We started the new year with a trip to our house in St. Joseph, Missouri. Most of our friends, both the California and Missouri friends, often question us about our choice to leave the very mild California weather for the cold, snowy and unpredictable weather of Missouri. Our answer is simple. We are not too smart. And away we go.
Week 2
Since we spent the first week of 2023 in Santa Clarita, this post will start in week two with our drive to Missouri. Because we take our crazy dog Thea, our goal is always to make the trip in two days. There are two main ways we can go. The fastest is to take Highway 40 east through northern Arizona with the first, and hopefully only, overnight stay in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The second day has us travel to Tucumcari, New Mexico, then northeast through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and ending in Missouri. Typically, the first day has about 12 hours of driving and the second day about 12 1/2 hours. Two long days. The only real challenge with this route is the possibly of snow and frozen roads in and around Flagstaff, Arizona. So if the weather is bad, we can take Highway 10 east through southern Arizona to Las Cruses, New Mexico, then head due north to Albuquerque. With bad winter weather, this route is much safer, but about 2 1/2 hours longer than taking Highway 40.
Leading up to our departure day, there was bad weather through Flagstaff. We had resigned ourselves to the longer, safer southern route when on our actual departure day, the weather cleared and we were able to take the shorter northern route. Here is a picture of the snow in Flagstaff.
And here are Cindy and Thea in the truck.
Check out this beautiful sunset just outside of Albuquerque.
We made it safely to our house later on the second day of the trip. The next morning, we got up and opened our Christmas gift my cousin Mike and his wife Barbara sent us. Mike is the son of the world-famous Aunt Barbara. He sent us a beautiful handmade cutting board in the shape of Montana and a generous gift card. We are having Hello Fresh sent to us most weeks while we are in Missouri, and all of the recipes have chopping and cutting in them. I’m sure the cutting board will get lots of use.
We got ready and headed off to meet the Culvers and we all went to Smithville for a presentation about bald eagles. It turned out to be an overall wildlife presentation and was very enjoyable. There was a live bald eagle:
a live Kestrel, the second smallest raptor in North America;
a live owl;
a live rat snake;
and a stuffed fox and beaver.
After the presentation and strolling around the live and stuffed displays, we went outside and used binoculars to look at an eagle’s nest and a few eagles in the wild. Overall, we had a really good time.
On Tuesday, we went to San Jose Steakhouse and Mexican Food with Scott, Heather, Nancy, and Denby Culver. We met “Uncle Jewel” and his crew there and had fun catching up with everyone. As usual, the food was average, but a great deal.
On Thursday, we went to Prestyn’s Wine Bar with the Culvers. They were having a trivia night using a computer program. There were eight players. Here are the top three.
That’s right, I was the big winner, Cindy was second, and Heather finished third. We dominated! And there is no link to Prestyn’s because they have not updated their website in three years. Cindy says you can find their current information on Facebook.
The next day was Friday. The 13th day of the month. Also known as Friday the 13th. As I have documented several times, I have Triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13. So it only makes sense that I would also have Paraskevidekatriaphobia, the fear of Friday the 13th. Now before you say I am crazy, or crazier, I feel compelled to point out the Covid lockdown in the United States in 2020 occurred on Saturday, March 14th. That’s the day after Friday the 13th. Coincidence? I think not. I wonder if these two phobias could lead to Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, the fear of long, complicated words. So far, I’ve been safe from that. The whole point of that tirade was because Friday the 13th fell within this week and I stayed at home, in bed, hiding under my covers. Since nothing bad happened to me, that is clearly what I need to do on every Friday the 13th going forward.
On Saturday evening, we went with the Culvers to a local gun store to visit one of Scott’s cousins and load up on projectiles. We used Cousin Mike’s gift card there as well. Our next stop was to check out the remodeled and renamed “The Den,” formally known as the Tiger’s Den. The interior is much cleaner and modern now. The drinks are still very good.
I had a whiskey drink and Scott had a gin drink that he said was delicious even though it looked like dish water.
There would be a link at the end of this post, but they do not have a website. So go and visit them anyway. It was on to dinner at Marco Pollo, an Italian/Asian fusion restaurant.
The meal started with some toasted pita type bread with oil and vinegar. Scott got a spicy tuna sushi roll and the rest of us started with some fried dumplings. Everything was delicious.
For dinner, I had an Asian flavored spaghetti with grilled shrimp, Cindy had General Tso’s Chicken Marsala, Scott had an udon noodle soup, and Heather had a grilled gouda cheese sandwich. The flavors were really unique, and everything tasted great. While I don’t think I could eat there on a regular basis, I will definitely return. We highly recommend trying Marco Pollo and there is a link at the end of this post.
Week 3
On Monday, we went out with the Culvers to a Mexican restaurant we had not tried yet. The food was average, like 95% of the Mexican restaurants in the Midwest, so it shall not be mentioned here. Then we went to a local arcade and played a few games. We all raced in a Mario Cart game and Scott won. It displayed his picture on the race screen after he won, which made the race very much worth the time.
