Many of posters have talked about visiting Thailand, Europe and other exciting places. Well we just took a trip touring part of the MidWest! We spent most of our time in Missouri, avoiding Minnesota cold. My thoughts on Missouri:
* The Glore Psychiatric Museum in UncleMick's new hometown of St. Joe is one of the best museums I have ever seen. Interesting to see how mental illness was treated through the years. Enemas. Blasts of cold water. Cages. "Hamster" wheels. Drilling into the skull. Etc.
* Lake of the Ozarks is not located in any kind of mountains nor is it really a lake, but is a reservoir. But the state park is nice, with lots of trails through oak and hickory forests, and plenty of birds to watch. Missouri was allowing people who were homeless from Katrina to stay for free.
* The state parks in October were nearly empty during the week. Inexpensive and most had well developed trail systems. Dog friendly. Met a couple of campers who were staying in a state park for a month with their 11 dogs and 4 cats. They sold their home and hadn't closed on the purchase of their new house.
* The fall color is not near as intense as it is in the north, where there are many more maples.
* Southern Missouri's dirt is unpleasant, a mixture of dust and sharp rocks.
* We met a woman whose sister in law's step sister is Eminem's mother. I quote "that family has troubles."
* Who has all the money? Lots of very expensive boats on the various lakes/reservoirs.
* Saw more goats than I have seen in my entire life.
* Internet access via cell phone was spotty. Come on Verizon! But wi fi is continuing to explode and we found lots of free access points. Iowa has wi fi for free in its rest areas. Malls have it. Etc.
* What are those dirty green tennis ball things growing on trees?
* The Glore Psychiatric Museum in UncleMick's new hometown of St. Joe is one of the best museums I have ever seen. Interesting to see how mental illness was treated through the years. Enemas. Blasts of cold water. Cages. "Hamster" wheels. Drilling into the skull. Etc.
* Lake of the Ozarks is not located in any kind of mountains nor is it really a lake, but is a reservoir. But the state park is nice, with lots of trails through oak and hickory forests, and plenty of birds to watch. Missouri was allowing people who were homeless from Katrina to stay for free.
* The state parks in October were nearly empty during the week. Inexpensive and most had well developed trail systems. Dog friendly. Met a couple of campers who were staying in a state park for a month with their 11 dogs and 4 cats. They sold their home and hadn't closed on the purchase of their new house.
* The fall color is not near as intense as it is in the north, where there are many more maples.
* Southern Missouri's dirt is unpleasant, a mixture of dust and sharp rocks.
* We met a woman whose sister in law's step sister is Eminem's mother. I quote "that family has troubles."
* Who has all the money? Lots of very expensive boats on the various lakes/reservoirs.
* Saw more goats than I have seen in my entire life.
* Internet access via cell phone was spotty. Come on Verizon! But wi fi is continuing to explode and we found lots of free access points. Iowa has wi fi for free in its rest areas. Malls have it. Etc.
* What are those dirty green tennis ball things growing on trees?