Ted Says Goodbye To SkillsUSA

Although Ted didn't make it onto the Skills floor on the last day of competition, he was there in spirit!

Here is the carpentry competition, an old favorite for us because my grandpa was a carpenter and a wood shop teacher.

Masonry is one of my (Julie's) favorite competitions to watch. Some of the students handle their mortar with such grace, its mesmerizing!

Ted made a stop at the Knute Rockne memorial in KC. I am told that someone we are related to knew him!

The sight of this Kansas rainbow had Ted singing "Somewhere...over the rainbow...way up hiiiigh!"

Ted stopped for ice cream at Braum's. You can read more about Braum's history and even get recipes at http://braums.com

As Ted left KC for home, he stopped to pay his respects at the Oklahoma City National Memorial

• The memorial honors those who lost their lives in the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19,1995
• The Memorial features eleven different segments:
• The Gates of Time: Twin bronze gates frame the moment of destruction (9:02) and mark the formal entrances to the Outdoor Memorial. 9:01, on the eastern gate represents the last moments of peace and 9:03 on the western gate represents the first moments of recovery
• The Reflecting Pool: Visitors seeing their reflections are seeing "someone changed forever by what happened here"
• The Field of Empty Chairs (pictured below): 168 empty chairs made of glass, bronze, and stone represent those who lost their lives, with a name etched into the glass base of each. The chairs represent empty chairs at the dinner tables of the victim's families. They are arranged in nine rose for the nine floors of the building, with each person's chair on the row(floor) on which the person worked or was located when the bomb went off. The five westernmost chairs represent five people who died but were not in the actual building. 19 small chairs represent children who died. Three unborn children died with their mothers and their names are listed beneath their mothers on their chairs.
• The Survivors Wall (also pictured below): The only remaining portions of the building are the southeast corner and part of the south wall. The wall includes several panels of granite salvaged from the building itself, inscribed with the names of more than 600 survivors from the building and surrounding area, many of whom were injured in the blast.
• The Survivor Tree: an American elm on the north side of the Memorial was the onyl shade tree in the parking lot across the street from the building. commuters arrived early to get a spot under its branches. The tree is over 100 years old and survived not only the blast, which ripped most of its branches off, but also the investigation, when workers wanted to chop it down for evidence. Seeds from the tree are planted and the saplings are distributed each year on the anniversary of the bombing.
• The Memorial Fence: A chain link fence was erected around the Reflecting Pool and Field of Empty Chairs to protect them from damage. Mementos left by visitors at the fence are periodically collected, cataloged, and stored.
• Rescuers' Orchard: A grove of Oklahoma redbuds, Amur Maple, Chinese Pistache, and Bosque Elm trees are planted around the Survivor Tree
• Children's Area: 5,000 hand painted tiles form all over the US and Canada were made by children and sent to Oklahoma City after the bombing. Most of the tiles are stored in the archive, but a sampling is on the wall in the Children's Area. Chalkboards are provided where children can express their feelings.
• And Jesus Wept: St. Joseph's Catholic Church erected a sculpture of Jesus weeping on a corner adjacent to the memorial. The church, one of the first brick-and-mortar churches, was almost destroyed by the blast.
• Journal Record Building: North of the memorial is the Journal Record building, which used to house the offices of The Journal Record. It now houses the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum. Staff of the National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism work here to spread knowledge of terrorism and its prevention.
• ALfred P. Murrah Federal Building Plaza: The plaza is an original part of the federal building which includes a garden and seating areas and a playground for the daycare center. The original flagpole is still used for the American flag.

Ted is almost home! I am almost caught up, so bear with me!

Ted Starts to Experience KC

Kansas City, MO. The climax of Ted's trip. Ted went on his little half-country adventure to get to KC. In Kansas City, Jenny, Ted's chaperon, and B&T, Jenny's parents run the Job Interview Competition for SkillsUSA, an international job skills competition organization for high school and college students of all trades.


Here is Ted checking in before the competition begins:

Ted helps Jenny put contestants in the right order for competition and sets up the individual rooms for them:

After everything is set up for the official start to the competition tomorrow, Ted visits the show floor where competitions like Masonry, Diesel Truck Repair, Welding, AutoCAD, Hair Styling, Nail Artistry, and more are held.

Ted visits the Quaff Bar and Grill for some lunch. This restaurant is located in what once was both the garment district and the financial district of Kansas City, MO.

You can still see the safe in the wall!

