2002-07-11 - 8:53 p.m.
We have been playing tourist. Packing our maps and cameras and water bottles and peanut butter sandwiches into Mother Superior and driving around in search of Attractions. And this, by the way, is something we identified on this trip: We like attractions. I thought we would do a bunch of hiking, and woodsy stuff. But I got two tick bites on the first day, which are still itching and getting infected, and every time I think of taking a hike, I think of all the ticks out there, ready to ambush me. (Because, for some reason I will probably never determine, everything that bites humans will find me and bite me even when they are not biting other people.)So we are just not quite up for having a wilderness experience in Missouri in the middle of July.
Our first field trip was to State Parks. Which kind of qualifies as an outdoor experience, but a rather tame one: nice little, keep-your-shoes-clean trails, good signage, and of course the ubiquitous *other people* from which most wilderness experience types are fleeing. So it is a trade off.
Our first destination was a place called the Johnson Shut-Ins. (I have to admit I always thought of a family of invalids named Johnson when I heard of this place.....) It is a bendy place in the river, where the water has carved deeply into the rock. Leaving lots of big rocks, and clear pools. Since we brought our dog along on the trip, and a big sign said NO PETS, Skootie and I had to experience this place one at a time, while the other one roams around the parking lot with the dog. Not optimum, but doable. It was a pretty spot, what we could see of it, considering there were hoards of people swimming. Of course we left our bathing suits at home (along with the courage to wear a bathing suit in public) so we moved on to Elephant Rock.
Really big rocks. Covered with lichens and mosses. We climbed around on them and took lots of pictures. There were no rules against dogs here, and our little Pipsqueek scrambled gamely around on the rocks. We all got really, really hot.
At Taum Sauk mountain we climbed a tall, open observation tower that gave us a sudden case of vertigo.... but we could see for miles, once we got over our obsession with keeping a deathgrip on the handrail. I don't know if we were actually on the highest point in the state or just looking at it from the tower, but the green mountains are beautiful.
Yesterday we were hot on the trail of Attractions: The home of Laura Ingalls Wilder. This was well worth the six dollar entry fee, and the fact that S and I once again had to have separate-but-equal experiences: One of us toured the museum and house while the other hovered in the parking lot with the dog. There were other people doing the dog shuffle, too. Mostly Dads, stuck in the parking lots, walking dogs, while Mom and the kids do their sight-seeing. (Ok.... I know why they can't allow pets. But it is kind of hard to accept that we couldn't walk through carrying an eight pound dog in our arms.) That aside, this was a museum that had a good amount of Actual Stuff that belonged to LIW. Like Pa's fiddle and Ma's pen, and their family bible. And the house was just as she left it when she died, complete with LIW's 1957 Montgomery Wards catalog. But the bizarre detail I'll probably always recall (memory is a strange beast) is that the young woman giving the tour of the house had a strange speech habit-- an odd way of using the words "do" and "did." For example: "This is the stairway that Rose DID climb..." "We DO have this table that Almonzo DID make."
We also visited a little Mom and Pop winery. And bought a bottle of what will probably not be very good wine (we got a taste)with a handy screw-off top because we liked their little place. And we liked their story. And they were so friendly. Sometimes we are suckers like that. But...you don't always have to make sense. Especially when you are on vacation... playing tourist.
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