Missouri – Tuesday, November 6
I started my day with some interesting presidential trivia, which was appropriate for this important election day. St. Joseph was the starting point for the Pony Express mail delivery back in 1860-1861, and I went to see the monument and the old pony stables. I read that back in 1860 when Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election, the folks out in California had to wait 10 days for the pony express rider to bring them the news of their new president – and that was considered speedy communication for the times! And now we impatiently wait to hear the results on the very same day! There was a Pony Express motel next to the Pony Express Museum, and it was old – the motel sign was one of those gaudy cowboy signs from the 50s and 60s – made me think back to some of the road trips of my youth! I sort of wanted to see it all lit up at night!
Tula and I walked about 3 miles around town and out into one of the neighborhoods. Again, there was sort of an air of former prosperity that just hasn’t continued – some more empty storefronts and not a lot of people out and about. There’s lots of nice looking brick buildings, but maybe they’re just really expensive to update and maintain. Outlaw Jesse James’ home is preserved here in St. Joseph – they try to lure people in to see the actual bullet hole in his house from when he was killed. Didn’t appeal to me!
After finishing our city walk, I belatedly discovered there was a nice river walk by the Missouri River. So we headed down to the river and got in another 4 miles. The path was paved and clear, but it was very obvious there had been some major damage to trees and grasses all around due to flooding…which I think happened last year. There was a nice nature center near the midpoint of the trail, and it’s built on stilts. I have trouble picturing the river overflowing with so much water over such a widespread area. There were also a couple of railroad tracks running near the river, and I continue to be surprised at how many loooong coal trains go by – I counted about 180 train cars of coal in one train, and they all seem to be about that long. I don’t know where all that coal is coming from.
Then it was time to take care of my donation-of-the-day. I’d had an idea while I was out walking, and I had to do a little research to see if I could do what I wanted, and it worked out. Since it was election day, I thought my donation should be somehow connected to that, but I also wanted to be fair to both sides. So…I ended up giving half my donation to elephants (the elephant conservation program at the Kansas City, Missouri zoo) and the other half to donkeys (Longmeadow Rescue Ranch – the biggest rescue ranch in Missouri and they currently have donkeys). I wrote a note explaining my donation and they’ll probably think I’m crazy, but oh well!
And then I headed to Independence, Missouri for my final presidential connection of the day – an ice cream sundae in an old-fashioned 1908 soda fountain where former President Harry S Truman once worked for $3 a week. The name of the soda fountain shop is Clinton’s (yet another presidential connection!) and it was the cutest little place – already decorated for Christmas with old-fashioned decorations. Then Tula and I took a short walk around town before dark (yes, I ruined my dinner appetite!) but I knew we’d be back for more walking in the morning. Independence is a classic turn-of-the-century midwest town and I wanted to see more!
It may have been a historical day for Obama and Romney, but I liked my day with Lincoln, elephants, donkeys, Clinton and Truman better!!
Missouri – Monday, November 5
It rained last night, and it was a drizzly gray day. But maybe that’s good for all the hunters here in northern Missouri. It seems to be deer season here too, and I think my motel was popular with hunters because there was a scrap of towel on the bathroom counter with a note politely asking people to use the clean (but possibly stained) scrap for cleaning guns, instead if using one of the nice shower towels!
I was in the town of Chillicothe, and even though it was misting out, I decided to start off my walking in town. It was a nice-sized town from the 1800s, with a lot of 2 story brick buildings, nice broad avenues with easy pull-in parking (coming from one who avoids parallel parking!) and I could just imagine the days when the streets were full of horses and carriages, and later, early automobiles. Again, there were empty storefronts, and I just tried to picture the town when all the buildings were occupied and people were bustling about – online shopping is certainly taking a toll, both on small shopkeepers and on face-to-face human interaction. There were a number of large murals on some of the side walls of buildings, and they were well done, and so nice to look at instead of dusty brick. I also walked in a couple of the city parks, and all-in-all we covered nearly 4 miles.
Then it was donation time. I had looked into veterans homes in Missouri, and discovered that there are 7 of them, and they sounded like nice places. Each of them had a person to contact for volunteer/donation questions, and before I left the motel this morning, I had emailed the volunteer coordinator for the veterans home in the next town over to see if there might be something useful for me to get. And she emailed back a wish list. So I headed for a Wal-Mart and got a variety of stuff from the wish list – a box of silverware, white t-shirts, white washcloths, construction paper, highlighters, puzzle books, paintbrushes, and muffin mixes – quite a selection!
