"Today is a Good Day to Drive!" .....Van-Go

April 23, 2007 We had a slow start to the morning listening to the wind in the trees and watching the sun slowly peek out of the clouds a few times. Will woke up slowly working his mind on a few Kurko puzzles. Kathy read her book, American Gods. Here is one from the book: “Henzelmann told them a story about his grandfather’s trumpet, and how he tried playing it during a cold snap, and the weather was so cold outside by the barn, where his grandfather had gone to practice, that no music came out. Then after he came inside he put the trumpet down by the woodstove to thaw. Well, the family’er all in bed that night and suddenly the unfrozen tunes start coming out of that trumpet. Scared my grandmother so much she nearly had kittens.” We hiked the two-mile trail through Crowley’s Ridge, named after a participant of War of 1812 and one of the first settlers in the area. The uniqueness of the region, the unusual soil types and rare plant species make this a prime area for research. There are...

April 22, 2007 We walked around the Waldorf getting some fresh air and waking up. Coffee followed and then we were a little more awake. Kathy worked on some correspondence and Will worked on the map. We were the first in line to get our tire fixed. That done we did some shopping, had some breakfast and it was one o’clock before we knew it. We made another stop at an Auto shop where Will bought a heavy duty air compressor. In Wynne, city with a smile, we almost got hit by a helicopter. The drive was through flat land that was mostly plowed up dirt. We crossed the Francisis River into Missouri. First town was Campbell. They had their own caboose and a large barber shop and a mural. This is peach country and this town claims to be the Peach Capitol of Missouri. Landscape changed to hill country. Just a few miles out of town we found Morris State Park, 161-acre park featured along Crowley’s Ridge Parkway. It protects the Crowley’s Ridge, which stand a few hundred feet above the Mississippi...