From the Missouri to the Mississippi

The dome of the capitol was there in the background as we left Jefferson City this morning.  It was already rather warm (English understatement!) and there was hardly a cloud in the sky.

Crossing the Missouri river, we took a last glimpse of the city as we drove out into the countryside.

Our first stop was in Fulton, MO.  We stopped briefly in the “Brick District”, so named after the brick streets which created a less than smooth driving experience. (English understatement #2)

Why were we here?

Well, because of Westminster College, actually.  Though there is a museum here dedicated to Winston Churchill, in a church which was brought lock stock and barrel from London to accommodate the celebration of the life and times of the great statesman, we decided we didn’t need to go inside.

We just wanted a picture.

So why here?  Why is Winston Churchill the focus of such interest here?

It’s because here was the scene of his famous “Sinews of Peace” speech, which included the first recorded use of the term “iron curtain”.

There’s a bit of the Berlin Wall here, too.

Having got our photos and learned one or two things, off we went again.  Here we were, on a quiet Sunday morning kicking up dust behind us on a series of gravel roads.  Well, we do prefer the back roads in preference to the Interstate!

In the backwoods of Missouri, we were enjoying a pretty bumpy ride because, of course, we were not travelling in a rufty-tufty vehicle designed for such ventures.

Whilst we pulled over to reset the satnav to “no dirt roads”, I was glad to get a closer look at a pretty hedgerow.

A little further on, someone else was hoping to see the other side of the road, too.

Much bigger than the last turtle we avoided, this one must have been 10 inches long at least and no, I didn’t get close up but simply felt thankful for my zoom lens again!

At last, we were back on “proper” roads and heading into Hannibal.

We parked at the Visitors centre and equipped ourselves with maps and so on, though once in town, we realised that we didn’t need them at all because really, there’s only one street here.

And a single theme, too.

Did you notice what it is yet?  (That’s the Mississippi River there, by the way)

Whilst we didn’t have to try very hard to avoid the artificial visitor experiences, it was interesting to see the genuine history here.

Better still though, there was a fantastic quilt shop to explore!

So, my hero scoped out what was what in the Mark Twain department whilst Mary and I concentrated on the fabric

What appeared at first to be a small shop turned out to be a rather large one. (English understatement #3!)

Several rooms packed full of fabric, examples and patterns and the friendliest of staff too.

Whilst we’d been browsing, my hero had discovered that an hour on the paddleboat steamer – guess what it’s called? – cost $19 each.  Did we want to ride?  (no thanks)

So we watched the river for a few minutes and returned to Main Street to find a spot of lunch.

Look who was there.

After a little refreshment, it was time to go.  One can have too much of a good thing!

So, saying goodbye to the boys, we jumped back in the car and headed on out of Hannibal.

Poor Molly Brown got her nose pushed out rather, didn’t she?

As we left, the riverboat was just returning from the cruise.  You guessed the name right, didn’t you?

Oh, are we nearly home?  (pronounced herm of course )

Actually, as we crossed the Mississippi, we left Missouri behind and were in Illinois, land of Lincoln.

We’ve left the Ozarks well behind now and are driving through open, prairie-style landscapes.

Quincy, where we are overnighting is indeed in the Land of Lincoln, because it’s here where he participated in one of a series of debates with Stephen Douglas in 1858 and found it so challenging that:

Douglas beat him for the seat in the Senate, then, but Lincoln got his own back by winning the Presidency two years later.

The event is commemorated in the park here in Quincy and rounded our day off nicely.  Our journey from the Missouri to the Mississippi has been bookended by two great statesmen, not forgetting one great author, a cast of characters and an unsinkable woman in between!

…and Betty Grable too

It was time to leave Branson.

Setting out northwards on a long straight road was a good chance to catch up on my journal.

Whilst the driver and co-pilot were well equipped with plentiful supplies in the front

I was quite comfortable in the back, thank you

After a while, we reached our first scheduled stopping point, high above the Lake of the Ozarks.

The Ha Ha Tonka State Park is a recreation area where there’s the ruins of a castle, too.

There’s an Italianate Water Tower which was burnt out by vandals a few years ago.

and the relics of the castle itself, anther burned out shell.

The views are pretty good –it would have been a great place to build your dream home, Mr Snyder.

It was a beautiful morning and the sky was rather interesting.

People were out and about both here in the park and down there on the lake too.

I was playing about with my camera.

But we had further to go, so we jumped back into the car and headed a bit further on the long straight road towards Jefferson City.

Oh, look, we’re on the Lewis and Clark trail!  We’ve come across them before on an earlier road trip.

As we parked near the Missouri State Capitol building sure enough, there they were.

