Route 66 - The Beginning!

Phew, we made it downtown Chicago for the beginning of the Route 66 Mother Road trip!

First things first . . . TOURIST PHOTOS! Oscar & me in front of the Buckingham Fountain

Then we head for the intersection of Michigan & Adams, where the route begins, heading down that chasm between the tall skyscrapers . . . there must be a sign here somewhere . . .

Ahhhh, got it. We're on out way. Wooohoooo!

Illinois is very forthright with its Route 66 signage, thankfully. :)

Gotta take in the sights - the old Castle Car Wash in SW Chicago

Not to be outdone, Wilmington has the Gemini Man, who started life in the late '50s as one of the Muffler Men, who used to be holding an over-sized muffler before he was transformed into the spaceman . . .

To be continued . . .

Cahokia Mounds

Did you know that 800 years ago, just east of St Louis, Mo, there was a structured city with a population greater than London, England? Neither did I, until today. These artifacts are among many from this city of earthen mounds that was at its zenith just after 1200 AD.

The first settlements at Cahokia were around AD 700 by Late Woodland Indians. From the years 1050 - 1200 AD the community included nearly 20,000 inhabitants, the largest city north of Mexico. The largest mound covers over 14 acres and reaches 100 feet in elevation. It was the central focus of the civilization. A massive building once stood on the summit, from which a ruler could conduct ceremonies and govern.

About 120 smaller mounds were once part of this population . . . 80 remain today.

This is mound 72 - a burial chamber which included a central, honored male, surrounded by numerous other human remains . . . quite a number of women and even four males minus their heads and hands!

The plateau of the large mound strikes an impressive profile as viewed from the east.

It is not known what caused the end of this complex city. No written records have been found and no verbal legends speak of it.

High atop the mound, rulers could survey all they command. I wonder what they would have thought, had they been able to look west and peer 800 years into the future . . .

"nu na hi du na tlo hi lu i" The Trail Where They Cried

Camping next to the Mississippi River

We left the White River, at Calico Rock behind and moved out of the Ozarks towards the Mississippi River. This is the White River as seen from near our camp in Arkansas as we departed.

We hoped to find a campsite available in Missouri, on the Trail of Tears

This intimate campsite is on the western edge of the Mississippi River a the site of tragic loss of life during the winter of 1838-39. A contingent of the Cherokee Nation, forced marched far from their homelands in the east, crossed the Mississippi River near this location. The river was clogged with ice and the crossing was painfully delayed. Poorly provisioned for the extreme cold, hundreds of the Cherokee perished while waiting for the ice to clear. A sad time in our collective history.

The park is a very quiet place to stay, nestled between the Mississippi and railway lines of communication and a lush forest. Here's a northbound barge carrying commerce toward St Louis.

There was easy access to the river where I was able to let a Native American Flute send out some mournful sounds after dark. Oscar was intimidated by the massive amount of rushing water which was rising. They are expecting to evacuate the campsite tonight as the water rises over the road. We should be well north by then . . .

Egret Motel

Oscar & I have been hanging out at Lake Greeson for a while enjoying the tranquil rhythms of nature . . . there's something about a moonrise reflecting on the water that is calming deep down to the soul.


The sun was not to be outdone, however, and displayed its colors as it said goodnight.


Speaking of goodnight, Oscar asked where all of the graceful egrets go to sleep. I was curious as well, so we started to look around and finally found it . . . the EGRET MOTEL!


It's been a wonderful three weeks here at Lake Gresson. Friends, fishing, kayaking, friends, nature watching, relaxing, friends, etc. Time to start moving on . . . wonder what we'll find out there next!

Jugfest 2010! Catfish extravaganza - woohooo!

Pete & I are having a great time at Lake Greeson. I really enjoyed the fast boat ride sitting on Betty's lap with the wind in my hair. Pete told me the funniest thing I've ever heard. He said there were CATS at the bottom of the lake . . . they were alive, and good eatin'!#?! While I firmly believe all cats should be at the bottom of a lake I said "Show me, Pete . . . this I gotta see."

So that evening we all piled into the boat, driven by steely eyed Mountainborn. We had 72 jugs on board. Each one had fishing line and a hook wrapped around them. Who ever heard of catching a cat on a hook? Humans are so strange sometimes.

They picked up some bait traps which were put out yesterday. Each one had pieces of onion and toast which was used to attract small fish that could get into, but not out of the traps.

Here's a recently caught fish, kinda blurry, 'cause it's in mid-flop after being pulled outta the water. We go a whole bunch of these and put them in a big bucket of water.

Mountainborn's wife, Betty, aka "Butcherknife" grabbed up them itty-bitty -fishies and stuck 'em on a hook in a way that they could still swim around.

Then, get this, Pete hurled the fish on the line tied to a bright yellow jug way out into the water. He said it would attract the cats. ( Yeah, like those drowned cats can find a swimming fishy, HA!)

When they were done tossin' we looked back and the lake was peppered with floating jugs. Each with a weight and a fish doing the "cat dance" at the bottom of the line. Then they just drove back to camp and played dominoes and music and told fish stories to each other, none of which were true of course.

Next morning after early coffee watching the sunrise, Al, aka "Capt Ahab", and his trusty first mate, Larry, gathered up the deck hand volunteers and went out lookin' fer the jugs.

Aubrey and Steve took bow watch.

When they spotted one standing on end and moving through the water they yelled and got excited and danced around the boat like little kids, doing this delicate dance with nets and jugs and fishing line in hopes of landing a big cat. (I never understood why they were so excited about pulling an old dead cat outta the bottom of the lake)

When they pulled the first net up I said "Woah there buddy. That's no cat . . . its a fish!" They all looked at me with silly grins and chuckled like they got one over on me.

Aubrey got the catFISH with this thing called a lip grabber and held it up to see how much it weighed on the scale. The bigest one they hauled in was about 26 pounds. And they said those weren't the biggest ones out there by far. Wheew, I'd be scared to see a really BIG one!

They plopped the catfish into a 30 gallon bucket and it just looked at me and said "Hey Oscar, come real close so I can whisper a secret into your ear." It still looked hungry so i just backed away.

Up on land again, everyone had to pose with their fish. Here's Larry & Betty and Pete all holding up what they said would be tonight's meal. Over a 5 day period they just kept doing this and brought over 300 lbs of catfish to shore. Now that's a LOT of filleting . . . just ask Al & Larry. HA!


Larry & Al did the initial filleting. All the sensor lines and red meat which contains "fishy taste" were removed. They took the bucket-o-guts across the lake and tossed them ashore for the buzzards and the eagle to feast on. (No waste there!) Betty did the finishing trimming, and here, Tali & Karen are doing some of the final rinsing in preparation for the catfish coup-de-gras.

Fran & Al managed the frying pots.

They had baskets of hush puppies (there's something very wrong about that one)

Baskets of the freshest white meat catfish you've ever smelled. YUM!!

Jars & jars of green tomato relish. Lots of other side dishes ... slaw - 'tater salad, etc. It was real quiet around the table as they ate and enjoyed their cat-o'-the-lake feast. Sure smelled gooood!

Here's my new best friend, James, who let me sit on his lap as he gave me some of that tender catfish meat without letting Pete know. he, he, he

After the feed, Pete asked all my friends gather around. We posed for a Jugfest-2010 class photo just as James snuck me some more of that catfish which everyone saw but Pete. HAHAHAHA!