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Friday, September 17th and Saturday, September 18th, 2010

I just got back from our trip to Toonfest at The Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline, Missouri, and, boy, are my arms tired! Sorry, wrong joke...

I was invited to speak and release the sequel at Marceline's annual Toonfest celebration September 17 and 18.

To have the opportunity to visit Walt Disney's hometown was exciting, to say the least. To visit and get to meet legendary cartoonists was over the top! But, more on that later.

We made it to Beaver, Utah, the first night, honking and waving at Dave's house as we went through St. George.

Because of a wildfire, we were told the pass onto I-70 we needed to take was closed. In the morning, the pass was open and we ascended the mountains into smoke as thick as fog. Unfortunately, our re-circulating air system in the Jeep decided to play games at that particular time. It was an eerie feeling not knowing exactly where the fire was burning. The sun, when we could see it, was a dull red in color.

As we approached Colorado, the smoke cleared and the danger was well behind us.

Traffic was understandably light. Except for the big cities of Los Angeles, Denver, Topeka and Kansas City, we usually never saw more than about eight cars on the road. Colorado: Beautiful! As we wound through the Rockies, alongside the Colorado River, the aspen trees were just changing into a vivid yellow, with a few red trees thrown in. Rafters were braving the rapids of the River as we drove by. It was interesting seeing the ski lifts and trails of Vail as they look now without snow. There are some beautiful hotels and resorts in Vail, with new ones being built. After passing by the Purina Dog Chow factory in Denver - and, yes, it does smell like kibble! - we continued through the remaining, flatter miles of Colorado, and entered Kansas...

We stayed in Hays, Kansas for our second night of travel. Okay, I won't mention the bugs that almost blocked out our windshield. I will mention the two small herds of buffalo we saw grazing near the freeway. Being an avid reader of Westerns, seeing the buffalo made me very happy! We drove past many points of interest - Billy the Kid's hometown, Abilene, Annie Oakley's museum, as the landscape took on a different aspect from the corn fields we had seen. Kansas City was building a very interesting bridge over the Missouri River (at least, I think it was the Missouri River...) The main freeway did some interesting things in Kansas City, including a tunnel under the downtown area.

Once we left Kansas City, we turned onto the 36 and headed for Marceline.

It was about a two hour drive before we saw the tall water tower that read Marceline - Tiger Country (or Home of the Marceline Tigers), Russ added the Mickey Ears, lol.

Yes, I was excited! I was finally in Walt's hometown where his memories had been so vivid that they stayed with him his whole life. Our hotel was in nearby Brookfield, nine miles back on the highway. We had plugged the address into the Nav system. We entered Brookfield, gamely following the instructions provided by the Nav. We entered the main part of town and past through the main part of town, heading out into the country. Once we rounded a large bend and were next to a large pond, the Nav system informed us we had arrived at our destination. Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

The front desk, once we got to the hotel which was right on the highway, informed us that this happens to a lot of people. lol

Thursday, our first night in Marceline. We were invited to a hay ride and a barbecue. We pulled up into the driveway of a beautiful red house trimmed in white. I saw a small sign in the lawn that said something about Disney House, but didn't follow through as we were meeting people. When I mentioned the Dreaming Tree and the Barn, our host, David, pointed to a meadow and said, 'That barn?' My eyes got big. "That's Walt's barn? The Dreaming Tree?" David pointed to the left and said it was right over there. Yes, we were at the original farm that the Disney's owned!

As people arrived I remembered I had brought a Magnum of Brochelle Zinfandel wine, so I pulled it out and David started serving. The comments were fantastic, even the gals that didn't like red wine loved this Zin, it was Awesome!

When all the cartoonists arrived, we were introduced to all these men who drew the funnies. We met Stan Goldberg who draws the Archie strip, Marcus Hamilton who draws Dennis the Menace, Guy Gilchrist who draws the Nancy strip and originally created the Muppet Babies, John Hambrock who created the Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee, and Dr. Robin Allen who is a Disney historian and author all the way from England.

