would have been an appropriate for me to reside - art wacko....
Glore photos:
1. Shock Treatment
2. 1146 items removed from a compulsive swallower's stomach
3. Embroidered item from a schizophrenic's stream of consciousness - think of the time it took to continue on that "train wreck of thought."
4. The stomping therapists
5. A water treatment
6. The infamous "Calming Chair". The patient was strapped in, hooded and then subjected to such calming realities as as having feet dunked in icy or scalding water. 
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