November 22, 2004

November 22, 2004

Trout Lodge to Festus, Missouri & return

DAY 158

 

First thing this morning I drove a couple of miles to the nearby highest point on Hwy. AA to make a phone call. The Ozark hills and lead in the ground around here make cell phone use difficult at best. I phoned Mr. Mike Ward at Pioneer Farm in Austin, Texas to discuss their ad looking for WorkCampers. Pioneer Farm is a living history "museum" working farm, circa 1880's, somewhat like Upper Canada Village on the St. Lawrence River near Brockville, about an hour south of Ottawa. We always enjoyed visiting there, so it might be interesting to work for a month in a similar place. Pioneer Farm is owned and operated by the Austin Historical Preservation Society for the last 60 years or so. Mr. Ward and I had a lengthy, interesting discussion about their needs, our skills and talents, etc.. They are on 100 acres on the outskirts of Austin. They have a small amount of livestock, a gift shop, working artisans and craftspeople, etc.. January and February are somewhat slow for them, from a tourism perspective, but groups of children from the Austin schools still come in on a weekly basis to see how farms and villages operated 125 years ago. Mr. Ward and I discussed the possibility of Joanne and me working there caring for livestock, working the gift shop, and doing costumed interpretation for school groups, for the month of January. Since we plan to spend Christmas in Livingston, Texas, working in Austin for January might fit in well with our travel plans. We are pursuing a couple of other opportunities, so we are still undecided.

Immediately after lunch we set off for Festus, the nearest town with a pet store that carries Nutro cat food. Hwy. AA to Hwy. 8, Hwy. 8 to Potosi, then Hwy. 21 north. Just on the outskirts of Potosi, on Hwy. 21, we saw the damage done to Potosi Lumber by the tornado that ripped through here a month ago. That was the night we spent riding out a tornado at the Flying J on Interstate 55. The damage to Potosi Lumber was amazing. A large commercial building destroyed, while everything around it was untouched. The tornado storms around here blow up violent winds, and every so often a funnel develops, and comes down for a minute or two and devastates everything in its path. Hwy. 21 north to Hwy. 110, then east on Hwy. 110 to De Soto, then Hwy. 67 to the town of Festus, where Hwy. 67 meets Interstate 55, just south of St. Louis. A long way to go for cat food. Stupid cats ! Hwy. 21 from Potosi to De Soto is where the locals routinely seem to roll their vehicles over.

We bought the last bag of Nutro Max Senior dry cat food in the store, and we can tell from the date coding on the bag that it has been on their shelf for almost a year. Hope it's not too stale for Toby. He's a little picky about stale food. While we were in Festus, we decided to get haircuts. Festus seemed a bit more "in the 21st century" than Potosi. I was sort of avoiding letting anyone in Potosi come at my hair with a pair of scissors. From what I've seen, the haircuts in Potosi come with a free soup bowl included !

On the way back, we took a different route, travelling south on Hwy. 67 all the way to Desloges, then Hwy. 8 back to Potosi, where we stopped at Wal-Mart for a few supplies. "Goin' Wal-Martin' " as it's known locally. By the time we got back to the trailer, it was dark, time to feed the cats, and head for Trout Lodge for supper.

We chatted, and laughed a lot, over supper with Julie, and Program Angie. There are so many duplicate names here that people are identified by their department as well as their name. Outdoor Education Tim, Lakewood Sally, Volunteer Daniel, and so on. Alternate descriptions work as well. "The Canadian", "the WorkCamper lady", etc.. After supper, Joanne did some laundry, and I did some work online on our investments. I've been neglecting that lately.

DSK