A Few Last Pictures from Springfield Trip

Here are a couple of finally pictures from my trip to Springfield. The first two are of a tree in front of a house. The tree was damaged in a storm and this is what the owners of it decided to do to it. Pretty funny. The last speaks for itself.

Ed Opens a Bottle of Wine

Here's my brother opening a bottle of wine.

We Cooked Out

We had a total of three cookouts while I was in Springfield. Each one got progressively better. Saturday we had burgers. They were OK. I learned you need to make really flat burgers or the sides tend to dry out before the centers are properly cooked. Thursday we had salmon. Very very good. Friday it was chicken again very good. My brother was an excellent cook. Thanks for all the great food

Here's Dexter helping out with one of the cookouts.

The wonderful salmon we had on Thursday

The intrepid chef at work

Adding just the right spices

Taking a look at his work

Lake Springfield

On Friday, my brother and I went to Lake Springfield to go for a walk. It is the first time I've been there. It was impressive.

Here are a few pictures. Also a picture of a friend we met along our trail.

Using Blogger App on the iPhone

I downloaded this today. Usually when I'm here I use my brother's computer. But he's having some problems with it and had to take it into be worked on.

I'm trying this out. So far it is working pretty well. I can even post pictures but getting them the right size is proving a little difficult. Also I have to take the pictures on my phone. That means the pictures on my digital camera won't be posted until I get home.

In all the trip has been very enjoyable.

Lunch at the Aviary Cafe

We all had lunch at the Aviary Cafe. The main item on the menu is crepes. I had a great turkey, Swiss and bacon panini.

Then my dad and I had a sweet crepes for dessert. Here's a picture of us enjoying it.

Some Success at Downstream

I had a nice run on the penny machine. I was only going to gamble $20. Once I lost that I was going to be done for the day.

Well I'd lost about five bucks and then I hit. I have to say I have little understanding how I win money when I actually win it but then again who cares. I won about $17 and decided I was indeed done for the day.

My dad did not have a very good morning session. Ed did fairly well with blackjack

We broke for lunch and enjoyed the wonderful buffet there. For some reason we all got the senior discount.

After that we returned to the fray. My dad had a much better afternoon. He was the big spender of the three of us and got on a 2 cent machine. He started out with $10. He had several good wins and ended up with $57 when he called it a day.

We then headed home. On the way we drove through Joplin. It 's been over a year since the tornado. There has finally been some progress in rebuilding. I'll post pictures of it in the next couple of days.

The Avengers and Downstream Casino

Just a quick note. We're heading off to Downstream Casino that's Ed, my dad and me. All three of us went to the Avengers yesterday. It was really good. I was impressed with the movie. I wasn't sure how well the story would work with all the characters. But Joss Whedon did a great job. More about it later. For now we driving to the casino.

More working in the Garden and the Yard

We had lunch. Then went back into the yard to look at more of my dad's garden. We were only going to look at his Hostas and try and figure out why there were no blooms on them.

It turned into more work in the yard. The work included taking some dead limbs off of one of the trees in the yard. Also pulling up some dead evergreen trees.

My dad soaked the roots of the evergreens and that made them easier to get out of the ground. All that extra water made a sound like a drain draining when I used the shovel to try and pry the evergreen out. It didn't take all that much time to get them out.

Here I am with the tree saw getting ready to cut down some limbs

Still getting ready to cut down limbs (add smiling face here)

One of the dead evergreens we got out of the ground.

The dead evergreens.

Once the trees were out it just made sense to go and get something to replace them. After all the holes were all dug, all we needed was something to put into them. We decided on some boxwood shrubs. And here they are. The last picture shows my dad watering them after we planted them.

Working in the Garden

After the drama of getting to the dump, we got flowers and did some planting. Here are some before and after pictures.

The Saga to the Springfield Dump

Not the typical dump of where you dump garbage. A dump where you take brush. The brush is then turned into compost and sold to people.

