Returning to Missouri

Once we were out of Florida we drove up to Atlanta to visit my sister Linda.  Our one day in Atlanta was not good- rainy and cool.  We drove to the Atlanta History Center.  In the past we have visited this museum, albeit not much time in the main building, but in the out buildings and gardens.  Remember when I wrote a posting regarding the Swan House?   That is a house built in the 1930s with a swan theme in many of its rooms.  It is located on the grounds of the museum.

There is much in the museum which is more on the serious side- as it has one on the nation's largest Civil War exhibitions.  And it was very interesting to spend time with that.  However, there is a current exhibit which caught my eye.  Pictured above is a barbecue cooker, and its claim to fame is that it has a 20 foot flame.  As the museum displays says, you can choose a cooker for purely utilitarian  reasons, or you can be intentionally artistic.

 

Pictured above is a map of the states with the best barbecue places noted.  Red areas denote barbecue heaven, the orange has really good barbecue, the yellow is for those places with good barbecue or some "funky sauce ideas going on" and the white states are for "despair".

We made it back to Missouri and drove to Farmington to catch up with John's side of the family.  About a dozen of felt the need to get out and hike, and this time the weather was cooperating.  We drove to Hickory Canyon, a place which is about as scenic as Pickle Creek.  One of its main attraction is the waterfall pictured above. The canyons in this park are carved from Lamotte sandstone (from sandy beaches of a shallow ocean which existed 500 years ago according to the Missouri Department of Conservation).  The trail leading into the canyon is narrow and rocky, constantly going up and down- John and I would rate it as being difficult.

 

  After going down into the first canyon, John and several others took a path which went over the waterfall.  Following that hike another number of us, myself including this time, hiked into another box canyon nearby.   It felt so good to traipse around in that park after our long car trip and eating too much holiday snacks!