From The Chief Editor's Desk...

Having kids is AWESOME! You never quite know exactly what will capture their attention and imagination until it happens.

My son has had an ongoing fascination with the old (now closed) Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Missouri. It’s rumored to be haunted. He went to Jefferson City with his Scout troop, and while there, they completed their Citizenship in the Nation merit badge. The trip included a tour of the Missouri Capitol Building, and the Missouri State Penitentiary. He never talks about the tour of the capitol. But get him going, and he’ll talk and talk and talk about the tour of the penitentiary.

He was so enamored by it that he built a rather detailed version of it in Minecraft, from his memory. Santa brought him a book about the penitentiary last Christmas, which he keeps IN his bed so he can read it before going to sleep.

Lately, his new fascination is with the Titanic. Yes, THAT Titanic. The “unsinkable” luxury passenger liner that sank to the bottom of the Atlantic on April 15, 1912 after hitting an iceberg.

So, about three and a half hours away from us, there’s a Titanic museum in Branson, Missouri. So, we set out on a “day trip” on September 26 to visit and go through the museum.

My wife and I had gone through the museum back in 2007 when we bought a vacation package through the Branson Tourism Bureau. In the intervening 19 years, they’ve done a lot to update and upgrade the museum, so this felt almost like our first time going through the museum.

If you’ve never been, or if you are wanting to plan a visit, it’s very cool! Upon entry, they hand you a “boarding pass” that has the name, age, class, and a brief synopsis of one of the passengers on that ill-fated maiden voyage. At the end of the self-guided museum tour, you can check on a large wall of names to see if your passenger or crewman survived or perished in the sinking.

My wife and I were both third-class passengers. Ryan was a 14-year-old crewman. Lexi was a six-year-old little girl. Of us all, Lexi’s passenger was the only one who survived. My wife’s passenger also had a friend onboard the ship. My wife’s passenger, though, went back to her cabin to pray that the nightmare would end. But, her friend survived. So, had she remained with her friend, she likely would have survived the sinking of the ship.

They also had a bowl of circulating water, chilled to the same temperature as the Atlantic Ocean on that fateful night (28° F, or -2.2° C). You put your hand into the chilled water, and see how long you can keep your hand immersed. Laura and Ryan managed to only keep their hands in the ultra-chilled water for less than 20 seconds. I was “in the lead” at 46 seconds, until Lexi decided she was determined to not be beat. She kept her hand in the water for 50 seconds, beating dad’s attempt. I will tell you that even after that brief amount of time, the cold becomes painful. I can’t even begin to imagine what those who were in the water on that night felt.

The museum also has artifacts from the Titanic, retrieved from the ocean floor. Others were items with documented provenance from survivors, or the families of the survivors. There’s one section of the museum that also has items on display from the 1997 movie, Titanic, including the life jacket that Rose (Kate Winslet) wore, and she signed it.

So, if you’re looking for something to do on a vacation, you could do a LOT worse than a stop by the Titanic Museum in Branson, Missouri.

This month's cover celebrates Halloween, and features an image from Pixabay artist Alexa … with some “enhancements” just for PCLinuxOS users.

Until next month, I bid you peace, happiness, serenity, prosperity, and continued good health!