This post covers our third week in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Wednesday
As usual, the day started with a weather check.
If three weeks ago you would have told me I would be excited for a 6 degree day with light snow, I would have told you you were nuts. Yet there we were and we were excited to see this “warm” day. This was obviously a “suit up” day and we did. It warmed all the way up to 12 degrees by the time we left the house to meet the Culvers for lunch at Pappy’s Bar and Grill.
Pappy’s was a pleasant surprise and was more of a grill than a bar. The service was outstanding and everyone really liked their food. I had a hot pastrami sandwich on rye and it was very good. All four of us gave it two thumbs up.
Afterward, Cindy and I drove around a bit, looked as some houses, got some gas, got some souvenirs, and finally returned to our place. You may recall I wrote about Cindy leaving peanuts out for the squirrels. The peanuts she left on the front walkway ended up feeding the birds. There was a least one bluejay that would sit in the tree above the walkway and squawk until Cindy came to the window. Then he would drop down, pick up a peanut, and fly off. At one point, some little chickadees started to peck at the peanuts, upsetting the jay who made all kinds of noise. Here are a few bird tracks in the snow.
Another interesting thing we have discovered here is how the snow will collect in your wheel well, then drop off at random times as you drive around town. All around the town’s streets are varying sizes of dirty ice chunks that have fallen from wheel wells. At one store parking lot, people were staring at me as I kicked the ice trying to knock it off of the car. I guess they are used to it. Here is some wheel well ice from our car.
OK, maybe it’s not that interesting, but it was to me.
Thursday
Wooo whooo. It warmed all the way up to 20 degrees, with a light snow. We “suited up” and were off. We had soup and half a sandwich at McAlllister’s Deli, drove through a car wash to get the wheel well ice and salt off of the car. And yes, the car wash was open in sub-freezing temperatures. We went by Ross to get a few things we wanted, and ended up at Price Chopper for some supplies for dinner, since the Culver’s were joining us.
With the nice weather, we took another picture like the one we had taken earlier.
Can you spot the 5 differences between the two pictures?
- We were wearing caps, then no caps.
- The street behind us was snow covered, then it was plowed.
- Our jackets were zipped all the way up, then they were zipped down.
- The background sky was cloudy, then it was blue.
- My goatee was there, then it was not.
So what happened? At Ross, I bought a small travel size beard trimmer so I could trim my goatee. It had three different guides that you clip on to the clipper so you can control how much hair gets cut. I chose the guard that was supposed to cut the least amount of hair. Unfortunately, it was backward day and the trimmer just trimmed away. I hate it when that happens. At least it will eventually grow back.
In the evening, the Culvers came over and we enjoyed a spaghetti dinner with meat and sausage sauce, garlic bread, salad, some parmesan cheese crisps, and some wine. Delicious.
Friday
The weather was really heating up. We were expecting a high in the mid 30’s so it was a sort of “suit up” and get out day. Thermals were no longer necessary, and I got away with one long sleeve shirt under my jacket.
We headed out to the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art. In 1966, Albrecht Gallery opened in the former home of Mr. and Mrs. William Albrecht. Here is the “house” part of the museum, located at the front.
In 1991, Mr. R. Crosby Kemper made a significant donation and the museum was able to add a second building to the back, attached to the “house” museum. The new building was build more like an art museum and made it easier to display the art. The new combined museum became The Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art. Here is the back of the building, the newest building with a few of the outdoor art pieces.
As soon as we entered the building, we saw a “coat room” by the front door.
Because it was very warm inside the museum, we used the coat room, a first for us. As we walked away, I had to check to make sure it was in fact a coat room and not some modern art piece we had just trampled over. Luckily, it was just a coat room. Here are some of the pieces we saw.
These two pictures were painted, but looked exactly like photographs.
This horse was cast in bronze, but made to look like wood. It reminded me of the wood horse at the Palm Springs Art Museum I got in trouble for touching. I did not touch this one. I learned my lesson.
Here was another picture that was painted, but looked like a photograph. Cindy really liked it until she saw the name was “Four Plumbs,” but we could only find three in the picture. Maybe you can find the extra plumb. Before you say, “Ah-ha,” there are two purple looking fruits that have a yellowish point on them. We believe they are figs. One is on the top right to the right of a banana and the other is left center with bananas above and below it. If you insist they are plumbs, I’ll give it to you. Now there are five plumbs in a piece named, “Four Plumbs.” Still a problem.