Unfortunately, while I was driving out of the parking lot after shopping, an elderly gentleman pulled right out of the drop-off lane into my passenger door. It really startled me – at first I thought someone had thrown a rock or something at the van. The damage was relatively minor on both sides, but I still talked to my insurance agent, and we exchanged info and I took photos. I’ll see what comes of all that – at least it doesn’t impact the driving, and the door works fine.
I found the veterans home and carried the stuff in. The place was clean and comfortable and welcoming – the people were friendly, and it seems to be a really nice place for the veterans.
After dropping that stuff off, I headed to St Joseph on the Missouri River in the west side of the state. I’d read that there was a big park just north of town with some trails and all, so I made beeline for that, and did another 4 miles of walking. I passed an outdoor amphitheater in a natural depression in the hills – what a great place to come see a performance on a summer night! I finished my walking for the day, and stayed in a local motel. I’m still not used to it getting dark so early!
Missouri – Sunday, November 4
Winfield is just a tiny blip on the map of Missouri, but my stop there had the biggest impact on me today. As I left St. Charles, I wanted to head north along the Great River Road to Hannibal, following the Mississippi River. I knew I’d be driving through some little towns on the way, and I didn’t really expect to stop in many of them. As I drove through Winfield, I noticed a sign at the bottom of a street that said something about a chicken dinner. I wasn’t hungry at all since I’d had a bigger-than-usual breakfast, so at first I ignored it. But then my brain registered the words “meals on wheels” in parentheses underneath. I wondered if it was a fund-raising dinner. So I turned around and went back and found the senior citizen center where the chicken dinner was going to be held. I asked the guys who were getting ready to cook chicken if this was a fundraising event, and when they told me it was, I told them I would like to make a donation instead of buying a dinner. They talked to someone inside, and I went in and met a group of wonderful ladies trying to get set up for dinner. When I explained that I wanted to make a donation for their Meals on Wheels program, I told them a little about what I was doing, and they were so interested and supportive of my adventure that it really made my day 🙂 I ended up sitting down to talk for a bit, and they took some pictures, and then they even all came out to meet Tula! In fact, one of the ladies started taking Tula for a short walk around the yard, and Tula trotted away happily with her which surprised me because she’s usually so clingy, but then I think she realized I wasn’t on the other end of the leash, and she hurried back and made a spectacle of herself greeting me as though I’d been away for months. And then she was happy to see everyone – luckily they all seemed to be dog people! I ended up buying a chicken dinner to go and they gave me ice for my cooler and we took a couple more pictures, and it was just a really heartwarming stop. Angel, the director, told me how many meals they deliver every single day in the community, and I can’t remember exactly what the number was, but it was in the hundreds – and I admire what they’re doing. As I continued my drive north, I thought about some of the people I’ve met so far on my journey, and there have been sooooo many good, kind people who are trying to help others who are less fortunate. I come through and make my small donation, but they’re the ones working day in and day out to help others – I’m happy to meet them, and I certainly enjoyed the group I met in Winfield, working hard for the Lincoln County Council on Aging!
It was time to get going with my walking for the day – I came to the town of Louisiana which was a big one compared to the little ones I’d been driving through. We walked through town, then down to the river (where I saw the first of many long coal trains, then far out into the neighborhoods, and covered almost 4 miles. There’s a lot of cool old brick buildings in Louisiana, but some of them have seen better days, and there were quite a few empty storefronts. Then I continued on to Hannibal, and found myself in Mark Twain country. Nearly the whole town seems to be a memorial to Mark Twain – and Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. It became difficult to separate fact from fiction, especially since he used his neighborhood pals as models for his literary pals. It makes me want to read those books! Mark Twain’s childhood home is still standing, and is now a part of a museum complex at one end of town. Tula and I walked through the historic part of town, then went down by the river to look at the Mark Twain steamboat. Lots of people were out and about on a Sunday afternoon. We also climbed 244 steps up to a lighthouse on a bluff high above the Mississippi – we were higher than the bridge spanning the Mississippi! Tula and I walked til dusk, and I need to remember that it’s going to be dark earlier. We finished our walking for the day though, and then I began the drive across the state toward the St. Joseph area, but called it a night in Chillicothe.
