Mid West Trip May 2008
Mike and Sandy, along with friends Jesse and Pat, went back to Omaha for the annual shareholder's meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet's company. This was the most unbusiness-like business meeting they've ever been to -- more like an extended party over the entire weekend. Pat and Jesse returned to Danville, but Sandy and Mike then made a swing through the mid-West, visiting Chicago, St. Louis, Springfield, Branson, Bella Vista, and Bentonville, and flying back home from Tulsa, Oklahoma. These are a few of the pictures from the trip. NOTE: While there were tornados all around us, we never actually saw any -- that is just a stock photo to illustrate what was going on around us in the neighborhood!
Before even getting to the Berkshire Hathaway meeting, Sandy spotted an Assistance League Thrift Shop in Omaha, and we had to stop to compare merchandising techniques, prices, etc.
While in Omaha, Sandy and Mike also saw a famous person, there to play bridge with Warren Buffet, and visited with cousin Karma, who we haven't seen since she came out to our wedding 27 years ago.
And Mike slipped in a visit to the Strategic Air Command's big museum just outside of Omaha. Before heading on East for Chicago, Mike and Sandy went a hundred miles or so west of Omaha to the little town of Beatrice, where Sandy's Mom grew up.
Now we headed south, enroute to St. Louis, but enjoyed a stop in Springfield, Missouri, where we saw the restored 1800's train station, the very interesting Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, and the first house that Frank Lloyd Wright designed.
A neighbor back in Walnut Creek grew up in New Berlin, Missouri, then population 600, but now swelled to 1100. We took a few pictures there, and then went to see the famous Arch in St. Louis.
Dodging more lightning and tornados, we finally reached Branson. First stop was Silver Dollar City, an amusement park-cum-recreated 1800's town, all built over Marvel Caverns, and then we got in five shows, including Jim Stafford, Andy Williams (yes, still singing in his 80's), a Beattles look-a-like group, Shoji Tabuchi, the famous violinist, and Yahov Smirnoff, the Russian- born comedian. Lots of fun at each stop! On the way out of Branson heading down to Arkansas, we stopped for lunch at Neosho, one of the little towns that had lots of damage and some deaths from a tornado three days before.
Now it was on to Bella Vista, Arkansas, where another of Sandy's cousins lives. This is Dorothy, who at 88 has more energy and vitality than either of us do! (Bella Vista is very much like a bigger version of Lake Wildwood where we used to have our vacation home up in the Sierras.)
	Bella Vista is right next door to Bentonville, where Wal-Mart's headquarters are. For such a large company, their home office is certainly unpretentious. And the original dime store, run by Sam Walton before he got the idea of a discount operation, still stands on the town square, and is now used as a museum about the Walton family and Wal-Mart.
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