In the basement, there was a Museum Members art exhibit. It was exactly what the name said. Art made by museum members. This won first place in the quilt category. It was creepy and cool at the same time.
This was titled “Self Portrait,” and won in the Oil on Canvas category.
This didn’t win any awards, but I really liked it. It was a super sized fly fishing lure made from wood.
Here is an interesting shaped door from the main house.
And finally, the part of the door knob you grip and turn was made of stone with a different type of stone inlay, even though it looked like brass. The part screwed into the door was brass. Unfortunately, there was no information about the door knobs, so that’s all I know.
After the museum, we drove over to the Missouri River to see the ice flow. This is a very uncommon event and we wanted to see it. Even though it was just chunks of ice flowing down a large river, it was neat to know we were seeing something that did not occur very often.
We also learned something while we were looking at the ice flows. In town, the temperatures were in the mid 30’s. Next to the frozen, moving, ice filled river, it was down to single digits. The lack of thermals and multiple layers was immediately noticed. We only spent about 10 minutes outside before returning to our warm car.
We went to the Hoof and Horn for an early dinner. Scott had told us this was a must visit, so we took him at his word. As we drove up to the address, all we saw was what looked like an abandoned warehouse in a sketchy area. It wasn’t until we turned the corner that we finally saw a sign hanging on the derelict building. It said the Hoof and Horn had been there since 1896. My guess is that is also the same year the building was last updated. Clearly we had been pranked.
We parked and had to see this place and get a picture. That way we could prove to the Culvers we had been there and they got us good. Once we were inside, it was a whole new experience.
The inside was very nice, and clearly much more modern than the outside. We had a really good steak dinner and listened to a young man play the guitar and banjo (separately) while singing. This place is a must visit!!
Saturday
Oh what a glorious day. We woke up to sunshine and temperatures in the mid 30’s going up to the low 40’s. Now this was more like it. We picked up the Culvers at their house and drove to the town of Weston, about a half hour away. Weston is a small town of about 3 1/2 square miles with a population in the neighborhood of 1,700. It has a quaint downtown area of about 2 blocks in each direction with shopping, food, a brewery, a distillery, a winery, and an additional location just for wine tasting.
We met Scott’s cousin, John, and his wife Dana, at the Pirtle Winery for some wine tasting.
The Pirtle Winery was located in an old, historic building. The wines were very good and they also had some mead. If you recall from a previous post, I tried mead in Prescott, Arizona and really did not like it. Our wine steward for our tasting went on and on about how great their mead was. I let her know very clearly about my previous experience and she still insisted I try their mead. So with an open mind, I tried two of their meads. And they were not half bad. Or even a quarter bad if we’re being honest. I was glad I kept an open mind. That being said, I’m not going to rush out and start buying cases of mead, but I will try it again. On with the wine tasting. All of their wines were good, and we enjoyed one enough to buy a bottle of it.
Our next stop was The Weston Wine Company. We tasted a few wines there and they had a mixture that was predominately cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc, one of my personal favorites. This wine from Australia and did not disappoint. I went home with a bottle.
Stop number 3 was at the McCormick Distillery. We visited here on our last trip and had to stop again.
They had a new product there were advertising.
Yes, you are reading that correctly. It is a spicy pickle flavored whiskey. I love pickles, but am not a huge fan of whiskey. They had tastings of their vodkas and whiskeys, so I had to try the pickle whiskey. Upon arrival, it had a very strong pickle smell. And then down the hatch. It had a very strong pickle flavor, but not strong enough to override the whiskey flavor. I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who will love this. I am not one of them. At least I tried it. I asked the bartender what you would use it for. He said it is best used in bloody mary drinks. I’ll stick to my vodka. Interesting side note, Dana, Scott’s cousin-in-law, grew up in Weston and knew several people at every place we visited. Her mother and grandmother both worked at the McCormick Distillery,
We walked around the downtown area and did some shopping, then had dinner at the Tin Kitchen.
We headed home and called it a day.
Sunday
Even though it was a cloudy, gloomy day with the chance of snow, the snow never materialized. After lunch, we met the Culvers at the Jesse James Home Museum, near the downtown area. The website said it was open from 1-4:30 pm. It was not. So we headed off to the Remington Nature Center, located on the beautiful and still partially frozen Missouri River.
