05-18-11 one thing leads to another…

05-18-11

one thing leads to another…

153.2 miles


I get up in the morning and get ready to shower and then interview Ron…but Ron is Gone!
He had a site with what looked like a chord of wood stacked neatly beside the fire rings and a tent and his vehicle. I was sure I saw his tent and car when I pulled in last  night and it’s only 6:30 in the morning now (the siren just went off0 and the site is completely vacant. He must have gotten up at 5 or so and packed everything up and took off. That is an extreme reaction to wanting to avoid being interviewed. A simple “I’ve changed my mind, I don’t want to do the interview” would have been just fine. I hope he didn’t change his plans just because I asked him if he’d do an interview.
I leave and take the scenic route through Salem and Cuba to the 44 (via Garmin) There are a lot of  roads and rivers I cross more than a few times - I can’t tell if Garmin is leading me in loops or the wacky “lettering system” of roads and streets in Missouri is the culprit (or both). I do get the feeling that there is a whole lot more of “This”, isolated  homes and open lands, then there is of all the city and metropolitan areas in combined land mass. Only one thing that there seems to be a greater abundance of - Churches.
Every type and denomination.  And at times it seems there are more churches than residents, farms or country houses. As Martin Mull sang in his song “Jesus is Easy” - “Jesus Christ is everywhere, he’s everywhere - oh, they got churches…everywhere…ooohhoohhoo…amen!”
Anyway I stop in Cuba for 6 quarts of oil. ( I want to be stocked up and I’m not into cigars - Cuba…get it?)
Back on the highway heading towards the St. Louis area and Babbler St. Park in the western suburbs of the St. Louis Area. I pass by Purina Farms and go through an area called Wildwood.  Very nice and upscale. Woodsy but upscale. I have the feeling I could NOT afford to live here.
But I CAN camp!
I discover one of the faults of Garmin - it doesn’t know that some roads are not for public use. I’m lead to what I can only guess is a access road for park personnel. I go further and it starts to “re-calculate” and leads me  (after several attempts to get me to turn around) finally to the proper entrance to the park.
I get there and find that I can camp and have electricity and wifi all from my tent site. I have contacted a friend if David Hungate’s, Kenneth Taupin, about interviewing him. He is a framer and David suggested he’s add a unique perspective to my interviews. I’ve gotten in contact with him and we’ve mage plans to interview later this week at his convenience.
I set up camp and it’s threatening rain. I decide to got and get some items  at a grocery store and use Garmin to navigate my way there. I go for a complete loop around the park when I cold have been out in a quarter of a mile. I learn not to blindly trust Garmin! I go into some town that has a “Shop ‘n Save” and get some eggs and OJ and a few other things and head back. Did I mention the deer? On the loop of the park that the Garmin sent me on I come across a deer as I leave the campsite before I get the wrong directions from Garmin. The deer is on the other side of the road from me but upon seeing me it starts running parallel to my cara nd then exits state left down a ravine. It was a bit startling in the sudden motion and that …if it had just stayed where it was, it would have been fine. (But ,if I’d have been a hunter, it wouldn’t…self preservation, I guess) On the way back along the highway there is a car about 500 to 1000 ft ahead of me and in it’s lights I see something dart in front of it maybe by 300 ft. It is big and swift and four legged. The car in front briefly puts on it’s breaks, but continues as the incident is over…but it’s rate of speed drops but half of the posted speed limit.  And I’m closing distance rapidly on a rainy wet road. I don’t break, but reduce my speed to his and slowly let him resume his speed. I guess the shock was a late adjustment for him. And I can see the wisdom of reducing speed slightly…but 25mph? On a 55mph road…that’s just asking for trouble. Eventually he gets up to 45 and I’m happy with that. I nearly overshoot …I do overshoot the entrance to the park. U-Turn in the middle of the road and the oncoming car probably thinks I’m a jerk. (and they’re probably right.) I get back to camp and settle in for the night - the plane for tomorrow - get cheap gas near a place called St. Ann’s (like republic - cheaper gas than anything in the surrounding areas) then go to explore St. Louis wearing the Delta Bohemian T-Shirt I got from my friends in Clarksdale, Ms and act as their roving representative.
I get gas from a Quick Stop and find out I could have gotten it cheaper still…in  St. Ann!
(I though I WAS in St. Ann!) I still get it at $3.69 beating the $3.75-3.87 prices I’ve been passing.
On to the Arch. And then  Busch Stadium on the way to the St. Louis Brewery and the Scott Joplin House…one thing leads to another…