Nothing Says "Americana" Like a Painted Gourd

At 8 AM, the Robmeister and K-Dogg picked us up in the Roadmaster, and we all headed for Jeff City for the Walk/Run. Monkey and I walked the 5K. R and K ran the 10K. The morning was beautiful, clear and cold. We picked up our race packets, stretched a bit, and we were off. After strolling through our 5K walk in just over 47 minutes, Monkey and I moved over to the run finish line to cheer on our partners in ambulation as they finished their 6+ mile run. They both finished in under an hour! Way to go, Robmeister and K-Dogg!





After bananas and water, we all set off for Kemna's Dinner Bell, in Jeff City, for breakfast. The restaurant was recommended to us by James' sister, a denizen of the state capital, herself. The dinner bell scrambler was a winner, the pancakes were HUGE, and the biscuits and gravy were top notch. The coffee, unfortunately, sucked. I think they washed the dishes with it before they served it. But, all in all, I would recommend it.

One might think that after such a full morning the four of us would simply choogle on back to C-Town and nap the rest of the day away. Au contraire, mes amis. For this weekend is also the annual Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival! So, off we went to Hartsburg, MO (pop. 108). The line of traffic on Route A (the only road in to or out of Hartsburg) was slow. Parking is well supervised, but the flow is one lane and bumper to bumper. K-Dogg got impatient about two miles outside of town and got out of the Roadmaster to walk. She phoned back to the vehicle that parking was close and that we should prepare to pull off and park and walk the rest of the way. She waited for us. At the rendezvous point, however, the only spot was on the eastbound side of the street (we were west bound). Robmeister promptly made the first point in a three point turn. Unfortunately, the first point was a two foot deep ditch. The Buick was stuck, straddling Route A, THE ONLY ROAD IN TO OR OUT OF HARTSBURG. You might say we were blocking traffic. Try as we might, we could not get enough leverage to push the boat out of the ditch. Luckily for us, a pick-up with a tow rope happened to be in the front of the westbound traffic blocked by our intrepid adventurers. It wasn't pretty, but we got out. The car was parked in a safer location and we trundled down the road into Hartsburg, home of the Hitching Post and Hackman Farm, which makes the best apple butter. That, by the way, is Mr. Meister giving us his best rock and roll salute from the right side of the frame.
We also saw a few painted gourds, and sampled some other delicacies. If you are ever able to visit during the second full weekend in October, Monkey and I will surely treat you to a trip to the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival. After all, look at how much fun we could have:

K-Dogg and Monkey really wanted to get on the see-saw, but Monkey moved too slowly and they were beaten by a couple of ten-year-olds. We had to hold K-Dogg back from calling the girls out. That woman is FIERCE!