Monday (6/29)   We got up and gave tours of the T@B.  We had planned to get out early but that did not happen as we had visitors from the campground who wanted to see the T@B.   That happens to us if we don't get out before people get up and get going.  

After the T@B tours, we headed straight to the Harley Davidson factory .  During the Harley tour we saw that a great deal of the work is being done by robots and yet they still employ 1,000 people. All of the motorcycles are built to order.   They do not have a warehouse.   As soon as a motorcycle is completed it is labeled for shipment.  Harley Davidson has been around since 1903. The nickname "hogs" came from a racing team in the 1920s that raced Harleys. They had as their mascot a hog and when they one a race they took a victory lap with the hog on the motorcycle.  The association with the hog stuck and the motorcycles became known as hogs.

From there we went north to St. Josephs to see the home of the Pony Express.   The Pony Express promised to deliver mail from St. Josephs, MO, to Sacramento, CA, in ten days.   They delivered on their promise but it was very costly.  A half-ounce letter cost $5 to send in 1860 money.  That is the equivalent of $200 in today's money.  Although they did what they contracted with the government to do and they had a million dollar contract with the government, they went broke.  Eighteen months after it was started, the telegraph was connected all they way to California and the Pony Express just became too costly when competing with the telegraph. There were 80 riders, 200 stable keepers and 500 horses - a very expensive operation.

Also in town, is the home where Jessie James was shot by one of his gang and the Patee Hotel.

The home still has the hole in the wall where a shot was fired at his head.   Blood had gotten on the floor where he fell and over the years people have chipped away pieces of the floor as souvenirs leaving a large indentation in the floor. The Patee Hotel was known as the World Hotel because it was the nicest accommodations anywhere in the region.  This is where Mrs. James was taken for questioning after her husband's death.  It is now a museum that is filled with local artifacts.

It was a beautiful evening and we went to a Kansas City Royals game against the Minneapolis Twins.   It is a lovely park which looks new but is really an older park that has been updated. There was a crowd of about 20,000 of which we think half were Twins fans.  We could not believe how many Twins fans were at the Royals stadium.   It was a great game and when we left the Royals were leading 3 - 0.