My dad and I had trimmed some branches from a tree in his front yard (well actually I trimmed while my dad pointed out the branches to cut). We then decided to take what we had bagged to the dump.

Thus our saga started.

Now there is a little set up before the main part of out story takes place. The dump is of course out in the country so there is room to dump all of the brush. To get to the dump from my dad's house you literally turn onto a one road that is reduced to one lane. The lane goes over a bridge. So if a car is coming in the opposite direction you have to take turns driving over the bridge. The other factor to take into consideration is there had been rain on Sunday night.

My dad and I set out. We reach the road we need to turn onto but there is a sign that says the road is closed. The sign is an electronic one but that's the only information on it. There is nothing about how to get to the dump with the road closed.

My dad and I keep driving. We think there might be another way to get to the dump. We think there is another road a little ways down from where we are. We try our luck. We drive too far. We turn around and try again. We turn back on to the road we were on that takes us to the dump. We retrace our steps again. We turn on a road we think will take us where we need to go. It turns out there is no access to the dump on this road. You end up at the power plant.

We ponder for a little while. I consult my iPhone and Siri hoping she will get us where we need to go.  She finds a dump for Greene County (the county we are in) but finds it in Michigan. Not all that helpful. I ask to show where we are on a map.

I look at the map and think I have found a way to get to the dump. It is not identified on the map but I think I know where it is. We start back toward the original way to the dump. Instead of making a right onto the road that eventually leads to the road with the one lane bridge, we keep going straight.

We go to the next road and make a right on that. This road curves. It curves to the left. Then there is a sharp right turn in the road. It continues on for awhile. We come to another road and we make a left. At this point in time we both think we are lost. I call my brother. He tries and help figure out where we are. But in the course of the conversation we come across a sign that points to the dump.

We pull in and dump our brush. We then retrace our steps and get back home fairly quickly. But it is only the start of our day but our only big adventure of the day.

More from Artsfest

Here are a few more pictures from Artsfest. As you can see there was a wide variety of artists represented. The last two are a musical group where everyone plays the flute. They were very good. They did have one problem and that was the wind; it just about blew their music off of the stands they had.

Artsfest in Springfield

Springfield celebrates Artfest:

As the largest fine arts festival in Southwest Missouri, Artsfest on Walnut Street attracts over 20,000 people each year to shop for original art, sample food from some of Springfield’s favorite restaurants, and enjoy dozens of performances.  Artsfest also features an interactive kid’s area with activities for children including Chalk-It-Up and the Springfield Pottery’s Claymobile, a mobile ceramic arts workshop.

We went on Sunday. Here are a few pictures of what we saw.

The Kentucky Derby

We all watched the Kentucky Derby. In honor of it we all wore hats. Even, Pepper the cat, got into the mood. It turned out to be a very exciting race.

A Vist to the Tyler Ridge Winery

Ed and Jennifer picked me up at the airport.

We then went out to a local winery they were interested in seeing. The winery was having its first open house. The winery is the Tyler Ridge Winery. Ed and Jennifer tried several glasses of wine.  The owners of the winery are Mike and Kathy Dennis. Mike is pouring samples in the pictures.

Here's what my brother Ed said about the winery:

We really enjoyed the wines (all bottles $15). It was a day for socializing and making way for others who wanted to taste — not for compiling detailed tasting notes. In any case:

• Norton and Chambourcin were surprisingly mellow for 2010 vintages. Mike Dennis said the Norton was aged for several months in oak.
• Burnt Barn Red, named after an unfortunate event on Dennis property, is a semi-sweet blend of Norton and Chambourcin, a great summer red that could be chilled.

You can read Ed's entire post by clicking here.

The Grounds of Tyler Ridge Winery

Here are a few pictures of the grounds of the winery. You can see where the grapes are grown. The name on the post in this case Norton is the type of grape that is being grown in that row.