Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Fort Leavenworth

My visit commences!  After a smooth flight, a trip through the Kansas City airport, (which I hadn't seen since 1995), Heather (who I haven't seen in the flesh since 1997) picked me up and we picked up some barbecue for a taste-off.  Not surprisingly, the place with the sauce in the prepackaged pouches did not win.  Also not surprisingly, the sauce without so much vinegar was my favorite.  Although that place didn't have pulled pork.  Anyway, yum!

We went for a walk.  Here's where Heather and her family live on Fort Leavenworth.  They have one half of the building.  It was pretty awesome, that house.

Most of the older houses have informative signs telling you how long they've been around.

Nice detail here.

There was a lot of brick, which I was a fan of.  And a lot of good detail, like on this porch.

And a lot of zoom things like this bird's nest, which can be seen in the above photo at the top of the right-hand column.

The original wall of the fort, with rifle slot for defense.

It curved, that original wall.

We saw a fox!

My zoom was a little shaky, but there he is.

There are a lot of historical markers.  I also like this photo, because both Heather (on the right) and myself (in shadow) are in it.

Patrick and E.

The mighty Missouri.

Back side of the chapel, which I liked because there are three kinds of building material used on this end: stone, cinder block and wood.

More good detail.

And this.

There were a lot of flags, not just US flags, but from all over.

Big houses.

This is the commander's house.  Faaaannnncccy!

These cannons have never been fired.

Nice clock tower with this building.

For some reason, the thickness of this drainage grate fascinated me.


This is the "beehive". More on that in a later post.

Good window detail.

This is Heather's porch.

Flag and tree.

Just tree.

Digital cameras are a good way to entertain a youngster.  I would take the picture and the show her the image.

5 comments:

  1. Did all of the officer's houses have their names out front? When were on Ft. Meyer for the "tattoo" display, all of the lovely houses, of the same era as these, had cool wooden signs out front that told which officer lived there. I thought it was both interesting and rather old fashioned. And I guess you better not be a stalker of your CO or other people that outrank you. I think I took a picture for the blog. Oh there I go again!

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  2. I asked that question too. The answer is that you get to say what they display. Many of the homes said the name and rank of the officer living there. I think that was the old school way. But others had family names. Heather's says The Wolf Pack, and there was one I like that said, The Jones Family Circus. They are fun to read.

    As to stalking, etc. I think it's different than in the civilian world. Heather and Patrick only lock their doors when they are leaving the state. It felt very safe there, even with the prison.

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  3. Heather's home is beautiful! I really like these pictures. I wasn't expecting Fort Leavenworth to have a "southern plantation" feel. It's nice. My favorite pictures are the one of the wall & the one of the old sewer grate. It looks like it's from the 1920s! Also, a fox! I saw one once when I was out bicycling when I lived in Minnesota. It's still one of my favorite memories.

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  4. I love that they can choose their signage! Wolf Pack is so cute. All of the Ft. Meyers ones seemed to be very traditional. But that is DC!

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  5. This is one that I had commented on but it didn't actually get sent.

    First- thanks for calling me out on not locking our doors! But, considering none of the windows lock and half the time our back door doesn't shut, there isn't really a point in locking. We also don't get a lot if foot traffic at our back door.

    The standards are different when it comes to the name plates from post to post. Here it's a little more slack. I don't know if it's nationwide or just the post at this point. And, if someone wants to know where you live, it doesn't matter if your name is on the door or not (although it does help you remember which house is yours when it matches everyone else's!).

    I live on the historic main post portion. Most of these houses were built before 1920's. The house next to us is actually the oldest home still in use west of the Mississippi River (and reportedly the most haunted on post!)

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