Jacqueline’s Jaunts

We spent the day at  Fort Larned National Historic Site . It’s only about 3 miles from the Santa Fe Trail Center, where we are staying. This place is superb. Please visit if you are ever in the area.  The fort is part of the Santa Fe Trail, which began in 1821. We went to the visitor center first to get my passport books stamped. We watched the movie, which was both informative and engaging. The fort was built as part of the Santa Fe Trail but was later abandoned. It was purchased by the Frizell family and used as a ranch, but was then abandoned again. The U.S. National Park Service bought it, and it is now a National Historic Site. Most of the buildings have been restored and are in excellent condition. The displays in each building are amazing and give you a great sense of what it was like to live at the fort in the 1800s. The buildings have names carved into their sides from people who worked and lived at the fort throughout its storied history. The park service h...

Larned, Kansas, here we come. I can’t believe I slept until 10:00 AM. I’m feeling better each day, and Barry’s cough is almost gone.  Beautiful day today with clear blue skies. The drive was windy most of the way. We arrived around 1:30 PM, checked in at the museum ,  and parked where they directed us to. We will be staying here for the next 2 nights. Great grassy spot with a view of the old buildings that were moved here for the museum. There was a nice breeze. We ate lunch and then walked over to the museum. What a fantastic museum. The exhibits are excellent. You can tell they take a lot of pride in their museum. It was not dusty, all the glass was clean, floors were clean. The buildings outside were all in great shape. Lots of history in this area since it’s part of the Santa Fe Trail. A lot of the artifacts are real. I loved the indian clothing they had on display. There was also a very large bison. It was magnificent. They are such majestic animals. We ended up spending ...

Today I'm visiting the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, which has been on my list of places to conduct research for a few years. The library has records for the 102 nd  Infantry Battalion during World War II. My Grandfather, R. D. Griffin, served in L Company, 406 th  Infantry Regiment, 102 nd  Infantry Division.          Our RV park was only an hour from Abilene, Kansas, so I had to go. Yesterday, while we were traveling, I arranged to meet the archivist today. She will pull the boxes I need to review, and I will be there most of the day. Barry will hang around the town. Have I mentioned how much I love my husband?  Once we arrived, I checked in with security and went upstairs to meet the archivist, Kristyn Crossley. She led me to my table and showed me how to fill out the pull forms. Once I filled out the forms and my boxes pulled, I got to work. I had 15 boxes to go through. All these files were from General Frank Keating, ...