On sunday, a beautiful, very cold, sunny day we set off to see Mark Twain's birthplace and the countryside around. They are very proud of Mark Twain here and he certainly was an interesting and witty man. I read Tom Sawyer for the first time I enjoyed it but thought it rather dated and spread a bit thin. Roland read Huckleberry Finn and thought it had good bits. We have started on some short stories.
Sunday morning is a very good time to go driving. Most people are in church and the roads are empty. We go through Mexico, Santa Fe and stop just before Florida- it gets very confusing. The birthplace is a small, two roomed wooden cottage, removed from it's original position in the nearby village and placed inside a purpose built Mark Twain museum. The museum is large and interesting and we are the only visitors. It is set in the Mark Twain national park, of which there is rather a lot.
Here is the huge lake made from damming the Salt river. It is surrounded by trees. The setting is lovely and empty. We wish we had brought a picnic as it is warm if you stay in the sun.
We managed to find a sandwich place open for lunch in the thriving metropolis of Florida!
We then head west via Paris to look at a covered bridge.
There used to be thirty covered bridges in Missouri. By 1958 there were only eight left. Now, there are just four!
This one is the Union covered bridge and is the only double Burr-arch one. You can see what that means from a photo of the interior.
The interior is very impressive despite the fact it is covered in graffiti. Apparently Burr designed this type of arch, which enabled bridges to be much longer, without losing strength. This has two, just to make sure!
As you can see, the bridge is in need of a bit of love and attention. The timber here was removed by park rangers, to allow the water to go through more easily in a recent flood and stop the whole thing being swept away. Considering how high up this bridge is, the water must have risen dramatically.
Even though it is need of repair, it looked very solid and beautifully made. I've always wanted to see a covered bridge like this and it didn't disappoint. I got a bit carried away taking photos, but the construction was fascinating.
That was a real treat.
We saw this barn on the way home. There are a lot of very beautiful barns. Wooden, often with tin roofs looking very northern european in style. Haven't been able to photo many as there is nowhere to stop.
This was on a very quiet back road and that is a turkey vulture or buzzard as they are called here, sitting on the top.
I tried to get closer, but he flew away. They are everywhere and are massive birds, with a wingspan of up to 109 inches!
Getting back to barns, they are usually this colour or white and there are some very interesting ones. More later, if I can get Roland to stop the car in time!
We had dinner out on saturday at a colleagues house. The rest of the guests were retired from the college, but were an interesting group, apart from when they started to talk about dogs.....
Everyone has a dog here, and out here, it probably makes sense. It's still a dull thing to talk about.
The most interesting thing about the evening was the house itself. We had walked past it several times and really liked the look of it.
Dark, mysterious with a gazebo round the side. It turns out that this is the house designed and lived in by Bell himself. Fulton's famous architect. It was just as eccentric inside. He liked parrots and the parrot had an inside room, with wooden fretwork cage and the gazebo for summertime. The present owners have stuffed it full of antiques, so there is not a bit of wall or surface uncovered. Wonderful to look at, hell to keep clean. The roof is so complicated, that when it needed re-roofing they couldn't find a roofer who would touch it. They ended up doing it themselves and I gather it was not easy!
The food was good. All homemade and delicious. What a relief. Plenty of good wine too, so a very jolly evening.
Tonight's the night, so I'm off to dress for the occasion!
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