Oct 16th - A Good Weekend

The last few days have been busy. Friday we drove to Russellville. We left the motorhome at the camp and drove the CR-V. Friday evening was the viewing for Cathy (Kelsey’s sister-in-law who was killed in a motorcycle accident) and the funeral was Saturday morning.  It was good to get to spend time with her, Andy and that side of the family, even under such sad circumstances.
                                  
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.

http://mostateparks.com/page/54956/general-information

We had a very good weekend. Good night and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 13th - Dentist Day

We did maintenance painting on some doors and door frames this morning. Kathy kept it up while I was at the Dentist. The good news is that it isn't going to cost us $1,200 to have a crown put on my broken tooth. The bad news is that they couldn't put a crown on it because the break went all the way down to bone. I had to have it pulled.

The lady dentist worked one solid hour getting it out. That hour did not include the time she spent poking and removing the broken piece, nor the time waiting for the Novocaine to kick in, etc. The hour was just the time she was yanking and tugging on the tooth. She must have shot a pint of Novocaine into me, and I needed every bit of it <grin>.

It rained here last night and thing are greening up nicely. Today the high was in the low 70's and the low tonight is supposed to be in the mid 40's. Tomorrow is supposed to be another beautiful day.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 12th - Done for the Day before Noon

Yesterday Kathy did more cleaning. I varnished interior wood siding (they use a lot of tongue and groove wood siding on interior walls), installed some mirrors in the new bathrooms, re-cut a hole for a register grill (its in a new bldg and the opening was cut to small for the grill), and helped pick up enough walnuts to fill a big wheelborrow.

Not much happened at my dental appointment. The looked at my cracked tooth, wiggled the loose piece around some, took an x-ray and the dentist said she thought that there was enough left to put on a crown. She won't know for sure until she removes the loose section. If there isn't enough left for a crown then the remainder of the tooth will have to be pulled. She blocked out a 3 hour appointment for me tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon to put on a temporary crown. It will take at least two weeks to get the crown made and then I will have to go back, have the temporary crown removed and the permanent one installed.

It rained a little last night. That was good because it has been pretty dusty here. We are a half mile down a gravel road and the other campground is close to half a mile beyond us, down that road. It has been sprinkling on and off all morning. Kathy, David (the employee) and I swept floors, cleaned the new bathrooms, and mopped floors for 2 1/2 hours this morning. Dave & Sue (the camp owners/directors) have season tickets for the  Cardinal baseball team. The just left to go to a playoff game tonight, in St Louis. Since we finished everything on the "work list" this morning they told us to take the rest of the day off.

I think Dave & Sue, especially Sue, are so used to doing most things themselves that they are having a tough time getting acclimated to having help. Yesterday was David's (the employee) first day back at work (he worked here several years ago). With both him and Kathy and I working it is tough for them to think far enough ahead to keep us all busy.  Before having the help I think they operated in the mode of just being able to get the things done that had to be done. Now they have to get into the mode of being able to do things that need to be done, but things they just didn't have time to do before having help. The other thing is that they didn't know Kathy and I. I suspect that they wondered whether we were some doddering old farts who were just looking for a place to park for free, or if we were someone who was willing to actually do some work. Now that we are getting more familiar with one another I think they will start thinking about things they would like to get done, not just the things that have to be done. I hope so because I doubt we will stay long if they can only come up with enough to keep us busy a couple hours a day.

A contractor came out this morning to set forms for foundation walls for a new "staff housing" building. He was rained out but will probably be back tomorrow. Maybe we can get started on building it while we are here. After even the small amount of rain we just received the grass will probably start growing again and there may be some mowing to be done.

Well time for my nap. Actually Kathy just prodded me to go ask Dave, Kathy and their two boys over for supper, then it will be time for my nap.

Have a great day and may God bless you and yours.

Oct 11th - Good and Bad

Yesterday was a good day at Logan Valley but it came with some bad news. Kelsey's sister-in-law was killed in a motorcycle accident. That is all we know at this time.

