We decided to go on a fall getaway so I've been unable to work on my blog. We spent the past few days driving the old Santa Fe Trail in mid-MO to
explore historic sites. We find
off-the-path towns with their museums and historic tours to be very interesting.
It's our thing! Our newest, and best, discovery is state parks. We were
fortunate to hit three (in two states) this season and we think they are ideal
for us. Quiet, peaceful and wooded, we select the ones which are walking
distance to historic sites. Although we hiked many miles this extended weekend, we had a thoroughly enjoyable
time walking beside yellow and red splashes of leaves under autumn-blue skies.
The fall color isn't terrific this year, but the maples are amazing. Some oaks
are showing a little color and the sumac and sassafras are gorgeous. We stayed
in Arrow Rock State Park, which is lovely and is attached to the historic town.
The boardwalk has many old shops, churches and homes which are all on a walking tour and
contain a wealth of information. A tram tour of the city was the icing on
the cake. Their visitors' center hosts a phenomenal museum covering Native
American, early settler and African American slave history of the area. Arrow
Rock was a desirable spot on the river and is where the Boone brothers made
their fortune thanks to salt. Who knew?! They happened to discover the animals
licking the rocks in the area due to their high salt content and were then able
to begin a sizable salt extraction operation. Since salt was in high demand for food preservation and tanning, they made a lot of money.
Sunday's
lunch was in the Huston Tavern, built in 1834. It is the oldest
continually-operating restaurant (in those days a tavern was a boarding home
and eatery) west of the Missouri River. This week's tablescape is compliments
of the charming old building. By the way, the other place setting had a black napkin also but it was already on his lap when I took this picture. :) The meals, served family-style, include ham and delicious fried chicken, mashed potatoes
with white gravy, green beans, corn, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits with apple
butter, cole slaw, fruit salad and potato salad. No dessert is included
because, I'm sure, no one has ever had room for it! We made some other stops on the trip, but I won't go into those now. It was all a great time!