Missouri – Saturday, November 3
My first order of business today was to get an oil change – so I drove about 10 miles up the highway to a Valvoline oil change shop in St. Charles, and ended up staying all day – there was so much to see and so much good walking! What a wonderful introduction to Missouri!
After the oil change, I parked a block off the Main Street area, and planned to walk as far as I could on that street before circling around to the actual Main Street with all the shops (didn’t want to get distracted early in the day!). That part of the walk took us through the “antique district” and the historic Frenchtown district. St. Charles has a strong French background, and I even heard some people speaking French. On the far side of all of that, I came to the beginning of the KATY rail trail (a 225 mile trail where the old Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad used to run), which runs along the Missouri River, so we headed out of town for a ways on that. After about a mile and a half, we passed a dog park that was having some sort of event with a bunch of people and dogs, so we went down there to see what was going on. (I thought if it was a fund-raising event, I could make my animal-related donation). It turned out to be more of a rally to get a bunch of people to vote for a local resident and her dog who are one of 12 finalists in a contest that Beneful is sponsoring, and the winner gets a $500,000 makeover of their local dog park. So I dutifully voted, and there were human treats and doggie treats, and games with prizes. Since we were there when they announced a couple of the games – “Snoopy Says”; played like “Simon Says” – I figured we’d give it a shot. We came in third – haha! And it was my mistake that got us out. I was asking Tula to lay down (not her best trick) and it took a couple moments, and then I realized the other 2 people left weren’t making their dogs lie down because the announcer hadn’t said “Snoopy Says”. And then we also came in third out of the starting 12 in Musical Mats – the canine version of Musical Chairs. Tula’s so good on a leash now she didn’t seem to think it was strange that I was leading her in circles and periodically telling her to sit quickly! We won a nice collapsible feeding dish made by Outward Hound for our efforts!
Then we walked back into town along the rail trail, and walked the whole length of the Main Street, which was about a mile long with a cobblestone street, and restored brick and stone buildings that had been turned into dozens of quaint little shops, pubs and restaurants on the first floor, and apartments (I think!) with pretty wrought iron balconies on the second stories. There was a tiny little log church, and an old building that was the first capitol of Missouri. “Grandma’s Cookie Shop” was doing a brisk business with the motto that “a balanced diet is a cookie in each hand” and they use a fan to blow fresh-baked cookie smells out the door – I succumbed! I thoroughly enjoyed the town – one of my favorites yet – or maybe I’m just really happy to be back on the road! We circled back around to the van, and I put Tula in and went back into town so I could go into a few of the shops. I’m not usually much of a shopper, but there were a couple places I wanted to pop into – didn’t get anything, but it was fun to look. The Missouri River with a big riverfront park was a block or so on the other side of Main Street, so I walked back to the van to get Tula.
But first, I spent a little time looking into a possible donation. I hadn’t done much about that today, since I had pretty much planned the Red Cross donation to be for today instead of yesterday. But since I had enjoyed the town so much, I thought I would see if there were any local food pantries or anything that happened to still be open nearby, and to my surprise, the O.A.S.I.S. food pantry (Outreach Assistance Serving Individuals in St. Charles County) and thrift store were not only kind of nearby, but open til 5. There was actually a you-tube video on their website that explained their future goals. The first lady I talked to gave me a list of items they could use, so I headed out to shop. But it was about 4:30, so I decided to stop by the food pantry first to find out where I should leave the food if they were closed when I finished. I found out it’s illegal to leave food or clothing or anything by the doors – mostly because of bugs. So instead of shopping since time was running short and OASIS wouldn’t be open again til Tuesday, I gave them a check, which they can use to get what they need. The lady was interested in my story and how I happened to find them, and when I explained a little more about what I was doing, she offered to take me on a little tour of the facilities. It’s a nice set-up – the proceeds from the thrift store (nice and clean and organized) go toward food expenses, and they have private interview areas for the families that are referred to them, and the families are able to fill out a slip with a list of food and supplies that they need, and then a volunteer goes and fills the order. The families are not allowed to go into the food storage room, which is also very organized. OASIS owns an acre of property and they are renovating another building that will also be for a non-profit organization. So it ended up being an interesting visit.
