Marceline, MO and Walt Disney

One of the best days of our vacation we traveled to Marceline, Missouri. Marceline is where Walt Disney lived as a child. He never forgot his time there, and it became a huge influence in his films and Disneyland.



We first visited the Walt Disney Hometown Museum. It resides in a renovated Santa Fe train depot. The trains still whiz past the depot, but none stop there anymore. I loved how the tour guides would patiently pause during the train whistles!



Pictures are not allowed inside the museum, but if you scroll all the way to the bottom of this site, under Missouriland, you can see a couple of pictures. The museum has lots of photos and letters, and an original midget autopia car. We had a wonderful tour guide - unfortunately I can't remember her name! During one of Walt's visits back to Marceline, he stayed at her house because the town hotel was not the best and they had the only air conditioning in town. It was really amazing to meet someone who had known Walt!



Our next stop was Walt Disney Elementary School. It was being worked on, but we still managed to peek inside the door to see some original artwork by Disney legend Bob Moore.



From there we decided to stroll down Main Street. We first stopped at a wonderful ice cream shop, Sweet Tunes. I had a scoop of chocolate marshmallow, and since Chris can't have dairy, he had root beer. Refreshed, we started our walk...







Ever visit "Coke Corner" at Disneyland? It was modeled after this building..



We also stopped in Ripley Park. They were setting up for their 4th of July celebration, so we didn't linger too long.





We also went to Marceline's other park - the Walt Disney Municipal Park. It was home to Midget Autopia. If you're curious about the Disneyland ride, please visit Yesterland.. it has loads of info, including the fact that Walt and Roy donated this ride to Marceline when it closed at Disneyland. All that's left of it now is the neglected track at the park and a single car at the Hometown Museum. Chris walked the entire track...



From there we headed to Walt's dreaming tree and barn, and the house he lived in.





I'll start with the dreaming tree... The poor tree is not in such good shape these days. It was diseased, and hit by lightning. I wanted to sit under it, but just standing under the ground was so soft and spongy - it was a very weird sensation!





They have planted a sapling of the dreaming tree, called son of dreaming tree.



Just past the trees is the replica of Walt's barn.





I didn't get any good shots of the inside, which is covered in names of visitors. Unfortunately, we didn't have a pen, so we were unable to add ours. I'm okay with that, though, as our son opted to spend the day with his grandparents that day. Next time he'll come with us and we'll all get to sign. :) Here's some lovely views from the barn..





On our way back to Leavenworth, we saw a sign for a covered bridge. We decided to check it out since it wasn't far off the highway. But... it did involve a few turns, a few gravel roads, and a hike through an area that had flooded not long before we got there. The bridge was pretty cool, but it was in the middle of nowhere and sits over nothing since the creek moved decades ago.



And that was the end of our fun for a bit. We got back to find out our son had a fever of 102 and had not really been well all day. I felt like the worse mom ever - leaving to gallivanting around the countryside when I should have been with him. But other than a cough that we thought was allergies, he showed no indication of being ill. More on that tomorrow...

If you want to see more of my vacation pictures, please go to my Flickr. :)