In 1980, I lived in Morro Bay, CA. With 9,000 people, I thought that was small. According to the 2000 census as reported by Wikipedia, Gravity's population is 218. So, our presence here increases the number of people by almost a percentage point!
We hear that, not so long ago, it was quite a bustling little town, with a school, several churches, theatre, shops and gas station. But, apparently more people have left the town than have arrived. Here's the main street now:
The two old buildings are the Bank and the Post office and, of those two - only the Post Office is still in operation. It sure makes you feel warm and fuzzy when, after only one visit, the Postmaster recognizes us and knows our names! Nice to meet you Cindy!
And it's easy to understand why the mayor stopped by to welcome Lynne and John when they first arrived. They want more people like them who will see the opportunity in taking over something like this hundred year old church and restoring it.
Being RVers, we are accustomed to being self sufficient ... a good trait for around here since it's 6 miles to the closest gas station or convenience store, and 15 miles to the closest laundromat! The nearest major cities are all about 2 hours away - DesMoines, Omaha, or Kansas City.
But, we might be seeing a rennaissance in Gravity. A new business just opened! A bar and grill! Nitro's. And, we could party as much as we wanted because it is only a 1/2 block walk home!
Actually doing the restoration is a lot of work, and will probably take a few years. But, they're going to have some fun with it too! This room will be Lynne's sewing room - here's her Mom, Frankie, making it bright and cheery.
We have one room that has been dubbed the 'Geek room' for whenever we're here. Right now we've made it the Wii room. Using this little projector to display the Wii games onto our 6 foot screen. It works great. You'll be hearing more about this projector as we try it for a variety of things. It's by
BenQ, and they sent us this unit to evaluate. Isn't it cute?
So, why is it called the Katy? This is the old MKT railroad. The Missouri, Kansas, Texas railroad. 'Miss Katy' became the spokesperson, promoting rail travel in the late 1800s. The dining cars and sleeping cars made it quite a luxurious way to travel. The intersection of the MKT and the Missouri-Pacific railroad is what put Sedalia on the map ... literally. An enterprising man named George Smith bought the land in 1860 when he learned that the railroads would go right thru it. He set about to found the town and named it after his daughter 'Sarah', nicknamed Sed. What started out as Sedville, became known as Sedalia and was a booming railroad town from about 1870 - 1930.
The train depot in downtown Sedalia is now a museum.
Sedalia was also home to Scott Joplin and the Ragtime music he created. Scott Joplin was a black man who moved from Texas to Sedalia, Missouri to attend college here. A pretty amazing story for the 1860s. The Scott Joplin festival is visited by people the world over. It starts next week, just a little too late for us to stick around. Here is a video of the Maple Leaf Rag - probably most famous of Joplin's creations.
But, enough of history from the 1800s - Sedalia is also famous for a rock concert that rivaled Woodstock! Called the Ozark Music Festival, attendance estimates go as high as 350,000! With performances by Jefferson Starship, Eagles, and Marshall Tucker Band among many others, the main attraction was the hippie culture that took over the Missouri State Fairgrounds for four days in July of 1974.
Picture from the aftermath of the Music Festival (from the website linked above):
Yes! That's the same Missouri State Fairgrounds where we have been parked this week along with 700 other RVs! These RVers were a much more subdued crowd I'm sure - but many of us are still rock 'n rollers at heart!
Picture of the aftermath of the Escapade Rally at the same fairgrounds.
