The beginning of the trip was quite interesting. I set up our GPS to route us from here to Russellville. We knew how to get out to the highway, going the way we came in, but it routed us back to the highway via some county roads. We gave it a try thinking we might save some time. WHAT A MISTAKE! The photo below is out of focus but it shows one of the county roads. The grass growing in the middle of the road eliminates the need for a painted center stripe.
Below is Kathy looking at the creek we had to cross on another of the county roads. We would have turned around if we could have, even though it would have meant backtracking over 10 miles on the road. The road was so narrow that we would have had to back up for at least a mile before there was any place to turn around. Our CR-V plowed through the creek with no problem. We will not be going on any more Missouri county roads unless someone tells us they are passable.
Saturday afternoon Kelsey & Kathy did some shopping in Jefferson City while Andy & I messed around. We met and had an early dinner and then Andy & I went out to check out where his brother and Dad were harvesting soy beans. (The combine engine is a big air cooled diesel. No radiator, no water, just air for cooling.) David & Elaine (Andy’s Dad & Mom) sided their house during the summer. We went from the field over to their house to look at it. It really looks nice. Elaine gave us some tomatoes. We had just run out of the tomatoes Tom & Mary Lou had given us. Nothing tastes better than home grown tomatoes.
This morning we headed back for Logan Valley (Ellington). We took a slightly different route, sightseeing. Below is the view from a roadside park where we stopped to stretch our legs. There are lots of similar vistas along the highways we travelled over the weekend.
Our route took us past Maramec Spring Park so stopped to take a look. We were sure glad we did. The spring and the trout rearing areas were really interesting but the remnants of the iron making facilities, the forging facilities and the open pit iron mine were the highlights for me.
The maximum recorded flow from Maramec Spring is 420 MILLION gallons a day, the average flow is 93 million gallons a day. I can’t begin to describe how many trout are in the “rearing”canal. I think they said the turn loose 50,000 trout a year into the Maramec river.
The spring feeds this pool.
Looking back over the spring.
The water flowing over the rocks behind me is only a small part of what comes out of the the spring.
The Maramec Iron Works was built in 1826 and operated until 1876. The photo below shows what is left of the furnace. In the museum there is a scale model of the entire area. It shows the mulitstory building that used to be around the furnace. I could go on and on about how cool it was but most of you wouldn't find it interesting. For those who would, check out the web site listed below.
This is the "casting arch."
Check out their web site for a lot more information http://maramecspringpark.com/maramec/ If you are ever in southeast Missouri make sure you don’t miss it.
We also stopped at Dillard Mill to see a water powered mill that was in service from the 1850’s to 1956. For any Staley/T&L guys reading this, I saw what was probably one of the first paddle mixers. It was constructed of wood. I forgot my camera or I would have taken a photo. (It was probably over a half mile hike, along a rough gravel path, from the parking lot to the mill. I was to lazy to go get my camera.) Some parts of the mill still function, although they don’t grind any grain. The web site, which we didn’t see until this evening, says they run the mill during tours. We opted not to take the guided tour and just walked around by ourselves. I talked to the lady forestry person at the mill, to confirm that it did operate at times. She gave me the impression that while it did run, they rarely ran it.
We had a very good weekend. Good night and may God bless you and yours.
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