Show Me Missouri: Springfield (6.20.24)

What legacies do rich men leave?  Andrew Carnegie left libraries and art collections.  Donald Trump left Trump Tower in New York City and Trump Tower in Las Vegas (although not exactly donations). On June 20, 2024, Dave and I visited two legacy sites in Springfield, Missouri.

Johnny Morris, founder of Bass Pro Shops, built the Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium in Springfield.  

It holds an exceptional aquarium, with a huge, three-story tank in which sharks, manta rays, and many other fish circle.

One memorable exhibit includes videos of huge sharks chasing and gobbling up their prey, lunging out of the sea with jaws open.  David and I watched the videos over and over, transfixed.  We had the same mixture of horror and awe as we felt at a Greek museum recently, watching videos of raptors carrying off live sheep! 

I am a lifelong lover of zoos and aquariums and wildlife parks and aviaries and crocodile farms.  I just can't get enough.

The other main attraction in Springfield is the Route 66 Car Museum.

We were lucky enough to meet Guy Mace, the founder of the museum. We chatted with him about his life and his collection.  He has a connection to Utah--he lived in Holladay, Utah, many years ago while managing the Utah company, Eimco.  Mace made his money in developing a company named Turblex, which made air compressors.  He sold it to Siemens, the German giant.  Mace's bio on Google states, “When I started making a little bit of money here and there, I rapidly learned that when you buy stocks and bonds, you buy them and you get a sheet of paper. What are you going to do with it? There’s no fun in that, except watching it grow or decrease. I enjoy having people come and look at it. These things — these cars I buy — I enjoy. And I enjoy having people come and look at them.” 

I especially enjoyed the cars that reminded me of family stories.  In the 1920s, my mom, then a young teen, borrowed her brother Joe's new Model T car and drove it down their dirt driveway into a ditch.

When my family lived in Burma (Myanmar) in the 1950s, my dad shipped over a brand new Chevrolet.  It had fins on the back and was a gas guzzler, back in the days before anyone cared.  We had a chauffeur who polished it every day and drove us around in it with pride.

My family never had a "woody" station wagon, but it epitomizes, for me, the style and newfound delight in automobiles of bygone days.

Dave and I have created our own memories of cars.  There was the tiny red Renault Dave bought before we were married for a couple thousand dollars. Those were carefree, childless days, zipping around town and playing house together. There was the sporty "Z" Dave bought in the1980s.  The neighbors asked if he was going through a midlife crisis.  There was the mouse brown, second hand Pinto that was so undistinguished that I could never find it in a parking lot.  And then there have been the series of vans and SUVs with Grevid and Beluga license plates to distinguish them.  I can now find my car.

We finished our trip to Springfield with a stop at the Wilson's Creek National Battlefield site.  Wilson's Creek and Lexington were two of the earliest battles of the Civil War, both of which the Union lost.  Luckily, the Union came back strong.

Dave and I drove 90 minutes back to Four Seasons, the town on Lake Ozark where our timeshare condo was located.  When we arrived at Four Seasons, I had no idea how to fill up a week in central Missouri.  We did, indeed, find fascinating sites and we had a wonderful, educational time.