THE CAT’S PAWS

PREAMBLE: My friend David, of Geekforce.com, has a nifty travelogue section of his site. He traversed the roads to Arkansas, albiet not this part of Arkansas. He’s got quite a few other travel destinations as well. Arkansas is cool for many reasons: There’s not very many people, the majestic Arkansas Ouachita mountains you see way off to the south while getting stuck in traffic in Branson, MO run diagonally east-to-west, extending to central Arkansas in Hot Springs and beyond. These age-eroded peaks comprise the oldest mountain range in North (or South) America; they run a bit more than 2 billion years in vintage. Most importantly here, I’ll try to explain that Hot Springs, in the midst of these very scenic mountains, is one of the World’s great secrets. (more…)

We are in the process of moving. So not to bug and overwork our friends in 94-degree heat, we shopped professional carriers, which are very, VERY high in StL–there’s lots of layers of charges and lots more layers of people to get paid. Further, the broker who lines up the truck gets a sweet commission.

Bottom line: $1200 for 35 miles was the cheapest rate, so I reverted to U-Haul, and it’s like, ow.

The pathway/sidewalk to the old house we got is l-o-n-g and the doorways in the home were put in long before refridgerators or Maytag washers were invented. Also, the carriage(s) were parked out on the street as this was the servants’/coachmens’ problem, not the owner. They, not the owners, carried heavy stuff up the stone-and-gravel walk. (more…)

In three days Renae and I officially move from Webster Groves, MO to Alton, IL. Actually, she’s moving from her old house in Alton (her nephew’s going to live there–he’s squared away and will hold things down for her) to the one she and I will live in together. (more…)

I said ‘my family’s vacation’, not ‘my family vacation’.

It’s as tricky as it is brutal. I’m considerably the lowest, demographically (ie, income) than anybody else in my family. That’s the tricky part, anyway.

It’s also tricky in that vacations in my family, as in yours, are memory makers. It’s trickiest when one can’t get over the bar to attend one. (more…)

There was a time when St Louis drivers had a reputation for letting drivers in for lane changes.

Those days are gone. Try changing lanes on any Interstate. Try switching lanes anywhere that there’s cars on the road with you, which here, there are at all hours. (more…)

My fiance’ grew up in Alton and has lived there since. I drove there to go fishing and stuff when I was in high school, and meanered northward toward distant adventures. I never was silly enough, though, to drive into the interior of the historic river town.

Alton’s got a downtown, uptown, midtown, ‘up-uptown’, two or three ‘bonus towns’, an obnixious traffic-clogged ’shopping mall towns’, and several ‘get-lost-in’-towns. To even look at a map (which is a sign of weakness), one needs alot of Tylenol and an ample amount of a mild sedative, preferably administered by injection. (more…)