That evening, we all drove to Scott’s parent’s house for a fish and chicken fry dinner. A great time was had by all.
It was very cold this week, so we would turn the heater on in the garage, work out on our elliptical, run a few errands and hang around our warm house.
I guess the good news was there was no wind chill.
On Tuesday, we had our AC/Heating unit serviced and inspected because many of our neighbors were having problems with their units and having them replaced. As luck would have it, our compressor unit had some serious issues. Our choices were to have the serviceman try and rebuild our unit with a 90-day warranty and the possibility of a unit failure in the extreme cold or heat, our replace the entire unit and get a 10-year warranty. Even though it was expensive, we had the unit replaced. Whaa, whaa, whaa.
On Wednesday, we made some pretty good biscuits and gravy. While it was not as good as Aunt Barbara’s biscuits and gravy, it would do. I did find the name a bit offensive.
On Thursday, we stayed in again and I made my own hot sauce from a gift Corrianne had given me. The first batch was okay, but I still need some practice.
On Friday, we went with the Culvers to visit our friends, Bobby and Machelle, for game night at their house. We learned a new card game called “Pitch.” We had a really good time and are going to try and practice our new game. On Saturday afternoon, we went with the Culvers to Remington Nature Center for a “turtle talk.” It was interesting and we had a good time.
After a late lunch at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, it started to snow.
Here are some snow pictures from our house. The dog just loves wearing her snow jacket.
Week 4+
On Sunday, Cindy was getting ready to do some painting in our kitchen area when she slipped on a piece of cardboard and landed on her tail bone on our hard tile floor. Luckily, she only bruised her tail bone, which is still a very painful injury that takes time to heal. What a pain in the butt.
By Tuesday, a lot of the snow had melted and there was a cardinal in the tree behind our garage.
On Wednesday, Cindy and I took a drive to try a restaurant and bakery Cindy saw on Facebook. It was called Country Cabin Village. The bakery was really nice and the food was pretty darn good. It was an interesting set up. We ordered in the bakery, then ate in a nearby cabin. A cabin that had feral cats that hung out by the door. This is an interesting place that is 45 minutes east of St. Joseph and worth the stop. Check out the link at the end of this post.
On the way back to our house, we stopped at the Kingdom Coffee Brewing Company. We figured it was a play on “KC” as in Kansas City. We were wrong. It was a religious coffee shop. This was a first for us.
On Thursday, we went to a dueling piano show with the Culvers at the downtown Hazel’s Coffee Bar. Both piano players were talented and put on a pretty good show. They also had a drummer that played on each song. The way this show worked, and the way most dueling piano shows work according to the internet, is patrons make a request and give it to the piano players with a tip. The better the tip, the sooner that song is attempted. The piano players take turns playing the requests. I think the addition of the drummer was not part of a normal duel, but it was a nice touch. It is always fun to go and see live music.
On Saturday, we had dinner with the Culvers at a downtown pizza place named Geneo’s Pizza that was pretty good. They would have earned a link, but their website is not working correctly. After dinner, we walked two blocks to the historic Missouri Theatre. The walk was quite tough because it was windy and very cold. It was 10 degrees with a wind chill of -3. At the theatre, we saw Elvis, Elvis, Elvis, A Tribute to the King. This was our Christmas gift from the Culvers. The Missouri Theatre opened in June of 1927 as a 1,200 seat movie house. The City of St. Joseph purchased the theater in 1978 for the purpose of transforming it into a performing arts center. In 1979, the Missouri Theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Here are a few pictures of the inside of the theatre.
Here is a cardboard cutout of the “young” Elvis and the cover of the playbill.
Not only did he look like Elvis, but he also sounded like him too. Here he is during the show.
There was also an older Elvis that did a really good job as well. Here he is.
The older Elvis came down form the stage and shook a bunch of people’s hands during the show.
Here is older Elvis shaking Scott’s hand. Of course, all I got of Scott was his arm.
Overall, we had a great time at the show.
Our last “event” of the month was Cindy and I going to lunch at “Ben Magoon’s Delicatessen.” The deli is just south of the downtown area and was established in 1918. It is the oldest continuous deli west of the Mississippi. The food was only slightly above average, but the location is worth the visit. We each ordered a pastrami sandwich on rye with only mustard. They did not have sliced pickles, only pickle spears, or we would have added that to our sandwiches. The waiter suggested we try a pastrami with cream cheese instead of mustard. While it sounded really odd, we figured what the heck, so we changed one of the sandwiches to the cream cheese. We each ate half of a cream cheese sandwich and half of a mustard one. It was delicious and I would eat it again. There is a link at the end of this post.
The next post will cover the month of February in St. Joseph. Until then, stay warm.
LINKS