George Washington Carver

My only sightseeing stop today was at the George Washington Carver National Monument.  This is in Diamond, Missouri, and is the location of his childhood home.  There is a nice museum, which includes a model of his classroom and lab at Tuskegee Institute.  They have a good film, which explains his accomplishments but helps you to understand his faith and motivation most of all.  Carver was the man who found so many uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans, and did pioneering exploration of plastics.  Finally, you can walk about a mile round trip to see the woods where he explored as a youth, the remnants of the farm where he grew up, and the plants he related to so well.  It was an out-of-the-way site that was well worth the time.

I crossed Missouri and got to St. Louis by nightfall.  There were several Independence Day fireworks displays visible from the hotel.