Since Scott and Heather didn’t get to see the ice flow, we walked over to the river’s edge. The ice flow was much thinner and less impressive compared to when we saw it on Friday. That was until we looked up river and saw what looked like a huge ice burg floating down toward us. Scott and I scrambled down the boat launch to the frozen edge of the river and confirmed it was a giant ice burg floating down toward us. It was at least 200-300 feet long and ranged from only a few feet wide to around 50 feet wide.
Just like on Friday, it was much colder by the river so we watched the ice burg for a short time, then headed indoors to the Remington Nature Center.
The Nature Center was not only a nature center, but also a bit of a museum. Here were some of the nature pictures.
They had an example of the very rare near sighted red fox.
After the animal exhibits, was an exhibit of humans through time. Here is Early Man.
One of the first farmers tending corn, a popular crop through time.
Notice the head of the hoe is made from a hip bone.
All I could think about was the song, “And the hip bone is connected to the hoe stick………..”
This early man was forced to quarantine for two weeks when he was diagnosed with Covid 1.
Here are a few more pictures moving through time.
And here was Cindy’s personal favorite. An early hand crank washing machine.
We finished the day with dinner at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen with the Culvers.
Monday
We woke up to continued warm temperatures and clear skies. By mid day, it was in the low 50’s. We started our late morning going to a donut shop Cindy had to visit. It was named, “Gold-N-Glaze Do-Nut Shop.” They claimed to have “A delight in every bite.” The reality was this was just your typical donut shop.
However, next door looked like an exciting place. I was trying to figure out if the name was a greeting or the sobriety level of some of their patrons.
We may never know. We went to the St. Joseph Visitor’s Center and picked up some tourist information and were off to visit the nearby town of Savannah. It was only about 20 minutes north of us and was where Heather worked at an elementary school. Savannah has a population of just over 5,100 spread out over 3 1/4 square miles. Just a side note, I noticed in the Midwest, there are a significant number of cities that share names with cities in other states. Savannah is an example. Savannah Missouri was founded in 1841, while Savannah Georgia was founded in 1733. So the Georgia city came first. What happened? Were the settlers in Missouri so tired they couldn’t come up with a name and maybe someone was from Georgia and said, “How about Savannah?” And if that is true, is that what happened with the countless other cities with duplicate names? If not, then what happened? And where the heck was that other plumb in the picture?
I digress. We drove into Savannah and had lunch at one of the few diners in town, the Savannah Family Diner.
Cindy had some soup and a grilled ham and cheese. She enjoyed her meal. I ordered the chopped steak sandwich. This is not something I normally order, but the few times I have ordered it in the past, it was a sandwich with cubed steak spread over an elongated deli type bun. When my meal arrived, it was the familiar elongated bun, but the meat was a surprise. It was a ground beef patty the was oval instead of round. So to me, I got a an oval burger. It tasted fine, it just was not what I was expecting. According to the internet, a chopped steak sandwich can made with either cubed steak or ground beef. Who knew?
We drove over to Heather’s school and left her a note on her car. The mascot for the school district is the “Savage,” as seen here.
I’m not one to get caught up in all the “change the mascot name” nonsense going around, because I think people tend to over react to things and get offended way too easily. That being said, I can see why there is currently a movement to change this mascot.
We headed home and I made us a steak and potato dinner that was delicious.
Tuesday
This was hands down the best weather day so far. It started in the mid 30’s and had a high in the mid 60’s. With just a few days of warmer temperatures and sun, the view from our place changed significantly. The left was the first week of February, the right was today.
For the first time on this trip, we got outside and went for a walk. We walked a mile and a half around the neighborhood. At one point, we walked past a river where the top was frozen and the river continued to flow beneath the top layer of frozen ice. I had never seen anything like that before. Unfortunately, it is not super clear in these pictures.
After our walk, we drove around town, looked at some more houses, got the car washed, and ran a few errands.
We went to the Culvers’ house for dinner. Scott smoked a tri-tip and as usual, it was outstanding. After dinner, we watched the sunset from their west facing windows overlooking their back deck. Here are a few pictures. The shiny circle on the right side of the pictures is their neighbor’s frozen pond.
The next post will be our final week in St. Joseph with Sylvia flying in on Sunday to join us for a few days before we all take a leisurely drive back to Commiefornia.