Since there was still some daylight out, we went back to the river and walked around Frontier Park and along the path by the river. St. Charles is near the place where the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers join (I had to learn a little river geography!) and was the starting point for Lewis and Clark’s great journey to explore the upper reaches of the Missouri. There’s a larger-than-life statue of them and their dog in the park. And Daniel Boone also settled in St. Charles with his family – so much history! I kind of liked the fact that St. Charles was the starting point for Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the west, and it was also the first town of my adventures west of the Mississippi.
It was a very full day, and I was happy to discover that Red Roof Inns, like Motel 6, are all pet-friendly and don’t charge any extra for pets. So far I’m finding both gas and motels are less expensive than in New England, and that’s good for the budget!
Friday, November 2
I spent 4 wonderful days with Tara and Josh and the grandkids in Ohio – very busy days, but special grandma time 🙂 There was a lot of snow and slush on Tuesday morning – they were on the outer edges of all the snow that West Virginia got. And Wednesday was still cold and misty. But by Friday afternoon, the weather had cleared up, and I had been looking at maps, and now had a new itinerary. Hurricane Sandy has changed my journey, but it might be even better this way! I have a plan…
I left Ohio in the middle of the afternoon, and drove across Indiana and Illinois, and drove into Missouri a little after 10pm. I had never expected to be in Missouri today instead of Massachusetts, where I was supposed to be!
While I was driving, I listened to the benefit concert on the radio for Hurricane Sandy victims. It would have been fun to see it on TV, but I enjoyed it on the radio. I had already decided my first donation this week would be to the Red Cross, and listening to the benefit concert reinforced my choice. It might not have been a Missouri donation, but it was still definitely a good cause.
I’m really happy to be resuming my journey, and look forward to my Missouri adventures!
Delaware – Saturday, October 27
After I got packed up from camping, Tula and I took another 3.5 mile walk around the state park before leaving. I also climbed one of the WWII observation towers, but wasn’t too crazy being out at the top in all the wind! Tula actually walked right in and started climbing the spiral stairs, but stopped about halfway up when they got a little narrower. Since I was the only one in there, I just looped her leash over the rail and she waited patiently for me to come back down. We walked over the dunes and down to the ocean again, and there was a huge difference in the waves since yesterday morning. The sea was not in a friendly mood today! And it was getting gray out.
Then I stopped in Lewes again (people were starting to board up windows) to ask a couple questions about the donation I wanted to give. In the end, the donation didn’t quite work out as planned, so I ended up making a different one instead – and maybe that is for the best! My original thought came to me when I was in the Cannonball House Museum yesterday, and one of the plaques on the wall caught my attention. The plaque described one of the oldest aid societies in Delaware, which was formed in 1788 to support the families of incapacitated river pilots – it was called the Society for Relief of Distressed and Decayed Pilots. This aid society is still in existence, although the docent told me it is more like an insurance program these days. Making a donation to one of the oldest aid societies appealed to me. But, when I tried to do a little research on it, all I could find about this organization was a bunch of political stuff, and that does not appeal so much. When I returned to ask the docent how I could find out a little more, he suggested contacting people in Dover, the capital; and I also went to the Historical Society, but the lady there wasn’t familiar with it. Clearly the aid society has changed in 200+ years (as well it should!) and I couldn’t find any local connections with it. But I wanted to make a donation of some kind in the First Town in the First State, and ultimately made my donation to the Lewes Historical Society. They maintain about 15 small museums and old buildings in town, and that contributes to the charm of the town – they’re very involved in community activities too. So instead of contributing to an aid society that was formed in 1788, I contributed to an organization keeping history alive from 1631 when the town was formed!
I drove north a bit along the coast, and stopped at the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, where I finished my Delaware walking. The boardwalk took me out over marshy coastal waters, and I couldn’t help but think what was going to happen to this whole area when Hurricane Sandy hit. It’s almost incomprehensible.
Then I left Delaware, and drove through New Jersey and the northern part of New York City, and across Connecticut and into Rhode Island again. Since I’d been camping for 5 days I hadn’t watched any TV or listened much to the radio because I was always outside, and didn’t yet realize the severity of what was coming. I thought getting a little farther north, and away from New York and New Jersey would keep me out of the worst of it. In hindsight, I should have headed west from Delaware, instead of going to Rhode Island, but I didn’t.