Jefferson City – or at least, this place (because the city didn’t even exist then) was the start of their journey.

Mr Wade, the docent by the memorial, was only too pleased to tell us the story of York, Lewis, Seaman the dog, Clark and Georges Drouillard (from left to right in the picture above)  We wondered where Sacagawea was – until Mr Wade explained that they didn’t meet her until a little further along the trail.

We had our eye on the Capitol though, and knowing the guided tours were on the hour, we bade Mr Wade bye for now and found our way inside.

Oh, wow.  this is the kind of state capitol we like to visit!

Our guide, Patty, was great and explained everything in detail at just the right pace.  I liked the state seal with the two bears representing courage and strength and was interested to learn the significance of the moon in the design.  I didn’t know that the symbol is normally associated with the second son – and in the Missouri seal, it represents the state being second in the Louisiana Purchase.  Fascinating.

We were enjoying Patty’s stories, including the one prompted by the painting of the bridge in St Louis above.  When the bridge was built, the owners of the ferry boats put about stories to dissuade people from using the bridge, claiming it was weak and badly designed.  When a circus came to town, then, the bridge designer/owner invited the elephants to cross it, proving his point and allaying all fears of it being too dangerous to use.

 

It was the Thomas Hart Benton murals which were the star of the show, though.

As soon as Patty opened the door and invited us in, we were lost in the scenes painted on the wall.

A history of Missouri, the scenes included several controversial images, including one above.  But more than that, they showed scenes from history, figures and activities which represent the state during different eras and the development of life here up until 1936 when the murals were completed.  There’s a full description here.

The windows of the Capitol gave us a glimpse of the Missouri river and the railroads alongside it.

Patty’s last stop was the House of Representatives, a grand space where the elected politicians meet from January to May each year.  They get together again in September to revisit any issues the Governor has vetoed, but otherwise, it’s a five month a year government.

Having seen this, we were set free by Patty to explore one more floor of the Capitol; the bronze portraits of people who have made Missouri proud.

Here she was.  Sacagewea.  Lewis and Clark’s companion was remembered here.

What made us smile, was that she was placed so close to Ginger Rogers!  What a fun juxtaposition.

Other figures included Virginia Louisa Minor, founder of the first women’s suffrage organisation in the US.

Josephine Baker was there too.

And lest you think we’d left her behind, there across the way was the hero of our trip, Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Oh, and yes, of course, there was Betty Grable too (but sadly, no legs)

What a lovely day, how pleased we were that we didn’t listen to the doubters who couldn’t understand why we’d bother visiting Jefferson City.  It’s a great place, really interesting and the State Capitol ranks amongst the most attractive we’ve seen.  Thanks to those murals, all three of us know far more about the history of Missouri than we did, as well.

Water water everywhere

Last night, as we arrived back at the hotel, my hero received a flood alert on his phone.  Rather strange, because this was neither an SMS message nor an email, but appeared to be as a result of  some kind of warning system.  Mary got it too – but those of us on “the dark side” with an Android phone remained blissfully unaware.

The warning appeared again this morning, after another night of heavy rain and remains a mystery as to its origin or means of transmission.  We need to investigate!

We’d decided that, rather than spend the day mooching in Branson, we’d venture out and tick off one of the highlights of the Ozarks today, rather than leave it until tomorrow, as planned.  So after breakfast, we hit the road and headed northeast under leaden skies and extraordinarily low clouds.

As the morning wore on, things looked a little brighter.  It was certainly warm out there and a little patch of blue sky became larger.

The Ozarks are a beautiful area of the country, with green wooded hills stretching out as far as the eye can see.  Here and there is a patch of water, labelled Beaver Creek on the roadside but appearing rather more threatening than the name suggests.  We criss crossed it several times and watched the muddy brown water flowing fast beneath the bridges.

But then…a detour was required.

A little further along, we could see why.  It appears that the whole area has been experiencing flash floods in the last few days (hence the warning I guess) and here, those floods seem to have been a little longer lasting.

Fortunately, one closed road was the extent to which we were affected, but for others around here, life has been more challenging, it appears.

Crossing the road when you are only a few inches off the ground and able to move very slowly must be extraordinarily hazardous – we saw (and successfully avoided) three such turtles this morning.

Thankfully, there wasn’t much traffic along this road today.

Things got a little busier a bit further along.

We were heading for Rocky Ridge, the home in the Ozarks where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived most of her married life and where she wrote the Little House on the Prairie series of books.

Since she lived here most of her adult life, there’s far more to see here than in Pepin, for instance.

As we parked the car to buy our tickets, we took the opportunity to refresh our knowledge of what’s here and how it all fits into the story.

