Terri/Columbia, MO

Megabus was a real bargain.  Because I booked early, it was $15.00 round trip.  However, when I tried to board, the bus driver said he did not have my reservation number and asked me to go to the back of the line.  I showed him my printed e-mail from Megabus and he let me board.

The bus was an hour late and Terri met me at the station.  We bought burittos and drank beer and watched the sunset on the river.  

Terri and Jan's house is recently built and very beautiful.  It has vaulted ceilings and wide hallways.  This next picture is the train station and dosen't belong here but I don't know how to delete it.

                                                                 Good Dog, view from Terri's living room

Their dog Mya is the best trained dog ever.  It hardly makes a sound; they should have named it shadow.  When it accompanies Terri on her bike hikes, she goes on terrain that it too difficult for the dog.  It waits patiently for her at a cattle gate.  

When Terri told me they dug a pond and a lagoon when they built their house, I tought she was telling me that they had two ponds.  But then I learned that a lagoon is an ingenious waste management system. The ground it too shallow for a septic tank.  Terri asked me not to include a picture of the lagoon in my blog and I will respect her wishes.  Jan put purple flags all around the property to protect it from the neighborhood Christians.  He is working on a wheelchair accessible trail around the property.

They have a very comfortable guest bedroom where most guests oversleep.  It had fresh flowers and a MO guide book.  

The only place mentioned in the guide book where  I wanted to go was the Katy Trail.  This guide had 23 pages on Branson but only 2 1/2 pages on Columbia.  

Terry took me on a hike around a lake on Lick Creek Conservation area to test my stamina.  It was good enougth to try the Katy Trail which is 240 miles long and built on the former corridor of the Missouri-Kansas Texas railroad bed.  We hiked through one of the tunnels near Rocheport.  Rocheport has small shops and B & Bs.  Here is where I saw my first bottle tree.  

(I had expected a tree native to MO, when Terri told me I would see a bottle tree).  The bottles are all kinds, from wine and mead to Milk of Magnesea.  The artist came out to talk to us and explained that he was inspired by the bottle guarden near-by.  Terry knew the place and took me to see it the next day.  When we arrived me met a man walking his dog.  He was the owner and said we could take pictures.  His name is Terry McBride (a former cartagrapher for the state) and he grew up in the farm across the road.  He could see this house from his bedroom window and when he retired, it came up for sale and he bought it.  It needed to be completeldy restored.  

The back of the house is new construction.  He modeled it after a childhood toy, a mental chicken coop.

Some of the materials for the decorations of the yard came from underneath the house where the owners threw thier trash.  Terry McBride claimed to also know where all the local junk piles were.  He pointed out that the bottle tree contained a Barbie and Ken.  He had to replace Barbie's dress.  

                               Ken is on the right, Barbe is just below the duck's head

My favorite is the flower bed.  But the fence and chickens are pretty cool also.  

                                             license plate shed

Terry took me to Rock Bridge State Park.  Unfortunately the Devil's Ice Box was closed.  

We went to a vineyard that overlooked the Missouri River and sampled the wine from Les Bourgeois.  Terry served me some excellent local wine.    

Several times we fed apples to the neighbor's horses.  This is messy business.  The horses expect to use your hand as a plate.

The apples are supplied by her good neighbors, Wayne and Joan.  I didn't bring my i-pad when I met them, so I don't have pictures  but they were pretty cool.  They have a daughter living in San Diego that they plan to visit soon.  He raises percheron horses and beef cattle.  I saw the wagon that the draft horses pull and a sled he uses to train the colt. Joan is into quilting.  

Before taking me to the bus statiion, Terri gave me a tour of the University of MO campus.  It is very lovely.  The Megabus stop at Columbia is the best I have seen.  It is a old former railroad station and you can sit inside and wait and see the bus pull up.  (Here is where i should have put the picture of the inside of the station.)  

This time the bus driver did'nt even check for a registration number.  I got my favorite seat, top deck, front row where you can see the best.  The bus was scheduled to arrive at Union Station at 9:40 p.m.  The Metra to Berwyn left Union Station at 9:40 so I expected that I would need to wait unitl 10:40 unless the bus was early.  As we approached Chicago, I had expectations that I would be early.  But for some explicable reason, the driver turned off at Cicero Ave.  I was upstairs and could not hear the conversation but I formed the impression that she had never been to Chicago.  She went south again on 55, turned around at LaGrange Rd. and went north on 55.  She did manage to find Union Station and I took the 10:40 bus home as I had expected to.  

 When I got home I discovered that the oak tree outside my balcony had turned colors.  

It had such fun at Terri's.  I haven't laughed so much in a long time.   I plan to go at least every year if she will have me.