And, as an earlier post stated, I ended up staying in Rhode Island Saturday night, listened a lot to the news, and made my decision to leave New England Sunday morning while I could get out. It took nearly 2 days to drive to Tara’s house in Ohio – through a great deal of rain, and wind that swirled leaves in big clusters. Traffic was heavy in spots, and even before the storm, I stopped at 2 gas stations that were already out of gas. People were filling up the gas tanks and lots of gas cans. I made frequent stops to top off my gas tank. One guy ahead of me in Connecticut filled his truck and had 6 other gas cans as well. People were definitely worried and trying to plan ahead. Listening to CNN on the radio convinced me I had made a good choice to head away from the storm. It was hard to think about what was going to happen to places I had just seen.
So, good-bye to New England for now, but I will return.
Delaware – Friday, October 26
I managed to wake up about 35 minutes before the sunrise without an alarm (pretty impressive for this night owl!) and it looked cloudy, but I headed over to the beach anyway. I’m glad I didn’t go last night because it was actually about 3/4 of a mile away – the sound of the waves just made it seem a lot closer. The fort area was much less ominous in the pre-dawn light, even though I was the only person out and about. We made it to the beach with about 10 minutes to spare, and I was happy to see a clear strip of sky along the horizon to be able to see the sun rise. Tula and I settled down against a dune and I felt like I had a ringside seat for a pretty show. Mother Nature did not disappoint! I hadn’t seen a sunrise for a while and it was beautiful. And as long as I was up and about, I let Tula off her leash, and we got a couple more miles of walking in along the beach – setting a record for me – 3 miles walked by 8:15 in the morning! I knew what my plans for the day were going to be, and since I was going to be in the general vicinity of this state park, I registered for another night – it’s a beautiful park and the weather is good and the price is right!
Today’s donation was a military-based one, but not the care package that I usually do. A request for assistance for an Army veteran’s family going through a particularly rough time had come to me in a somewhat roundabout way – through an injured military veteran who is on the Board for the Warrior Institute that my daughter Toni is involved in. I was happy to be able to help, and simply sent a donation directly to the family to use as they choose.
With that taken care of, I made the short drive to Lewes. Lewes is known as “the first town in the first state” – Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution, and Lewes was the first settlement in the state, founded in 1631. It’s a fun town to walk through, with all kinds of history and little museums. The town is home to many river pilots – the combination of the Atlantic Ocean, the Delaware Bay and the Delaware River makes for tricky currents and tides and hidden shoals, and most commercial vessels en route to Wilmington and Philadelphia still need a river pilot to help them navigate the treacherous waters. It takes 5 years to become a river pilot. I went in the oldest building still standing in Delaware (dating back to 1665) and went through the Cannonball House, which was an interesting little museum of local history.
From there I returned to Rehoboth Beach to enjoy the boardwalk again. This was the Sea Witch Festival weekend, and although there were some events scheduled for Friday, I didn’t really see anything special going on, although some people were dressed in Halloween costumes. Despite Hurricane Sandy looming offshore a couple days away, today was an absolutely perfect day weather-wise – sunny with temperatures in the low 70s. There were lots of people in the beach town and on the boardwalk. I got some fish and chips to go from the British restaurant and found a bench on the boardwalk with an ocean view to enjoy it. Then Tula and I walked 4 miles up and down the boardwalk and another mile and a half or so in town. I stayed until dusk, and then headed back to Cape Henlopen State Park for camping night #5. The campground was pretty full but I could still hear the ocean!
Delaware – Thursday, October 25
I love being able to get up and take a long walk first thing in the morning. We set out for the 4.6 Mile Loblolly Pine trail throughout the state park and around Trap Pond (although I didn’t see much of the pond til the end). I also took a 2 mile detour to a cypress tree area. And we walked an extra mile around the nature center area and the equestrian area. I didn’t see anyone out with horses, although the park is well set up to accommodate riders. From there I headed in a kind if circular way to Geargetown, and had to stop for a while to take care of a few matters back home, and details like paying car insurance and getting the proof of insurance faxed to me etc. Some of those things take a little longer to do while out on the road! I also called the Safe Haven Animal Sanctuary where I’ll be making a donation today, and they said they would be grateful for anything I could bring. So I shopped and got dry and canned dog food and cat food. It was a pretty drive to the shelter, and it’s another place that does not use cages for their animals – they put them in compatible groups in different rooms and outdoor runs, and it seems to be a very dedicated bunch of animal lovers who work at animal shelters. Even though they were not officially open today, there were still people there cleaning and looking after animals – they need that attention every single day.