Our first call was Rock Cottage, the home their daughter Rose Wilder Lane built for her parents, just a little further up the road.

We were meeting a guide up there to show us around the house, where sadly no photographs were allowed inside.

It’s set in the most beautiful surroundings, with a summer meadow full of wild flowers outside the front door, but Laura and Almanzo never settled here and after a few years, moved back to their original home, Rocky Ridge.

Rose built the house from local stone sourced from the fields outside and the craftsman who built it left his tradesman’s mark in the pointing.

Rhonda, our guide, told us that it was traditional for a builder to leave his mark in this way – something new to us and perhaps something we’ll look out for again.

The small cottage had been built with all modern facilities and to the latest standards – it even had electricity.

But returning to Rocky Ridge to continue our tour, I think I can see why Laura preferred this house, which for all its shortcomings, seemed more homely.

A short distance along the road there’s the structure of the new museum, currently under construction and due to open next year.  We chatted a while to Rhonda about the renewed interest in the stories and wondered if the new biography Mary and I have been studying has added to the resurgence.  It would appear so and the new museum will present a much improved visitor experience than the slightly dusty collection which is in the visitor centre here today.

After a bite to eat, we continued along the road towards Springfield, MO, because a coupon was burning a hole in my pocket and it was valid for just 48 hours.  60% off anything on the notions wall at JoAnns meant I could restock my stabiliser supplies at super low prices!

Then, spotting an Ulta store in the same block, I fished out another coupon from my bag and replenished my favourite Redken supplies at the same time!

(Thank goodness for patient heroes and travelling companions)

The iceberg…and other surprises

I know, you were hanging on the edge of your seats, wondering what the iceberg looked like.  I hope you weren’t too disappointed?

We were heading out to the show tonight, one of 36 (yes, really) on offer here in town and remarkably, it was a sell-out.  We reckon there were around 1000 in the audience – this was a big theatre, too.

Our Californian concierge had given us sound advice and the show was as good as we’d heard.  The six Haygoods – five brothers and a sister – were talented musicians, versatile entertainers and their high-energy show was really well produced.  Were we surprised?   Well, let’s just say that we didn’t expect too much “just in case” – Branson is not quite Las Vegas

We thought was a really great, all round entertaining show with vibrant sound and light effects and didn’t disappoint one bit.   So, thanks for pointing us in the right direction, Ellis, and bravo to the Haygoods!

We just had to do it

On leaving Fayetteville this morning, bound for Branson, you knew which direction we had to take, didn’t you?

This one.

And yes, I did.

But although I’ve technically put down both feet in 42 states now, a five minute stay hardly means I can claim to have enjoyed the full Oklahoma experience.  I’ll still count it though

We are in truck territory here.  Large pick ups with names like “Ram” and “Silverado”, which make our seven seat van look pretty namby pamby when we’re out on the highway.

We pass pawnbrokers for “guns and guitars” and this church with a free archery range for “sportsman’s fellowship”.  It appears to be a man’s world in this neck of the woods.

We just had to keep on going.

Through Tontitown.

Past roadside advert hoardings for dentistry and braces.  Sorry, a bit blurred there but you get the picture?

We were heading for Eureka Springs.  No, not to stay at the Land-o-Nod Inn.

Not even to mooch around what appeared to be a tackier version of Hot Springs, where we were the other day.

We were there to visit this architectural masterpiece, winner of several awards in the 1980s, the overall “design of the decade” and fourth on the American Institute of Architecture’s list of top buildings of the twentieth century.

Is it a bridge? 

No, it’s a church.

The Thorncrown Chapel was on our AAA guide as being worth a diversion, so we did. 

Well, we had to, really, didn’t we?

From there, it was a short distance into Missouri.  You know what that means, don’t you?  But not yet…I was on the Arkansas side of the line when I jumped out of the car, took the photo and jumped back in again.  Our rule: Both feet on the ground to count!

Soon, we were in Branson, our destination for the next two nights.  When we were planning our route, Branson seemed like an “interesting” place to stop, but as soon as we mentioned it to our American friends, they looked askance.  Branson?  Really?

Well, with these names on the billboard for tonight,  wouldn’t you?

(I know….)

Every building on “the strip” houses a different show and with our excellent Californian concierge’s advice, we’ve booked to see The Haygoods tonight.  When we collected the tickets earlier this afternoon, Jared commented “good choice!”.

We’ll see.

For now, we are spending a couple of hours in the hotel as it pours with rain outside.  Yes, that is a model of the Titanic there on the street and yes, there is water there at the bow.  If I’d been able to take a picture of the other side, you’d have seen an iceberg too.

Such is life in Branson.

We just had to do it, though, didn’t we?

(and yes, I have chalked up state  #43 now!)