Pretty soon a large tractor pulled up towing a flatbed filled with bales of straw. Our transportation to the barbecue had arrived!Once we all climbed aboard, we were given a fascinating speech about the neighborhood in which young Walt and his sister Ruth had lived, pointing out the houses and farms that still held fourth generation families that had known the Disney's. Our magical coach...I mean, hay ride pulled into a pasture filled with Angus cows. I am not sure who was more amused -- the cows or us! As the sun set in a blaze of color, we were fed in the style of typical Missouri hospitality - great food, great conversations, and great people.

Friday was our first look at the main street of Marceline, which is named Main Street, USA, the same as Walt named Disneyland's main street! As you can see by the pictures within this blog, there is a distinct feel of Marceline in Disneyland's architecture.

We set up our book signing table in the only air conditioned building in town, where there was also a traveling comic art exhibit, then we walked the next block to the historic Uptown Theater. Oh, my! Talk about stepping back in time! The marquee overhead advertised The Great Train Robbery - in 1956! In the small ticket booth, a Cinderella doll sits smiling as people pass by. The smell of popcorn drifted out of the two small, open entry doors.

Friday was the day for students from eight local high schools to come and listen to the cartoonists and learn about their craft. It was fascinating for me, as well, to hear how ideas are formulated, see demonstrations of

drawing and some of the basics every animator should know, and to hear the life stories of the men who dedicate their lives to make us laugh every day through the funny pages!

 I was able to give a short speech right after the Toonfest staff treated us to an amazing Jambalaya lunch.  I introduced 'Hidden Mickey: Sometimes Dead Men DO Tell Tales!' as well as announced the release of the sequel 'Hidden Mickey 2: It All Started...'.  This also gave me the opportunity to encourage these students to take advantage of every opportunity they have right now in school to learn all they can, no matter what they decide to do creatively.

At the end of the day, the students had all gone, and we were all invited to the Walt Disney Hometown Museum for dinner.

Kaye Malins, the Museum Director, gave us a full guided tour of the wonderful place dedicated to Walt's life there in Missouri. A guitarist/singer entertained us as best as she could with the trains roaring by. Did I mention that the museum used to be the train station? With Walt's fascination with trains, it is a very fitting setting! The train no longer stops in Marceline, but the tracks are VERY well used. We were told the trains can be going 80 m.p.h. as they pass by. They are trying to get Marceline listed as a whistle stop, so hopefully soon you will be able to buy a ticket to get on, or off, at the Marceline Station, right there in front of the Walt Disney Hometown Museum. The museum has a treasure trove of memorabilia from the Disney family - pictures, letters, artifacts, and a cute miniature Display of the buildings of Disneyland.

and a Fan was happy to get her sequel!

There is even a bright green Midget Autopia car on display.  The Midget Autopia was the first ride to be taken from Disneyland and actually installed in another place. Walt wanted the children of Marceline to enjoy one of the rides from his beloved Disneyland, so he sent the whole ride -- cars, tracks, and all -- to Marceline. After a few years, the ride had to be discontinued. Now there is a push on to bring it back and restore the ride to its original condition. If you would like to contribute to this worthwhile cause, please follow this link -->

Saturday the 18th was the huge celebration. The whole town and neighboring communities turned out for the parade and events throughout the day.

I was asked to be one of the judges for the parade! It was very difficult deciding which three floats to choose! Two of the floats had small little girls dressed as different Disney princesses. Another float was a pirate ship filled with little boys all decked out as pirates.

One float had a young boy and girl who were dressed as Walt and Ruth Disney and did a skit on the famous event of Walt painting on the side of their house with tar. How can you choose between all this!!??

Even the wonderful ladies who volunteer at the museum had their own float.

The Marceline High Tigers band played in rivalry against neighboring Brookfield High, both were good but we could only vote for one, so this year it went to Marceline! They just sounded better. Good thing all three judges were from out of the area, with no good ole boy attachments, still the pressure was on... since it seems these two schools really go all out trying to outdo each other, and the rivalry goes back for many generations.

The cartoonists were all Grand Marshals in the parade and were awarded a plaque the had a piece of bark from Walt's Dreaming Tree as a Thank You for coming and entertaining us. And, yes, I was quite jealous!