After stopping at the animal sanctuary, I headed back to the east side of the state, got a bite to eat, and returned to Cape Henlopen State Park to camp for the 4th night in a row. So far Maine has been the only other state I was able to camp for 4 nights. Since I was more familiar with the park now, I picked a campsite on the side closest to the ocean, and could hear the waves right from the campsite. It sounded so pretty that I thought I’d try to find the dune trail over to the ocean to see it at night even though it was pretty dark. But I forgot I’d also have to walk through the fort area with those old buildings and those big mounted guns, and everything was so shadowy and a little spooky that I chickened out! I decided to try to get up to see the sunrise in the morning instead!
Sometime tomorrow afternoon (Friday) my journey will resume. I’ve had 4 wonderful days in Ohio with my daughter, son-in-law and my 2 grandkids while the weather calmed down. And I’ve been thinking of all the people in all the states I’ve so recently been to who were affected by the hurricane – it’s hard to comprehend. I haven’t had time to catch up with the remaining Delaware posts from last week – a 2-yr-old and a 2-month-old kept us all busy! I will add those very soon – I’m looking forward to being out on the road again!!
Monday morning, October 29
Several people have been wondering where I’m at, and if I’ve headed inland to get out of the way of Hurricane Sandy. I am safe! My blog posts usually run 2-3 days behind real time, and when I added a post yesterday, it was for last Wednedsay. I finished up a wonderful week in Delaware – making all my donations and doing all my walking, and camping for 5 straight nights because it was so nice out. On Saturday my last walks in Delaware were at a state park and a national wildlife refuge – both right on the ocean, and it was such a pretty day, no one would have suspected what lay in store even just 24 hours later. It’s so sad to know that this whole area that I’ve enjoyed walking and driving through is now the target of so much destruction.
I left Delaware Saturday afternoon, and headed back to Rhode Island through New Jersey and Connecticut. My plan was to finish up my 2 days in Rhode Island (interrupted when Taryn came for a visit), then move on to Massachusetts. I mistakenly thought that might be far enough north (especially if I stayed inland at first) to miss the worst of the hurricane. I even had plans to stay with my mom’s cousin Tuesday night and we were looking forward to going through old family scrapbooks.
On Saturday night, Newport Rhode Island was still quiet and calm, although the motel had hurricane info signs up – I knew the camping was over for a while! I watched the news Saturday night and again Sunday morning, and I had to come to the realization that this was going to be more of a monster than anyone had thought at first. I saw that all of Massachusetts was under a threat, as well as New York and Pennsylvania and the rest of New England. I knew the sensible decision was to head away from New England while I could. So with reluctance, I hit the road west, and right this moment I am in western Pennsylvania, on my way to my daughter’s house in Ohio. As the day went on, and I was listening to CNN in the car, I knew I had made the best decision, although, truth be told, part of me wanted to hole up somewhere and see what a hurricane is all about! But not this one! So, I will happily hunker down in Ohio with my daughter and son-in-law and 2 grandkids for a few days while we watch what happens. It’ll be fun to spend Halloween with them, and I’ll be able to babysit and help out for a few days, and enjoy some special grandma time! I will then resume my journey, but will not go back to finish off New England states until next spring. After Rhode Island, the next 3 states were going to be Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maryland – all right in the bulls-eye path of the hurricane. I will have to head out in a different direction – and that is fine! I have a lot of flexibility. So Sandy has had a major impact in my itinerary, but I have simply switched gears and switched directions, and will continue on after a nice family break. (I was going to be taking a family break with them around Thanksgiving anyway, so it’s just a little earlier and longer).
I will add the rest of the posts for Delaware when I can, but I need to get back on the road. I will be thinking of everyone in New England and hope people will stay safe.
expedition56 