Day 1 – Depart Chicago
Meet your Tour Director in Chicago’s Union Station at 6:00 pm and board the City of New Orleans prior to its 8:00 pm departure for Memphis. Relax in your onboard accommodations as you begin the journey south. Overnight train. (D)
Day 2 – Memphis/William J. Clinton Library
Our arrival into Memphis is scheduled for 6:27 am. Enjoy breakfast in town before boarding our comfortable motorcoach for the 130-mile drive to Little Rock.
The five-story William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock is 20,000 square feet of information, video, photos, documents, and artifacts. It includes exhibition space, the Great Hall, Forty Two (a full-service restaurant), and classrooms. A 2,000-square foot executive apartment used by Clinton is located on the top floor of the main building, one level above the public museum area. The Cadillac One, the automobile used during Clinton’s presidency, is housed on the first floor. On the second floor, the main gallery houses a 110-foot timeline, representing each of Clinton’s years as President. There is also an 80-seat theater, the Great Hall, and the replicas of the Oval Office and Cabinet Room.
This afternoon we’ll drive to Longview, Texas. Dinner is included en route. Overnight Longview. (B, D)
Day 3 – En Route to Austin
Following an included Continental breakfast, we’ll transfer to the Longview Amtrak station where, at 8:28 am, we’ll board the famous Texas Eagle for the 359-mile run across central Texas to the Lone Star State capital, Austin. We’re scheduled to arrive at 6:30 pm. Overnight Austin. (CB)
Day 4 – Lyndon B. Johnson Library
This morning we’ll transfer to the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library. Situated on a 30-acre site on the University of Texas campus, the library houses 45 million pages of historical documents, 650,000 photos, and 5,000 hours of recordings from President Johnson’s political career. The iconic ten-story building was designed by award-winning architect Gordon Bunshaft and features a Great Hall with a stunning four-story, glass-encased view of the archives collection. The mission of the LBJ Presidential Library is “to preserve and protect the historical materials in the collections of the library and make them readily accessible, to increase public awareness of the American experience through relevant exhibitions and educational programs.”
You’re free following our Johnson Library visit. You can rest in your hotel, located in an area referred to as the Arboretum, which has walking trails and a nice park. There are also restaurant options nearby. Overnight Austin. (CB)
Day 5 – George H. W. Bush Library/Dallas
Following our included hotel breakfast, we’ll board our motorcoach this morning and continue east 86 miles to College Station where we’ll encounter the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, part of the Presidential Library Center at Texas A&M University, a 90-acre area on the campus that is also home to the prestigious Bush School of Government and Public Service and the George Bush Annenberg Presidential Conference Center.
The Library and Museum is a state-of-the-art facility dedicated to the preservation, research, and exhibition of official records, personal papers, and memorabilia of George Bush. The Museum has a main gallery space dedicated to “The Life and Times of George Bush” and a changing exhibit gallery, the Ansary Gallery of American History, which documents the life of President and Mrs. Bush since the White House. Memorabilia includes the parachute used in his 1997 jump with the U.S. Army Golden Knights is Arizona. The Bush Library and Museum’s archives contain more than 44 million pages of documents, two million photographs, thousands of sound and video recordings, and other volumes of information. The Library and Museum’s documents include George Bush’s vice presidential and presidential records. The Museum collection holdings contain more than 100,000 artifacts, including more than 3,000 gifts from former heads of state.
Following our visit to the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, we’ll re-board our motorcoach and continue north 152 miles to Dallas. An included dinner stop will be made. Overnight Dallas. (CB, D)
Day 6 – George W. Bush Library/Oklahoma City
The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum will open to the public in April 2013 on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Framed by four themes - freedom, responsibility, opportunity, and compassion - the Museum will tell the story of the United States in an extraordinary time. Using artifacts, documents, photographs, and videos from the Library’s extensive collection, the Museum will include features such as a full-sized Oval Office and a Texas Rose Garden. Interactive features include a Decision Points Theater designed to take the visitor “inside” the decision-making process and policies developed during the Administration of President George W. Bush. Additionally, the Museum will present temporary exhibits that complement the permanent exhibit and illustrate themes and subjects relevant to the mission of the Library and Museum. Visit the Artifact Gallery for a glimpse into the Museum collection. A rotation of artifacts 360 degrees will allow you to explore some of the 43,000 gifts given to President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush by American citizens and foreign Heads of State.