Ted visited the historic St. Mary's Church:

 This historical marker reads: "Father Donnelly came to Jackson County in 1845 to serve zealously for thirty five years as frontier pastor at St. Mary's Church, Independence and Immaculate Conception Church, Kansas City. On this site of the first church property purchased in Kansas City he replaced the log church with the original Immaculate Conception Church in 1856. He was universally respected as a religious and civic leader, and as a friend to all, regardless of creed or color."

Ted only got this close to a KC Royals game. Historically, whenever a member of our family attends a Royals game, they lose. Although this could be attributed to their habit of losing almost every game anyway. Who knows?

Ted got to visit a Bass Pro Shop. There are no Bass Pro Shops on the West Coast so the last time we visited one we loaded up on great fishing gear to being home to our dad.

For dinner Ted hit one of his favorite restaurants: The Salty Iguana. You can read the Iguana's tale below.

Bare with me as I play catch-up! Ted is having so much fun, I am receiving up to 15 photos a day! Coming up next: Ted goes to WORLDS OF FUN!

Ted Finally Reaches Missouri

Yesterday Ted made it through all of Kansas and got to Kansas City, MO in the evening! Ted and Sarge (the car) will have a much needed break while Ted's chaperons run the SkillsUSA competition in Kansas City.

Jamie missed the Kansas state line, so she got him at the Kansas turnpike instead.

• The Kansas Turnpike is 236 miles long and runs through Wichita, Topeka, Lawrence, and Kansas City
• It was built from 1954 to 1956 and was incorporated into the Interstate system in late 1956
• On opening, there was no fixed speed limit on the highway; drivers were merely asked to keep to a "reasonable and proper" limit
• The Turnpike handles 120,000 drivers a day
• The turnpike is self-sustaining, deriving its entire revenue from the tolls collected and requiring no tax money for maintenance or administration

Now that Ted is in Kansas, I thought I should put in a little bit about the Sunflower State

• The name Kansas comes from the Konza (or Kansa) Indians who lived in the area
• The state insect is the honeybee
• Kansas grows wheat, corn, sorghum, oats, barley, soybeans, and potatoes; it also produces petroleum and mines zinc, coal, salt, and lead. It is the nation's leading producer of helium
• Wichita is one of the nation's leading aircraft-manufacturing centers

Ted stopped in Towanda, KS and remembers one of his favorite movies: Fried Green Tomatoes.

•  The full text of the sign:
• "The town and township lie tucked in the pleasant valley of the Whitewater River, and take their name from the Osage Indian term "many waters." First settler was C. L. Chandler, a returning '49er from the California gold fields who built his cabin in 1858. Towanda township was one of the first four in the makeup of Butler County--the largest in Kansas.
  In 1870, Rev. Isaac Mooney, frontier preacher and community builder, platted ten acres for a townsite. The village quickly became a trade center on the Emporia-Wichita wagon road and a division point for two stage lines. Towanda gained wide fame in 1919, when giant oil gushers were drilled on rockey Shumway land at the town's eastern doorstep by Gypsy Oil Company and the Trapshooters group.
  
  Close neighbor is El Dorado, the county seat on the east, since pioneer days a prime adjunct to the Flint Hills cattle country and for more than 50 years the focal point of vast petroleum development in south-central Kansas. Its largest industries are modern oil refineries of Skelly Oil Company and American Petrofina, while the Butler County Community Junior College tops its cultural institutions."
  
  

Ted slipped into Missouri yesterday afternoon where he will be for the next week:

• The Brothel Law in Missouri makes it illegal for more than four unrelated people to occupy the same dwelling
• The ice cream cone was invented in St. Louis
• It is illegal to "worry squirrels" in Missouri
• Anyone under the age of 21 who takes out household trash with even one empty alcohol beverage can be charged with illegal possession of alcohol
• The Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Lewis, MO is the larget beer-producing plant in the nation
• The official state rock is Mozarkite
• Installation of bathtubs with four legs resembling animal paws is prohibited

In Missouri, Ted got to visit his grandparents who are in KC to help with SkillsUSA also. They live in an RV that has been renames "The Whale", possibly due to their recent brush with the overflowing Missouri River.

Ted's favorite BBQ in Missouri is Bandana's. Here he has a grand time with the waiter, Jordan.

•  Bandana's opened in 1996 in Arnold, MO
• The meat requires 11-14 hours in a smoker to produce the signature Bandana's taste
• Bandana's does not serve hamburgers, fish, or pasta
• The potato salad and cole slaw are handmade fresh every day

This week Ted is sticking around in Missouri for the SkillsUSA national competition. Stay tuned for an exciting look at this amazing event!

(facts via: infoplease.com, stoppingpoints.com, legendsofamerica.com, bandanasbbq.com)