Spring 2019 in Missouri

It has been a very rainy season here in Missouri.   John and I rode our bikes yesterday on a path which normally would have taken us to Lakeside 370 park, a place where we use to bring our rv when we were in town.   Unfortunately, that park is now under water; paths and one road into it are now blocked off.  Spencer Creek and the Missouri river are over their banks.   A park ranger we encountered informed us that if we wanted to see the park, as it now appears, we should log into Facebook.

Despite the rainy days, we have also had some warm sunny days when we have been able to see the beauty of spring.  Blooming trees and flowers were that their peak when we took a hike two weeks ago.

At that time we hiked in the Shaw Nature Reserve out in Grey Summit.  The dogwood trees were in bloom, as well as many wildflowers.  Fortunately we had just started out on a trail when we met up with a lady who seemed very eager to share with us the names of some of the wildflowers.  And there were many which were unknown to us, as the leatherleaf plant which has white bell-like blooms.

 

We also were not aware that there is a dwarf iris which certainly looks like an iris, just a bit shorter

 We wished that the friendly lady could have continued walking with us, as there were many wildflowers the names of which we did not know.  What we did recognize was the columbine, Indian paintbrush, mayapple and buttercups.

What a beautiful park to visit at this time of the year!  Also, of interest in this park, along the Brush Creek Trail, is a sod house which the Nature Reserve park staff and volunteers built.  I have read of these huts, built on treeless prairies in the mid-to-late 1800s, but never had the experience of walking into one.  They are for sure cool during the hot summer months, but other than that I can see that they have their disadvantages! 

One other joy for me, besides seeing the park dressed in all of its spring glory, was meeting up with a lady from England.  She was here visiting her daughter who just had her second child.  We had much to share with each other regarding grandchildren.  Unfortunately she can only see hers about twice a year!  Something else we had in common were our travels through out the United States.

Corn Cob Pipe Capital of the World

                                                Corn Cob Pipe Capital of the World

has been a brutal winter here in Missouri, at least for John and I who use to follow the sun with our motor home.  Certainly there has not been much sun here the past few months!    Oh well, it continues to be a joy to be able to be around our grandchildren on a fairly regular basis, so that makes up for the cold snowy days which we have had to endure. Spring has been happening here, and that is exciting.  We took a few days a couple of weeks back to visit Branson Missouri.  Saw about 4 musical shows, as well as the Shanghai  Acrobats.   We also had one day while there to do some hiking in a conservation area.  It was a good hike as spring was starting to make its appearance.

Our other spring fling took place last week in Washington Missouri, at a corn cob factory.  We read in the newspaper that this factory was celebrating its 150th anniversary with tours of the place.  Wow, it is not everyday that we can tour a pipe factory!

Missouri Meerschaum grows its own corn, and after the cobs have been shelled they are stored on the third floor of the factory, pictured above.  It is necessary for the cobs to dry for two years before they can be turned into pipes.  The Missouri Meerschaum ships out 3,000 pipes daily to every U.S. state as well as 70 countries worldwide.  And just for some clarification here, meerschaum refers to a Turkish clay, of which some of the more expensive pipes are made.  In 1869 Henry Tibbe, a woodworker discovered that it was profitable to create pipes by applying plaster to the outside of a corn cob, then turning it into a pipe after sanding the bowl when it had dried.

Our tour was quite interesting.  We were able to watch about 35 employees bore out holes in the corn

cobs, as well as plaster, plug the holes and varnish them.  Interestingly enough, the pipes are created in different sizes.  We visited the factory museum and learned that General Douglas MacArthur preferred a pipe with a deep bowl, Mark Twain liked a different style, as well as Jesse James.   There is certainly quite an art/ science to creating a corn cob pipe. 

 The last stop on our tour  was the factory gift shop  Smelling the pipe tobacco and looking at the 35 varieties of pipes I was tempted to purchase one.  Better sense took over, however, and I choose instead to buy a small magnetic pipe which I can display on my refrigerator.

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!

Final Notes on Florida for 2018

On the evening after we toured Legoland John and I stopped for supper and before entering the restaurant I glanced at the moon.  I just had to look at it because earlier that day I had learned that this moon was special as it was a December or Cold Moon.  It will not be for another 70 years until a full moon will happen on December 21st- the time of the winter solstice.

