Wonderful Weekend:

Friday:
We celebrated my Uncle Robert Feeler's 79th birthday at his house with a surprise party Friday night. He did not expect to have company at all and was certainly surprised to have so many there. All of his living siblings were there except Uncle Hubert Feeler and he came earlier in the week to see Uncle Robert. Uncle Robert's health is not very good and he had been in the hospital in St. Louis for a couple weeks. We had a great time visiting. My sister, Judy, her husband Joe along with Keith and Sydney Feeler sang several songs as Joe picked the guitar. Judy's grandson, Nathan Rowe also sang.

Saturday:

April and I went to Rolla for the crafts festival on Pine Street. We saw the "Howard Girls" almost as soon as we got there. We always look forward to seeing them and visiting. We didn't buy anything, just shopped. We ate at Panera Bread. It was very good. I have always wanted to eat there but Dwayne didn't so I hadn't had a chance to eat there yet. Dwayne and I watched the movie, Australia Saturday evening. It was a good movie.

Sunday:

When I was young, our family would take a Sunday Drive after dinner. It was usually on roads around, Rolla, St. James and Newburg. Well, we went on a "Sunday Drive" yesterday! And it was a long one!

We started out by eating breakfast at Hardee's in Rolla. We then started our drive by going through Steelville towards Ironton. Our first stop was at Elephant Rocks.

We then drove to Tom Sauck Mountain and climbed the lookout tower. I was kind of surprised at myself for going to the top as I am afraid of heights. April didn't make it but about half way which surprised me as she was always a little dare devil. The view of the trees and surrounding hills were beautiful. We could see the reservoir from up there.



We then drove back to Ironton and ate at a restaurant I had read about in the the rural electric paper, Baylee Jo's. It was very good. They use cherry wood in the smoking process but also have a barbeque sauce with cherries in it. I thought the sauce was good but Dwayne didn't care for it, he preferred the spicier sauces.
After eating we went to Johnson Shut-Ins. Dwayne and I used to camp there with friends back in the 70's. Hard to believe we are the "old timers" reminiscing about how the park looked then and what was here or there. I'm sure April and Mike got tired of listening to us. But it was different! It is so hard to look at the entrance to the park now and visualize how it looked before the dam broke. The camping area is now almost treeless and there are boulders that look like someone just picked up a handful and tossed them about. The actual shut-ins looks pretty much the same.



We then drove up a side road trying to get a better view of the reservoir. It was so weird, you would see it in the distance, turn a corner and you couldn't see it. Then when you least expected it you would see a view again. Due to construction the reservoir is still closed. I would like to go back in a few years and look at when it's completed. As we were leaving the area we saw the exit for Sutton's Bluff. It was an additional 8 miles off the highway so we didn't stop this time. Sutton's Bluff is where April fractured her neck years ago on a camping trip.

We then headed to Eminence and on to Alley Springs. The paddle wheel is no longer there but the area is beautiful.




We had about an hour of daylight left so I tried to get in one more attraction. We went to Round Springs north of Eminence on Hwy 19. Normally, the spring is the most beautiful blue color, even more of an intense blue than Blue Springs. I was so disappointed that with all of the rain and flooding the water was not clear.

We put in quite a long day site seeing and went about 256 miles. We topped off the day by treating ourselves to milkshakes at Sonic. I am glad April and Mike shared the day with us.

Family, what more can you ask for in life.