Our day started with meeting Dave & Sue, the couple who manage Logan Valley Christian Retreat, they were in Chicago for the weekend when we arrived and didn't get back until very late Sunday night. I think we are going to enjoy working with them.

We caught them a little by surprise. They didn't think we were going to arrive until late yesterday or even early this morning. I had emailed Dave about the change in plans, and left them a phone message, but they weren't home to receive either.

Ever vacuum a gym? Our first task was to vacuum the auditorium or multi-purpose facility. It isn't quite large enough to hold two full size basketball courts. It took us nearly two hours to vacuum it and a couple of adjoining rooms.

We then moved our RV to it's "permanent" location and got everything hooked up. Not a big move. We had to move the camp's dump trailer to make more room and then basically turned the RV 90 degrees from where we had been.

We had lunch with Dave & Sue; David, Kathy and their two boys (permanent staff); and some guys who were here from St. Louis to look the camp over for a potential church retreat.

After lunch we swept the dining hall & kitchen (actually this was one of the dining halls, the larger one, it seats around 130). Then while Kathy vacuumed the chapel I beat rugs. You absolutely can't believe how much dirt one of those heavy, rubber-backed entry rugs can hold. I finally got the vacuum Kathy had used in the chapel and attacked them with that. The amount of dirt I got out of them was just amazing, and they really had not looked all that dirty.

When we finished that we tracked Sue down, she was cleaning elsewhere, and asked what we could do next. While she was thinking we suggested mopping the dining room and kitchen, the one we had swept. That finished our work day, and us <grin>.

I have a dental appointment today to see what they propose for my broken tooth. Hopefully there is enough left for a crown. The good news is that it doesn't hurt at all.

Time to get at it. May God bless you and yours this day.

Oct 10th AM - At Logan Valley

We arrived at Logan Valley Christian Retreat just before noon yesterday. Getting out here from Ellington was more interesting, by far, (relatively narrow roads, no shoulders, often with STEEP drop offs on one side) than getting out to our property from Crossville. In hind sight it probably would be about the same now that we know where we are going.

Overnighting at the Walmart in Poplar Bluff was interesting. I slept pretty good, even with all the noise. The kids there have a lot of loud, although they are just loud, not strong, sounding V8's. I didn't hear one rice burner wind out. There was a lot of tire squealing, but again, it all sounded like something from anemic V8's. I walked over to Hardee's and had breakfast. When I bit down on a tater tot I thought there was a piece of bone in it that jambed between one of my teeth and my gum. It wasn't a piece of bone, I broke a tooth. It must be one that had had a root canal because it doesn't hurt. The piece that broke off is quite large and still attached to the gum. After we meet the folks this morning one of my top priorities will be to find a dentist.

The couple who run Logan Valley were in Chicago for the weekend. There is a young couple here who are just starting as permanent staff. Between us we were able to find a temporary parking spot for the RV and get us plugged in to the electricity. We still have plenty of water/sewer capacity so we weren't didn't need those hook-ups yet.

We walked around and looked over the facility yesterday. We didn't find one locked door. We also walked down the dirt road that leads to the facility to get a better feel for the area.

View looking almost straight ahead from our RV.

View looking to the right. The dark colored building in the distance are one of the kitchen/dining facilities and one of the housing units.

Standing out by the road looking back at our RV. The front part of the building on the left is a two story housing unit while the back is more of an auditorium. There is some type of home in the trees behind us, and not that far from us. We have seen a vehicle go up a drive to the right of us and while sitting outside we heard some activity. Not a think is visible. 

Down the road aways is a nice creek with a very interesting rocky/sandy area beside it. The water is clear so it is difficult to judge depths. My guess is that the deepest part we saw was only about 4' deep. The young man who helped us get set up said that is had bee dry here, but the grass still looks green so I don't think it has been really dry.

