We got up early on Saturday, took the dog, and drove out. Don't remember much about the journey, other than spotting a farm and home store called DICKEY BUB which I immediately latched onto, trying to find a good jingle for DICKEY BUB. Debra told me to stop after maybe 10 seconds of effort.
Got there maybe 11:30 or so, immediately took to the rocks.
We were on the east side where there weren't as many trails, so we just kind of wandered.
Pond or lake on the southeast side.
The dog was a challenge, as we always remember he is wont to be. But he enjoyed it.
She loves that dumb dog...
It's a cool rock formation.
View from a higher elevation.
Dog doing a lot of jumping about, which he is not naturally built for.
We eventually got onto the main paved trail.
Gretchen climbed up to a spot further up.
The actual "elephant rocks".
Taking a picture of this dog while holding his leash is not easy.
I can't remember what they called this section...the Squeeze, Fat Man's Lament, Death Star Trash Compactor, it was something like that.
North side pond, maybe from the quarry?
The family was checking on a food truck (I realized, the fetching smells were actually from a campfire across the way, not the food truck) and the dog started drinking from this, I instinctively yanked him back until I saw it was labelled Puppy Water. Fair enough, enjoy it my lad.
Then we piled back in the car, and went to a Subway for lunch. The two girls working there were friendly, but incredibly confused, forgetful, etc. Like they were baked out of their minds, but not otherwise seeming on drugs, just seeming like they had the same level of incapacity as those on drugs. But we eventually got our food and drove up the street to the Battle of Pilot Knob historic site.
Due to allergies Gretchen ate in the car, with the dog.
Pete and I visited the small visitor center. I'll breeze through these. It was a Civil War battle, obviously.
There was a wide variety of small arms, including some early double-actions.
A variety of carbines.
Model of the Fort, which the remains of...remain.
More carbines, sabers, and revolvers, including one apparently recovered from the battlefield.
This gas station owner apparently was an avid metal detector and recovered all of this.
Rifles, carbines...and a repeating rifle.
Variety of flag designs that were used.
More rifles...
Grenades, shells, shot, and cannon balls.
Out to the fort.
The moat was still pretty deep. Would be hard to get down in it and get all the way back up with people shooting at you.
Inside the fort, also still open.
Pond in the center was excavated when the Union soldiers blew up the powder magazine after they abandoned the fort.
Cannon visible to the road.
Then back in the car, and down the road to our vrbo.
It's a renovated 1800s house that is a weird blend of modern at the surface level (painting, furniture, the ridiculous text wall hangings) and really old "in the bones". We left the dog kenneled here and headed back out.
First stop, Taum Sauk mountain. Highest point in Missouri, if not the most picturesque summit ever. I made a lot of Towelie jokes.
Summiting was...easy
This was the view from the summit. 1772' elevation.
You have to hop on the boulder there if you want to -actually- summit. Peter is doing his Towelie impression.
We were going to do the Mina Sauk Falls trail but the warning...even though it was less than 3 miles a loop...said that this was very challenging. I still have my doubts and wonder if this is just to scare the people who aren't hikers from attempting it without preparation or expectation...but upon intreaty from the tired youths, we decided to give it a miss.
Quick stop off at the lookout tower on Taum Sauk. I had had a panic attack of sorts trying to climb one of these as a kid, so I figured, time to prove myself.
Debra and the kids all opted at slightly various points about 1 or 2 flights up to reverse course, so it was just me that got to the top.
The top level was locked off.
Decent views though...
...for Missouri, anyway.
Then on to our last state park of the day, Johnson Shut-Ins. Like I said, we spent the day here before during the solar eclipse and it was quite the party like atmosphere. A bit more understated today.
Alas though, despite having prepared to go in (temperatures be damned), the red flag was up...no access allowed into the water or down into the rocks because of high water conditions.
The spring season probably has a lot of that, but it was pretty...the different shades of green of the trees particularly.
Also blocked off, but pretty.
Downside, no swimming/clambering, but upside, your photos can take in the natural environment without the mobs of people climbing around everywhere.
It was very pretty. Probably also dangerous in spots, I'll admit.
Bit of video of the shut-ins.
It opened up here a bit more.
Turtles at hanging out at water's edge.
Here is where I most deeply resented the ban on swimming. Look at that beautiful azure water!
But that's as close as you get.
Back up past the shut-ins, and on our way back.
OK, now for a quick tour of the vrbo wall art. The formula is simple. Neutral colors, rustic weathering, inane cliche with a sort of positivism vibe, randomly changing fonts. This one is a masterclass.
The line breaks and lack of punctuation in this one seem psychotic. It would have been better with ransom note font.
Serif font THEN script, but the one on the back wall amazingly INVERTS this formula. GROUNDBREAKING
This one is a hat trick. A messy KITCHEN is a sign of HAPPINESS, more friends and family bullshit (note that both opt for conventional serif then script), and lastly one of my favorites: COFFEE BAR
I wasn't completely off base, I looked it up on wikipedia. Farmer's Daughter is a kind of...well...let's just say it doesn't just conjure up wholesome family motifs.
Before you say this breaks the rules, from left to right line by line, it follows them. Serif, script.
You know what I wouldn't have realized what this section of the house where there was both a clothes washer and dryer was for, I'm glad they labelled it.
