St. Louis: around town

Cape Girardeau: Southeastern Missourian tiles

Two large murals picturing the history of printing and developments in the field of news, made of highly colorful 6 inch ceramic tiles, are on the eastern exterior wall of the Southeastern Missourian newspaper building in Cape Girardeau.  The paper commissioned the murals, completed in 1947, from the Mosaic Tile Company of Zanesville, Ohio. You can (or will shortly be able to) find more details on my blog St. Louis Mosaic. Pictured here is the first mural,  The Art of Printing, as well as several individual tiles from that mural.  The colors are rich and the murals are filled with detail.

Millstream Garden Conservation Area

Elephant Rocks State Park

By some miracle of anti-mining and pro-beauty, a concentration of gigantic round pink granite boulders survives, sitting in the open, high atop a sheet of pink granite.

This wonderful scene is near Arcadia, historically a summer colony for city folk. Tamm Sauk, Mina Sauk and Johnson Shut-ins are also in this beautiful area of Missouri.

The park is surrounded by mining operations, and many of these boulders contain patterns of drill holes, the first step in reducing granite into building material. Also easy to find are many chiseled names and initials of miners proud of their skills.

Cape Girardeau

We are back at Cape Girardeau for the week, in an area of great beauty and interest.

I took this through the window of the Conservation Nature Center during a rainstorm. Lots of photo-adversity could not hide the color and the lines.

Current RIver

Maramec Spring Park

... and this is what they were fishing for.


The Missouri Department of Conservation maintains the Maramec Spring Fish Hatchery and Trout Park.

Maramec Spring Park

Fishing at Maramec Spring Park on the shiniest, clearest, most perfect fall day on the next to last weekend of the trout season in Missouri.

Gateway Arch

Gateway Arch

St. Louis: Old Courthouse

Not wanting the Old Courthouse to be my New Yorker's equivalent of the Statue of Liberty, today was the day. Nor will it be my last and only. Wow!

As we get closer to leaving St. Louis for the frosty reaches of New York State, the part near Canada, not NYC, we are getting serious about seeing the rest of Missouri. Well, at least the things that have lingered on our list for months.

Such as: this weekend we are finally going to canoe the Current. The colors ought to be at their best.

Which reminds me, if you live around St. Louis these are the precious few days to go up the Arch and get an eyeful of the leaves below! Double wow!

Gareway Arch: The View

There is a block of gardens between the Old Court House and the Arch. On the ground it is not so easy to see that the Arch shape is reflected in the outlines of the beds.

Gateway Arch

Thousands of visitors to the Arch on Saturday took snaps just like this one.  It was a most beautiful day!

St. Louis: Lightweight Halloween Costumes

Another sunny crisp morning and the "first annual" Go! St. Louis Halloween 10K was on!  Great runners all, and to those who were in costume, extra hurrays!

Gateway Arch: The View

I have featured Citygarden several times here since it opened this summer, and so has Bob Crowe.  These pictures will give the viewer an idea about where Citygarden is located.  I took them from the Arch on Saturday, a much needed, extraordinarily beautiful sunny day in St. Louis.

The first picture is a close up. Inexcusably, through some hidden brokering, someone(s) permitted the Peabody company to plant a skyscraper in the middle of the public park and garden aisle of center city, so you can only see the south side of the two blocks that make up the garden. Behind it, to the west, is the monumental Robert Serra sculpture, in a block of its own in front of Civil Courts Building.  How I wish someone would design and execute landscaping that would make the Serra pop!

The second picture shows the whole scene.  Citygarden is between 8th and 10th.  The Old Courthouse is between 4th and Broadway.  Blow them up for the full effect!

St. Louis: Around Town

Hmmm, wonder what this fellow does for a living?

Jefferson City MO: Yanis Coffee Zone

Yanis Coffee Zone: Home of Rocket Fuel

This fortunate find in Jefferson City MO has great coffee, food and music. The owner is the cook, and he warmly  greets strangers and regulars alike.

Cool place!

A good review by Opulent Opossum is here: http://opulentopossum.blogspot.com/2009/08/coffee-zone-aka-yanis-coffee-zone.html

Missouri: York

York, Lewis, Clark and Drouillard at the Lewis and Clark Trailhead Plaza in Jefferson City.

Clark owned York; he was given to him by Clark's father.  In literature and diaries he is variously called a manservant, "body servant", "my black Servent", my boy york".  Because he was a slave he was not paid when the Corps returned. He was married to a woman who was enslaved by someone else and could rarely see her. He was not freed by Clark for at least ten years after the Corps returned.

Missouri: Jefferson City

York, Meriwether Lewis, Seaman, Joli, Ed, William Clark and George Drouillard at Jefferson City where we spent our last night on the road. Seaman is checking out Lewis' hat.  It is still very early in the trip for the Corps of Discovery.

The sculptures on the site, Lewis and Clark Trailhead Plaza, were designed by Sabra Tull Meyer, Missouri sculptor.

Nebraska: Omaha

It is a long way back to St. Louis from Valentine NE.  We stopped for the night in Omaha and took a couple hours on Sunday morning to look around, finding a stiltwalker on the plaza in front of the convention center.

Six figures, a gigantic stainless steel clock and assorted shiny globes comprise the wonderous and colorful composition Illumina by Matthew Placzek of Omaha.

Nebraska: Western Sandhills

These pictures are from early October 2004 when I came to the Sandhills to find Mari Sandoz.  Old Jules, her biography of her father, is a favorite of mine.  This marker is at the site of the Sandoz sod house and homestead, south of Gordon and 122 miles from Valentine. The other photos on today's post are from that trip, here or nearby.

Nebraska: Mule

On our last morning, we awoke to snow and the last of the several-times-a-day visits by the mule and seven horses, let loose the day we arrived, to graze anywhere they wished on the ranch, which is entirely fenced, with cattle guards at the roadways.  They gave us a lot of enjoyment.

Joli the Dog was curious but somewhat afraid and not much interested in inter-species communication with the equines, and not at all the predator that she became when she caught sight or smell of the mule deer or white tails.

Nebraska: Smith Falls State Park

On the south rim of the Niobrara, the land dries out stretching away to the sandhills.  Two hundred yards away in the other direction, looking down toward the river, everything is green.

Nebraska: Valentine National Wildlife Refuge

Many lakes sit amid the sandhills.  The hills are but a few dry years away from deserthood, but where it is flat the water is so close to the surface that cattle ranching is possible, and year-round marshes and lakes are scattered everywhere.

Nebraska: On the Niobrara River

We were so lucky!  Wednesday dawned clear and warmer.  The rest of the week before (and after) Wednesday were colder by at least ten degrees and more cloudy than not.

I have dreamed about canoeing on the Niobrara.  We had a great day on the water.

There are Mule Deer in the river in the last photo; blow it up for the full effect.

Nebraska: Niobrara River Valley

Black Tailed Prairie Dogs in Prairie Dog Town at Fort Niograra National Wildlife Refuge; Porcupine at Smith Falls State Park; Elk (in captivity); Mule Deer (from our porch); Joli in the Niobrara River