Tuesday, April 15, 2014
To the Show Me State over the weekend to visit the Smarts. Cape Girardeau, on the banks of the Mississippi, is home to South East Missouri State, where Mrs. Smart, as I may have mentioned, is employed as a librarian. It's a quaint little town, population a hair shy of 30k.
There isn't much else around, so the university and the federal district courthouse (named for Rush Limbaugh's father) make it a regional center. I like college campuses. All of them manage to have something special, and this one's claim on my attention is that it houses one of the largest collections of William Faulkner manuscripts and Faulkneria. Got to see his typewriter, which is pretty much exactly the kind of thing that I love to visit.
We also got a bit of a hike in at Trail Of Tears State Park, along the ridge above the river. In addition to Southerners, Missouri is full of ticks, so we had to be careful to check ourselves and the dog afterwards to be sure that we didn't pick up any blood sucking pests. You can catch Republicanism that way, and the ticks are also vectors for disease.
Further notes. Man, there is more Ohio than anybody needs. The first time I saw a road sign for Ashtabula the Dylanologist in me thrilled-- obscure place names are part of the fun of Dylan after all, and it's a little surprising that he hasn't name checked Cape Girardeau. Now Ashtabula is just a sign along the road that tells me I am further away from where I belong-- and closer to the real America that gives me the yips.
There isn't much else around, so the university and the federal district courthouse (named for Rush Limbaugh's father) make it a regional center. I like college campuses. All of them manage to have something special, and this one's claim on my attention is that it houses one of the largest collections of William Faulkner manuscripts and Faulkneria. Got to see his typewriter, which is pretty much exactly the kind of thing that I love to visit. We also got a bit of a hike in at Trail Of Tears State Park, along the ridge above the river. In addition to Southerners, Missouri is full of ticks, so we had to be careful to check ourselves and the dog afterwards to be sure that we didn't pick up any blood sucking pests. You can catch Republicanism that way, and the ticks are also vectors for disease.Further notes. Man, there is more Ohio than anybody needs. The first time I saw a road sign for Ashtabula the Dylanologist in me thrilled-- obscure place names are part of the fun of Dylan after all, and it's a little surprising that he hasn't name checked Cape Girardeau. Now Ashtabula is just a sign along the road that tells me I am further away from where I belong-- and closer to the real America that gives me the yips.
// posted by Bill @ 10:36 AM 
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