Just finished my breakfast of ham and eggs and Kathy just got up and made herself a cup of tea. Time for another cup of coffee and then another day of adventure.

The day was beautiful here yesterday, and it looks like it will be today. Yesterday the high ws near 80 but it never felt hot, there was a nice breeze. It is 49 right now. With all the windows open during the night it was right chilly when I got out of bed this morning.

Good morning to all and may God bless you and yours on this wonderful day.

Oct 9th - Pol Comm - Feds Prevent Construction Jobs

Jobs at no cost to taxpayers, no way the Feds are going to allow that to happen.

Why is it that Democrats, and to a lesser degree Republicans, insist that growing government intervention is the answer to all problems? They think they just have to grow government to reduce unemployment, when in reality all they have to do is get out of the way.

The oil pipeline from Canada is a perfect example of the Federal government dragging its feet on reducing employment. Because the proposed pipeline crosses our border with Canada the Feds just have to help.

The construction of the pipeline would create 13,000 construction jobs and 7,000 additional jobs making the steel, pumps and other necessary equipment; AT NO COST TO AMERICAN TAXPAYERS! Not all the jobs would be American jobs, but most of the construction jobs would filled by Americans.

The pipeline would increase our use of Canadian oil by around 500,000 barrels a day. Not a lot based on our consumption levels, but better to give our money to the Canadians than OPEC, the Arabs.

So you ask, “What are the Feds doing to help this project along?” Nothing, they continue to throw up road blocks. The pipeline would go through numerous states. Each state would have the ability to prevent it from being built. For some reason the demi-gods in DC  seem certain that those in State government are just to stupid to decide if the pipeline, crossing through THEIR states, is worth doing.

The Feds have been reviewing this project for over 2 years and are still sitting on their hands. Had they approved it in a timely manner construction would now be under way. (TransCanada placed an initial order for some of the pipe in 2009.)

You may not agree with the environmental aspects of oil from oil sands, but that decision was made by Canadians when they chose to develop THEIR oil fields. Perhaps you would rather get your oil from people like nice rulers like Saddam Hussein and Kaddafi.  If so you can fight the battle at the state level and stop the pipeline from going through your state.

Oct 8th - Poplar Bluff, MO

We left Crossville this morning in time to have lunch at Demo's in Lebanon, TN. As usual the food was great.

We are staying the night at a Walmart parking lot in Poplar Bluff, MO. What a change! Loud pickups racing through the parking lot. Apparently there is a fire station just down the road because we heard a siren start up and in a very short time saw a fire truck and other vehicles, also with sirens blaring, going down the highway in front of the Walmart. I will have no problems sleeping, all I have to do is put my good ear on the pillow and I don't hear anything, poor Kathy won't be as lucky. She is in Walmart walking right now, trying to get a little exercise. I already walked in from the far corner of the parking lot, to get the manager's OK for an overnight.

We did not plan on driving this far today but there aren't a lot of choices on where we feel comfortable parking for the night. Once you pass one you might sometimes have to go quite a ways to find the next one, as we did.

We are a little over 400 miles from Tom & Mary Lou's. We have another 70 miles of rural (I think some will be very rural) roads to get to Logan Valley.

We initially planned on going northwest out of Nashville, up I24. We had travelled part of that last year on one of our TN trips. We also used to travel it on trips to FL, when we lived in IL. Kathy suggested that we stay on I40 west of Nashville and then head northwest, which is what we did. We got quite a surprise approximately a hundred miles west of Nashville - cotton fields. From there all the way up to here we have seen a LOT of cotton fields. Some have been harvested but most have not. There are cotton "balls" all along the roadway. If we had seen some place with decent shoulders we might have pulled off and picked up a few, we may still.

I know - lousy photo. In the far distance are what we think are cotton "bales". They are about the size of a flat bed semi-trailer. We noticed that they have different color covers on top but don't know if that is significant.

Time for a shower and almost time for bed. Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.