 
The Honored Cartoonists were Guy Gilchrist, Stan Goldberg, John Hambrock, and Marcus Hamilton. Some of the other Cartoonists that came were John Read, Mike Edholm, Ken Alvine , and 2 Cartoonists from previous Toonfests that I didn't get a chance to meet.

Ripley Park and its beautiful gazebo (yes, this is just like the one that used to be at Disneyland) was right across from us, filled with pop-up tents and activities for the whole family, including cow milking games and lots of other family fun games. Walt's dad, Elias, used to play the fiddle in that gazebo on Sundays!

At 12:30 we all headed back to the Uptown Theater. The skit with young Walt and Ruth was recreated onstage for our enjoyment. Then I was introduced to give a short speech on the two books. I headed back to our table to sign books  as the cartoonists took to the stage once more. 

Like I mentioned before, we were in the same building as the traveling cartoon Display, and each comic strip was from the same day in history. It was interesting to see what each of the cartoonists had on his mind on that same day, 4/11/2010.
We also had the Silent Auction in our building, with a large display of Disney memorabilia items and various Cartoon items, and as we were getting set-up for the day a Fan, Shirley Schmidt and her husband, dropped in to buy her sequel as well as more gift books for their friends.

Outside, Wayne Sealy was doing Caricatures. He had done Russ's and mine the day before, when he was in our building. Wayne was just about the nicest guy you could imagine. He told us about his 100+year old house in Omaha, Nebraska. Every year for the past 30 years he has turned it into a Haunted House for Halloween. Thousands of people go through it every year, with an average of 6000 on October 31st!

Inside the Toonfest Office hangs a very cool quilt of Walt. This quilt was a gift, one of two made. Go ahead and click on it to see the detail... there is even a Hidden Mickey (see if you can find it).
Here is a shot of all of the Artists, and a few others that jumped into the photo, as well as a T-shirt the artists personalized that was auctioned off.

Have I mentioned the weather? I had checked Weather.com before we left. Missouri was supposed to have thunderstorms and rain all day Saturday. Not good. But, other than being a mite humid, the day was great. Clouds did start rolling in late afternoon.

 More on that later... At 5:00 we all headed back to Walt's farmhouse for a good-bye banquet. There were lights strung from the trees and tents set up for the food and desserts. It was quite lovely. There was a touching ceremony at the Dreaming Tree. Walt's tree had been hit by lightning and  looks pretty bad. Considering Walt had started dreaming under it around 1906 or 1907, the poor thing would probably be unrecognizable to him today. The folks at Disneyland had brought out a new cottonwood tree with water from the Rivers of America and dirt from the Hub and planted it near the original.The cartoonists were led to a grassy area where each of them planted a tree for future generations to enjoy. Then, the bagpiper took us to Walt's Barn - which is a re-creation of the original. The original has a new home in Southern California.

Inside the barn each guest is encouraged to write their name on the wall and any message they would like. It was an emotional moment for me.

As we were enjoying the wonderful food and conversations, a few raindrops began falling with the rumble of very distant thunder. As the rumbling got closer, so did the rain. It had held off until we had all finished dessert! It was difficult saying good-bye to all these wonderful people. They are as friendly and warm as anyone you would want to meet! And, I learned, once you come, you are family. Drop on in any time!

Russ and I got back on the road the next morning as the thunderstorm was STILL raging. We looked on the computer when we got back from the farm. You know on a weather map the different colors of rainfall? There is the outer green, then the heavier yellow, and lastly, the red where it is the worst. The red was right over us! At least it washed all the bugs off the Jeep!

We took the same route home, enjoying the majestic Rockies one more time. The wildfire, which had been raging since July, was even worse. The wind had stopped, so all the smoke went upwards. We could actually see flames from the freeway this time. We stayed with Dave Monday night so he and I could resume our work on Hidden Mickey 3: Wolf! and get back to writing! We stopped in Apple Valley for a family visit Tuesday night, and made it home Wednesday afternoon, tired but very happy with our trip.

It was a wonderful experience to see the places I had written about in Hidden Mickey: Sometimes Dead Men DO Tell Tales! If any of you have the opportunity to visit Marceline, Missouri, do it. You won't regret the trip!