When we visited St.Petersburg we also returned to the Florida Botanical Garden.  It was getting close to dusk and we figured that we might as well stay in the area to see the annual Christmas light display in the gardens.  The garden and lights had changed somewhat since the last time we had been there.  Some of the flowers in the garden were quite beautiful when back-lit by the lights.  Pictured below are a floral display of orchids and calla lilies.

Upon our return trip home we chose to take a different route, with the goal of taking a look at the damage Hurricane Michael wrought to Panama City and Mexico Beach.  Driving on Highway 98 toward those areas we happened to pass by a portion of the Gulf Islands Nation Seashore.

No, that is not snow but large white sand dunes.  This park is on a long sand spit that encloses Pensacola Bay.

We knew immediately when we entered the area hit by Hurricane Michael.  Palm trees had their tops sheared off, other trees were bent almost to the ground.  Billboards stood as skeletons with their innards blown out.  Whole subdivisions of houses had their roofs covered with blue tarps.  The Port Panama Distribution Center only had its concrete walls standing.  A sign by the road directed the public to go to a local elementary school for Christmas eve services.   Quite a few utility trucks could be seen on the streets, their crews filling the nearby restaurants for lunch.  I wondered how many of those men and women had to stay in this area over Christmas so the citizens could have some normalcy return to their lives,

Legoland and Cypress Gardens

Our daughter Melissa, husband Spencer and grandchildren arrived the end of the first week that John and I were in Florida.  They had plans to go to Legoland with Spencer's parents.  Our grandson Nathan is currently very much into playing with Lego blocks.  We were against paying the steep admission price- the one day admission fee is pretty much equivalent to Disney Land or Busch Gardens.  Also rain was in the forecast for the day they were planning on going there, given all the facts John and I still decided to put out the money and go with them.

Legoland was in the Christmas spirit, as you may see in the picture above.  Do note that all the pictures I have of this resort area (there is a hotel on site) depict a variety of assemblage of lego blocks.  So this was one awesome Christmas tree.

Legos built into a variety of forms are located through out the park, as pictured above.

The park was quite busy the day we were there, given that it was Christmas break for many families.  And we observed that the demographics were young families having at least one boy between the ages of 4 to 9 years of age.  However, there were some enjoyable sights for us older adults, as lego city.  This area of the park featured cities and sites located in Florida, as well as other cities of our nation such as New York, San Francisco and Washington D.C.  While walking around this exhibit we heard bells ringing.  The beautiful music was coming from Bok Towers, which was another structure built with legos.

 

A southern belle, built out of legos, greeted at the entrance of Cypress Gardens.   This section of the gardens was built 75 years ago.  Back then it was a botanical gardens and theme park.  It closed down in 2009 and was redesigned to appeal to families with young children, and is now known as Legoland.  In this section of the park it did retain some of its features- the topiary trail, gardens of azaleas and camelias,  and a very large banyan tree.

Some paths of the gardens were closed off because of flooding, Lake Eloise along its borders was overflowing her banks.  I must say that our walk through this section of the park made our trip to Legoland worthwhile!

Revisiting Our Favorite Sites

The first week we were in Florida it was rather cool, much as we would have liked to have some beach time, that just did not sound good given the weather.  And that was all right, as there were other places which we wanted to return to visit, as central St.Petersburg.  A couple of years ago I had written about this older area of St.Petersburg and showed some of the murals which can be seen on the outside walls of many of the buildings.  The one which caught my eye is pictured below, it is the title of a song which my mom kept singing even in her last days when her memory had faded.

One other eye-catching and most colorful mural is pictured below.

While we were in this part of St.Petersburg we did have to visit the largest used and new bookstore in Florida, which is Haslams.  It is possible to fritter away many hours wandering around here!

One sad note here, and that is the changes which are taking place in this area of St.Petersburg.  Pictured above is a very large building being constructed, part of it use to be the Union Trust building.  The older part has been refurbished, and then it has been added to with plans for the ground floor  to be used for retail.  I can only guess that the rest will be used for high-rise apartments.  Certainly that will change the ambiance of the city around it!