Finally made it to the Missouri River!

Rain and wind struck again so Wild Cat Den State Park never happened nor did some points south. Instead, I wandered generally SE to the little town of Milton where a creamery makes the best cheddar cheese I have ever eaten. Unfortunately it was closed. The Milton Creamery is run by an Amish family and Amish folk honor the Feast of the Assumption. I thought only Roman Catholics did that so I took a crash google-course on the subject. Amish are a splinter from a splinter from the Anabaptists who splintered from the Protestant Reformation. Families are keystone to Amish living and community. And, as near as I can tell they accept a personal Jesus so I guess it makes sense that they honor his mother. Anyway, the creamery was closed and the cheese is so good I went back the next day.

There is a large window into a room with a bunch of equipment in it. The man who took my money told me what I saw was a vat of milk gradually being heated to separate the curds and whey. There were large paddles gently moving in the milk keeping it from sticking and helping it heat evenly. He told me they started, I think. at 4am and usually finished around 7pm. Being Amish, the milk is organic though its not called that and did I mention the cheese is wonderful? An interesting side-note for me – I'm much less affected by lactose intolerance with their cheese.

Rain and nasty weather interlude.

A couple years ago I stopped at Shiloh and was greatly moved by the magnitude of the site. This trip I stopped at the 'dead' town of Athens, MO, a historical site, to see the northern-most battlefield of the Civil War. Athens is located within near spitting distance of Iowa and across the river from Illinois. I guess it was inevitable that a battle would take place. It was totally depressing to read of fathers and sons literally on opposite sides of the battlefield and to read of neighbor turning on neighbor. Yeah, I listened to my history teachers, I knew that was part of the Civil War. Still, its different to look at a house and see a cannonball hole going through it. (Yes, its real.)  Its different to know a neighbor a few houses away from where I was standing was grabbed out of his bed in the middle of the night because he belonged to the wrong side.

On those happy thoughts I drove to St Louis for a look at the arch. I told myself I was only going to the arch because there is a westward movement museum in its base that heavily favors Lewis and Clark. In truth, I have read so much about them and their trip none of the information was new, the arch however was. There's all kinds of things I could say about it and I expect all have been said by others. For me, the whole thing can be summed up in a few words – I could see the curve of the earth.

So, St. Louis was the jumping in place for the Expedition. They had to winter on the east bank of the Mississippi, waiting until official word reached the Spanish governor of St. Louis. That camp site has been washed into the Mississippi River so I was looking forward to seeing where they actually headed into the Missouri River from the Mississippi. Alas, the Mississippi was still running high and the road into the park was flooded. I did wade into it to see how deep it actually was. X could have made it but Scout is a bit too low. I knew without measuring it was a bad idea when a fairly large fish swam by.

Another item on my next-time list.