Following our visit to the George W. Bush Museum, we travel north 190 miles to Oklahoma City. A stop for dinner will be included. Overnight Oklahoma City. (D)
Day 7 – En Route to Abilene
The morning is free. Some may want to visit the Oklahoma City Memorial, site of the 1995 Federal Building disaster. This afternoon we’ll travel 237 miles to Abilene, Kansas. Overnight Abilene.
Day 8 – Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum/Kansas City
Originally dedicated on Veterans Day in 1954, the Eisenhower Presidential Museum was built to house the materials and objects related to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s life. It contains over 30,000-square feet of gallery space, with exhibits showing not only the fine art objects collected by and given to Eisenhower, but also the story of his careers as military leader and President of the United States. The Museum is divided into five major galleries consisting of an introductory gallery, a changing exhibits gallery, a First Lady’s gallery, and a military gallery.
A stop at the Eisenhower home will follow the Museum visit. A typical nineteenth century home, the Eisenhower family occupied this house from 1898 until the death of Eisenhower’s mother in 1946. Her sons gave the house, on its original site, to the Eisenhower Foundation that maintained it until it was given to the Federal Government in 1966. You will have time for an “on-your-own” lunch. Later this afternoon, we’ll continue 140 miles to Kansas City. Overnight Kansas City. (CB)
Day 9 – Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
Enjoy a Continental breakfast at our hotel this morning before visiting the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, dedicated to preserving papers, books, and other historical materials relating to the 33rd President of the United States. It was the first Presidential Library to be created under the provisions of the 1955 Presidential Libraries Act.
From the time the Library opened in 1957, President Truman maintained a working office there, often working five or six days a week, then was buried on the grounds. In the office, he wrote articles, letters, and his book, Mr. Citizen. He met with Presidents Hoover, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and with other notable Americans like Jack Benny, Ginger Rogers, Robert F. Kennedy, Thomas Hart Benton, and Dean Acheson. The Museum offers an introductory film on the life of President Truman, and two floors of exhibits relating his life and presidency through photographs, artifacts, film clips, documents, and memorabilia. It was the first Presidential Library to contain a full scale replica of the Oval Office. It also contains The White House Decision Center, an educational program in which school students take on the roles of President Truman and his advisors facing real-life historical decisions in a recreation of the West Wing of the White House.
We board our motorcoach for our 294-mile ride to Springfield, Illinois. An “on-your-own” lunch stop will be made en route as well as an included dinner stop. Overnight Springfield. (CB, D)
Day 10 – Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum
You’re free this morning to relax before we transfer to the Lincoln Museum. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum documents the life of the 16th U.S. President and the course of the American Civil War. Combining traditional scholarship with 21st-century showmanship techniques, the popular Museum continues to rank as one of the most-visited of all Presidential sites. The Museum contains life-size dioramas of Lincoln’s boyhood home, areas of the White House, the Presidential box at Ford’s Theater, and the settings of key events in Lincoln’s life, as well as pictures, artifacts, and other memorabilia. Original artifacts are changed from time to time, but the collection usually includes items like the original hand-written Gettysburg Address, a signed Emancipation Proclamation, his glasses and shaving mirror, Mary Todd Lincoln’s music box, items from her White House china, her wedding dress, and more. Overnight Springfield. (CB)
Day 11 – Train to Chicago
Following a Continental breakfast we’ll transfer to the Springfield Amtrak station in time for the 8:37 am departure of a Lincoln Service train bound for Chicago. Arrival into Chicago is scheduled for 12:20 pm, where your tour comes to a conclusion. (CB)
Prices are land-only, per person. Prices are correct at the time this web page is published; however, are subject to change.