More in the "COFFEE BAR" style of needlessly labelling things with expensive etsy wall hangings. Why yes, it is indeed a porch.
FAMILY RULES if you are a part of a family of SERIAL KILLERS who WRITE IN THAT PSYCHOTIC UNPUNCTUATED WAY
OK these are mild enough, but I kept them in for completeness. Up in the kids' loft area.
Another inversion! Script THEN serif!
The kids were uninterested in going out, and Debra wanted Mexican food, so we headed to a Mexican restaurant in Ironton. We promised to pick the kids up some McDonalds (which they preferred anyway). There were a ton of well-dressed high schoolers, apparently it was prom night in the area (Debra regretted Gretchen stayed home as she would have loved the dresses). Debra chose between the small, jumbo, and monster margarita and took the middle route which she was about (the monster apparently comes in a liter stein!).
The food was OK...she got enchiladas with rice and beans, I got a combo with burrito, enchilada, and chile relleno. But like a lot of Mexican restaurants catering to midwestern white people, the default stuffing was a bland, lightly seasoned ground beef, the ranchero sauce not being quite strong enough to flavor. We had both assumed the enchilada would have been cheese, which eventually led to the creation of the catchphrase "Mexican Meat That You Weren't Expecting", the humor of which perhaps given a little assist from the margarita.
After our dinner we drove up the road to get the kids food from McDonalds...otherwise unexceptional other than the guy who took our order, who was all "well pull right up mah friend" over the intercom, and then after handing us our receipt, told us "I hope you have a good time!" (which is a slightly odder way to say it than have a good day or night) and then promptly gave us Finger Guns. Finger Guns Guy was a highlight. (Again I was stone cold sober so you can't ascribe all of why this weird stuff amused us to the margarita).
Kids ate dinner, and Debra and I kept listening to our audiobook (The Running Grave, a favorite). Pete wasn't feeling good so Debra and I walked to the Casey's and got meds and some breakfast for the next morning. That night the dog kept waking me up with a very soft, insistent WOOF. ALL NIGHT. Oh I forgot to mention! The vrbo had rodents of some variety in the wall. Which may have kept Odin up, who definitely kept me up.
Next morning, after cracking my skull on the doorway to the backyard taking Odin out (sort of a Hobbit door), we packed up and headed out. First stop, Fulton Missouri...to see the National Churchill Museum.
Sadly, the church itself was closed to us. Apparently it is an actual church from the 17th century, that was bombed by the Nazis in London, and they shipped it piece by piece here to reassemble it.
The Berlin wall. Well, a bit of it. If this was all of the Berlin Wall it would have been easier to get past it of course.
Having just read Churchill's fantastic "My Early Life", I was well acquainted with a lot of the stories of his ...well, early life.
Prominent Parents / Beloved Nanny is a fairly anodyne way of saying it, probably the best you could say for Lord and Lady Churchill as parents...they were indeed prominent, if not great at the whole "being parents" thing otherwise.
Escape from THE BOER! A lovely tale. Read either his own account in My Early Life or Candice Millard's Hero of the Empire (or both!) for a description of this amazing tale.
Dispatch case from when he was an MP.
You don't see that many pictures of young Winston, and this is a good example, you can definitely recognize him in that picture...it's the eyes.
Apparently not one of his better moments...Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
I told Pete this is a SMLE (Short Magazine Lee Enfield) and I have one (then faltering and saying no I have several...and now have forgotten how many I have), using one to harvest my first deer, in .303 British.
Both Hitler and Churchill were amateur painters, this being a self-portrait.
A section on the "Gathering Storm"...Chamberlain's peace in our time. I looked for, but did not see, Churchill's quote about having been given a choice between dishonour and war...having chosen dishonour, you will have war. Apparently that is a contested or unsupported quote, although he said many similar things. Pity, it's such a good line and sounds like something he would have said.
Weird Cross of Honour for German Mothers award.
The kids were modestly transfixed by the film documentary here.
Nazi war trophies, including a Luger and several ceremonial knives.
A top hat signed by Churchill at Yalta.
A later No.4 SMLE.
Fairbairn-Sykes knife, as used by British commandos.
And then, the reason this is all here...the section on his Iron Curtain speech at the college.
The chair and podium used.
Partially smoked cigars encased in glass. A trifle strange that, but OK!
Peter sitting at the desk with a cigar and a whisky. (The students at the college put this display together)
There were many busts. He's not a particularly handsome or striking looking fellow but it is what this short, stout old man represented.
His "A History of the English Speaking Peoples".
And then in the gift shop, what did I find in the used books section? Made off with it, complete four volume set in paperback, for $17.
Driving on we ended up in Kingdom City for lunch where we ate in a travel center...hot dogs, roller grill, that kind of stuff. Was amused by the sign in the adjoining Denny's. Was that put up in 2021 or something?
I have some mild dyslexia but first glance at this I just saw Butthurt
Then we got back home. Said hello to Winston, who has been living in our china hutch in our dining room for over two decades (only a couple pictures we may have displayed for longer).
Then the kids being too tired, Debra and I went up north to catch a bit of the member preview of Worlds of Fun. Didn't ride anything, just walked around to hit my customary 12k steps, and got dinner later.
Was a good trip!
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