Monthly Archives: May 2015
A Lost Afternoon . . .
Saturday, 5/23
Jan’s sister Debbie and her husband Jim picked us up at our motel about 9am, and we all headed down to the Denny’s to meet up with the rest of the clan.
After another great meal we all piled into 3 cars and headed into St. Louis for an afternoon at Grant’s Farm in St. Louis. But it did not work out that way.
Grant’s Farm was the home of Ulysses S Grant, where he lived from 1854 until the beginning of the Civil War, and farmed and raised cattle. In fact, Grant’s home is still preserved here. At some point it was bought by the Busch family of Anheuser-Busch fame who opened it to the public as wildlife reserve/petting zoo in 1954. They even have Clydesdales.
So it sounded like a really neat place. But apparently it sounded that way to everyone else in St. Louis, because it seems like they all converge on the place on Saturday morning.
After an hours drive from Vandalia to St. Louise, it took us over another hour backed up on the main highway to finally turn into the park, and another 30 minutes to get to the entrance.
After that long wait, everyone needed to use the bathroom, and by ‘everyone’, I mean everyone in the park, and we found the potty lines were over an hour long. After suffering through that, we found the line to actually walk into the park was another hour.
And by then the park would close in about 90 minutes.
At this point we decided to call it a day. We had dinner reservations for 5pm, and wanted to be sure we could get over to St. Charles, MO by that time.
Leaving the park we saw at least part of the reason for the bottleneck. To walk into the park itself you have to cross the entrance road where everyone is still trying to enter in their vehicles.
So they stop the traffic let people cross and then stop the people to let the traffic come in. And as we left the cars were still trying to come in.
* * * * *
It’s now almost 11pm Monday night and we want to be on the road by 6am for our 2 day 1500+ mile trip back to Prescott, AZ tomorrow. So I’ll finish the rest of this later.
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Thought for the Day:
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.” – Groucho Marx
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Where Everyone Knows Your Name . . .
Friday, the 22nd. (I’ll catch up all the way eventually.)
Well, after our 15 hour drive on Thursday, it would have been nice to sleep in a little more, but we were excited to get together with the family, or at least the first part of it. So we were out the door a little before 9 to meet the group down the road a couple of miles at the Denny’s.
The Denny’s here in Vandalia is pretty much the local hometown diner, not only where everyone knows your name, but you’re probably related by blood or marriage to three quarters of them. But the food is good, the service is great, and the manager stops to chat with everyone. Just a really great place.
After breakfast Jan rode back with her sister Debbie to her house while I came back to the hotel to catch up on some client computer stuff, (and to also catch a nap) finally heading down to Debbie’s about 3pm. Tried to get some shots of all the hummingbirds around Debbie’s flowers and feeders, but they were mostly too fast. Did get one though.
Later in the afternoon we drove south to Salem, IL to Debbie and Jim’s son Jason and his wife Laura’s home. Laura and Jason have 3 daughters close to Landon’s age so they all had a great time playing on their trampoline.
Then it was off to the Village Garden, a favorite restaurant in the Salem area. Once a defunct Golden Corral, it’s now a great dinner location.
And this little cutie is Annisten, Jason and Laura’s youngest, who just sat across from me and stared. All night. I guess she was wondering just who the hell I was. But she’s a real beauty.
This is Ella, Annisten’s older sister, who looks more and more like her mother Laura every day.
Another cutie.
The oldest, Avery Jane, I never did get a good picture of because she never stops moving. I’ll try again later.
Then after a great meal, it was back to Debbie’s for a while, and then on to the motel.
Sleep at last.
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Thought for the Day:
Don’t gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don’t go up, don’t buy it. — Will Rogers
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