I spent nearly an hour beforehand trying to find a place for us to stop for the night. We crossed into Missouri and I missed the state border sign. I was still fretting and stewing online when Mark happened to see a Cracker Barrel restaurant along the edge of the highway. He had heard that they allow overnight camping, so we pulled in and found they have designated parking spaces for RVs and buses behind their restaurant. We asked and they don’t have any particular restrictions. We got parked and went in to have a nice dinner. Mark says we may go in for breakfast too!
Before Mark and I hit the road today, we went to see the Dalton Gang Hideout museum in Meade, KS. Grat, Bob, and Emmett Dalton started out as lawmen, but they didn’t make enough money doing that so they turned to robbing trains and banks. Their brother, Bill, tried to dissuade them, but eventually, he joined them and they collected other desperadoes along the way. Their downfall came when they decided to try to rob two banks at the same time in Coffeyville, KS. The two banks were across the street from each other. They were going on some old information regarding Coffeyville and when they arrived, they found that things had changed a little regarding the escape route they had planned. They decided to go ahead with their doomed plan and five gang members split up between the two banks. They attracted the attention of several businessmen who noticed they were holding rifles alongside their legs. When the gang went into the two banks, the businessmen gathered the citizenry of Coffeyville and armed them with guns from the hardware store. As soon as the gang members emerged from the banks, the shooting commenced. Four of the gang members were killed and one wounded while an equal number of the citizenry were killed and several were wounded.
Out on the road, our RV and a semi got just a little too close to each other and shattered Mark’s side mirror, but no other damage was done. Mark was able to quickly fix it.
Tomorrow night, I have a surprise for you, so stay tuned!