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I have always admired Churchill. He was a wonderfully talented man, and a wonderfully flawed man.

I had a great Churchill related experience...this is a bit long, but I feel like thinking about it tonight...:)

I had the fortune three or four years ago to have to opportunity to go on a “road trip”. No anniversary or mid life crisis, I just had a lot more vacation than my wife, and a demanding job. Needing to burn some vacation, and doing it without her, I determined to cruise the highways of the Eastern, Southern, and Midwestern USA. All in nine days! Heh, I was driving 10-12 hours a day. I loved it. I had the moon roof open, smoking cigars, listening to audiobooks and music, and tooling through the USA.

I had no plan except one: I was going to go horseback riding in the Shenandoah Mountains in Virginia. But it rained so hard for the two days I had reserved, that the people who ran the place just took off and left me there on my own, for the most part! (They were busy, and sure weren’t going to bring me out riding in that weather!)

So, after those two days, I left and decided to drive to the Four Corners monument in Utah. Barely even looked at a map, just thought that would be a great destination. I had a vision of getting there, standing on the spot, then leaving after a few minutes.

But I got as far as Louisville, KY before I really looked at the map, and realized in the time I had, I would be driving eighteen hour days or some stupid thing like that, so I decided to find another location.

I thought “I’ve never been to Nebraska. I’ll go there. But where in Nebraska?”

So I took out a map, closed my eyes, and put my finger down on Humboldt, NE. But when I started reading about it, it was best known for some transgendered person who had been killed, and I decided to choose another city. I landed on Tecumseh, NE. population 1,677. Best known as originally being named Frances, NE, but got changed because it was the name of the town founder General’s mistress, not his wife, so they changed it to Tecumseh, who he had killed in battle. That sounded more interesting to me.

So I drove up through Missouri, and as I drove north, I saw a sign for the Churchill Museum! Holy smokes, I didn’t even know there was such a thing. It was in Fulton where he give his “Iron Curtin” speech. GREAT museum, loved it. Saw his paintings, the church where he gave his speech...just great!