Here's the majestic county courthouse in Mound City. We call the Rays again while parked on the adjacent street. There's a bandstand on a corner of the courthouse square and I imagine young(er) Elsie and Ken spooning on the courthouse lawn while listening to Sousa marches. We ask if they ever did that. Nope (they say - maybe not Sousa?), but they did get their marriage license at this courthouse. They went to HS in Blue Mound, which we just drove through/by, but they went to the bigger town of Mound City for shopping and entertainment. We had trouble keeping our Mounds straight or we would have checked out Blue Mound, too.
Here's the downtown opera house.
Anyhow, it's fun to see where our friends are from - we've done it before. Gives you a connection with their roots. Now we know what makes them like that! Just kidding.
Our route from Butler is to cross MO to Hannibal, then go north to Mount Carroll, IL, then NW to Aberdeen, SD, then follow the MO River through ND and into Montana. We'll spend some time in Idaho, then work our way home. If anybody has suggestions for must-sees along the way, including home towns, just let us know.
In early afternoon we arrive at Jan and Aubrey's farm west of Butler. (Jan, Judy's sister, is the wife, Aubrey is the husband. Aubrey bemoans his parents giving him a girl's name - a la Johnny Cash's Boy Named Sue. Says he was worried about what the neighbors might think when they put up a mailbox saying Jan and Aubrey live here. I note that Jan can be a boy's name, so all permutations and combinations are possible. Not that it matters, of course.)
Jan and Aubrey always have projects going and over the last two years they've transformed a badly neglected and abused house into something that's charming and comfortable. For example, they showed us pictures showing the outside of the house to be black with mold. Some Clorox and power spraying and re-sealing recovered the siding.
This place is on 15 acres. About 4 miles away they have another 170 acres that they bought a few years ago and where they have spent a lot of time cleaning up and shaping up - the farm, not themselves. It's got a creek running through it, a nice pond, and is a prime location for hunting deer and wild turkeys.
Here's the pasture adjacent to the Tatros' house - similar to the pasture between their house and the road, but this morning view got my attention.
Of course, Judy and I and the boys made many trips to Butler over the years, so there was a lot of nostalgia for me in returning. I used to take my bicycle when I was doing a lot of riding and I'd ride the streets and county roads around there. Aubrey drove us on a tour of the town and the farms - down several memory lanes.
Butler is the birthplace (1907) of Robert Heinlein, a noted science fiction author (actually called "the dean of science fiction writers"). I've never been much on sci-fi and have not read any of Heinlein, that I recall, but to fill that void I recently picked one of his books for an upcoming reading by my esteemed book club. We followed signs pointing to the Heinlein birthplace, but ran into a dead end. None of the houses down that street were denoted as Heinlein's. How soon they forget.
Another important Butler fact is that it was the first town west of the Mississippi to get electric power, even before St. Louis.
Butler has another majestic county courthouse (Bates Co., Mo), recently emerged from an extensive restoration.
The original statues had been lost to lightning and neglect long ago. I like that touch of color near the top, too.
The original statues had been lost to lightning and neglect long ago. I like that touch of color near the top, too.
On their first farm, Aubrey has built several deer stands, one tucked back in the woods here.
Here's the barn on the old Cross family place (where Judy and Jan grew up - probably 10 miles from where Jan and Aubrey live now). I painted that sucker one time to show Judy's dad what a go-getter I was.
We searched for a couple of old high-arching bridges that I remembered from years past, but they have been replaced by cement slabs. Next morning, though, Aubrey took me down to see this long-abandoned old bridge he had discovered near his farm.
It's just about to disappear.
Here's the lane leading out from the Tatro house to the road. Really gives the place a welcoming feeling.
From Butler, on Thursday, we worked our way north, skirting the KC metro area, then picked up US 24 across MO. For a ways it follows the MO River and the Lewis and Clark Trail. A preview for us. We'll be back on the L&C Trail in Dakota Territory and Montana.
Got to Hannibal in late afternoon, found an RV park, had dinner on Main Street, and drove around town a while. Steep hills and old, massive houses and commercial buildings. We'll spend Friday steeping ourselves in Mark Twainiana, then leave Saturday.
Cheers,
Susie and Rob
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