The big event for my second day in Kansas was visiting my great Aunt Myckie and her son Mark, who live in Abilene. We went over there for lunch , in which she made chicken fried steak, which was a first for my mom and I. As well as enjoying their company ,and lunch, we did our laundry.
Eventually we mosied onto the Eisenhower presidential library in Abilene, which is Eisenhower’s home town. We arrived there at 4:30, which is half and hour before they close. That means that my mother and I did not get to go into the museum. We did however get to walk around the grounds, as well as check out one exhibit that is constantly changing with many materials that are not seen in the Library. The most interesting part of the exhibit was a letter from an elementary student thanking Eisenhower for visiting Glendora in the early sixties. This is very amusing, because my mother and I saw some letters from Eisenhower, in the Glendora Doctor office on Foothill, talking about the same event. Another interesting thing is that my mother and I don’t remember ever seeing anything about this in the Glendora museum. Not to say that it isn’t there, it could be a very small exhibit. I would think that something like this should be promoted though. Lastly it is even more ironic ,and extremely amusing, that this child’s letter which is one of thousands of artifacts and papers that could be displayed, is there when my mom and I are visiting. After walking around most of the grounds we ended up in the meditation hall, in which both Eisenhower’s are buried.
After that humbling experience we headed back to Aunt Myckie’s, to finish up laundry and say goodbye. From there mother and I headed back to our hotel room in McPherson. For dinner we went to a place just across the street ,to a little steak restaurant called Montana Mike’s. I highly recommend it if you are ever in McPherson,for some reason. Though the steaks were great the best part was our appetizer. It was called campfire cooked Shrimp, though I know I could never make something that good on a Boy Scout outing. It was fried shrimp, and it tasted as though it had a sweet chili sauce as well as something else sweet. It had enough kick, but not too much.
The next day was moving me into McPherson ,as well as my goodbye, which were very sad. The day before I was called by my former roommate, saying that I had been moved. It was somewhat unfortunate, because we had already planned out who would bring what. But I met my new roommate and we should get along just fine. For the first day on being on campus we were divided into groups, which we will be with for the rest of the semester. We all get along pretty well and everyone seems like they are pretty good kids.
There were a few events that we did throughout the day,which were also enjoyable. Ultimately ,mother couldn’t stay and I had to drop her off at her hotel in Wichita, so she could fly out the next day. As expected of any mother seeing her child go out on their own, there were hugs kisses, and tears.
Today was pretty simple. We had a few activities such as checking in and constructing the highest spaghetti tower that could hold a marshmallow. It was an exercise in Entrepreneurship.The highlight of the day was Bongo Ball. Bongo Ball can be best described as a cross between dodge ball and paintball. We were given a paintball mask, a vest(optional), and an air cannon. There was inflatable cover set up all over the gym as well as small Nerf footballs. Each team consisted of five and had the simple goal of eliminate each other. My ACE group had three rounds to play, so that each of the 14 could play. We lost 2 of our 3. It was extremely fun and exhilarating. The key is to run and advance, do not sit in the back and try to shoot from a distance, because it is very easy to dodge the balls from afar. I was a madman and kept running forward. At one point I was behind someone and ran behind them yelling and shot them at near point-blank. I think my Scottish and German blood-lust was kicking in. I’m petty sure that I took out three of there team members.
Aside from that our ACE group hung out at dinner and later played some pool. Each dorm level had its own , get to know each other time. My floor had some playing cards, chips, dip, and I put on The Waterboy. It went pretty well, but people began to slowly trickle away as it got later. We have a few more days like this, but classes start Thursday.
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