I called the front desk this morning, and they had a cancellation, so it turns out I could keep my hotel room. At least I didn’t have to worry about that anymore!

 

But I have to reiterate, Kansas City still SUCKS big-time!! The traffic is horrid. And thank goodness for my GPS software, or I would have never been able to find the conference center where the NGS Conference was being held. Downtown KC is terrible to navigate! And then, the parking garage said it was $13.50/day to park there. Ouch! Turns out the hotel validates the parking ticket for 3-hours free, so it only was $7.25. Thank goodness.

 

The conference session today was the BCG Education Fund Evaluating Evidence and Documentation training sessions. It was gruelling, and I ended up being brain-dead by the time it was over. But I survived.

 

The trip back to the hotel was a nightmare, tho. Getting out of downtown was brutal. And the traffic on Rt. 70 was horrid again. I’m going to have to account for rush hour time in my commute to the conference…. I see that now!

 

Anyway, tomorrow is another day at the conference — I’m sure it will be a blast! Seeing the vendor area alone is worth the conference sometimes. I can’t wait to see folks like John Philip Colletta (my favorite genealogy lecturer), Elizabeth Shown Mills (author of “Evidence Explained”), Dick Eastman (EOGN), my neighbor from Long Grove Aaron Underwood (creator of GenSmarts software).

Today I went to the Rolla Health department to see if I could get Mom’s birth certificates, as well as Minnie Melton’s and Lewis Jesse’s death certificates. Unfortunately, they only have birth and death certificates from 1980 to present. They told me I had to go to the state level health department in Jefferson City. Argh.

 

However, not all was bad. One of the things the gal at the Rolla health department told me was that the county-level records may be at the “old” courthouse. Well, I went over to the “old” courthouse to find that a tour was going on for third graders of the old courthouse and the really old Rolla high school, which was across the street. What luck!! That was a great experience, to walk around in the same rooms in which my great-great-grandfathers once walked, where Judge Lewis Fields Wright once tried cases. Needless to say, I took LOTS of photos. They also had a room where they had authentic ladies dresses and clothes from the civil war era to the early 1900s. WOW! To stand so close (without touching) those dresses… I felt like I was back in time to the 1860’s.

 

   

 

So, my stay in Rolla on Monday wasn’t a failure after all… it was indeed, awesome!

 

I was done with the tours of the old courthouse and the school at noon. I then headed back to Jeff City to go after those elusive birth and death certificates. I found out at the archives that I had to go to another site for them, and that they were $15 a piece. So, I bit my lip, drove out there, and paid $56 for two birth (Mom’s and Papa Case’s) and two death certs (Minnie Case & Jesse Collier).

 

All in all, it was a great day…. however, it took a downward turn as soon as I hit Kansas City. What a dump! This town is worse than Philly.

 

I got to my hotel to which I had reservations, and it turned out to be a real dump, and it was an “outie”. I hate outies — I don’t feel safe in them. They’re the kind of “motel” where the doors to the rooms are on the outside of the hotel, rather than going inside and down a hall. I didn’t know what to do, so I went back to my second choice on Rt. 70, the Best Western. But it was an “outie” too, and the Super8 next to it was an “innie”, but half the roof was gone from a previous storm that blew through the area.

 

So, when I struck out three times, I decided to get back onto Rt. 70. I saw a Holiday Inn Express at the next exit, so I followed the sign. But it turned out to not be favorable either (right across from a sports stadium). When I was heading back to Rt. 70, I noticed a Drury Inn… which had a room for tonight, but apparently there was a KC Royals baseball game in town, so they said they didn’t have a room for me on Tuesday. I got the room anyway… I figured I could get another room for tomorrow.

 

But I’ll think about that tomorrow…

Today I went on a Sunday Cemetery Scamper. I toured Pilot Knob Cemetery, Brookshire Cemetery, Smith Cemetery, Old Edgar Springs Cemetery, Renaud Cemetery, Anutt Cemetery, and finally, Rhea Cemetery. I called Mom when I was in Rhea Cemetery, and told her I put pink roses on Granny’s grave. I think she was okay with that. J

 

 

After the cemetery scamper, I then decided to see what 3th-great-grandfather Judge Lewis Fields Wright and 4th-great-grandfather Anthony Kitchen’s land looked like (Anthony was Lewis’ father-in-law). And wow, I’m sure glad I did!! It was beautiful! No wonder Anthony and Lewis wanted to settle in this beautiful place on the Little Piney. It was so awesome! There was a huge clearing for grazing cattle on the south side of the Little Piney. On the north side, where I was driving, there was a bluff with water trickling down the rocks like a small waterfall.

 

 

And then there were the pretty little hens taking a leisurely stroll next to the road…

 

 

After touring great-great-great-grandpas’ land, I then went on to find a hotel — ended up staying at the Baymont Inn in Rolla.

 

Tomorrow, even more fun!