In St Louis Missouri, we are generally prepared for rapid changes in the weather. On my walk this evening, I watched the storm brood on the horizon, but I didn’t realize how fast it was moving.
A dark cloud was coming
Innocently, my dog and I meandered along the trail. I took photos, while Stash sniffed every shrub.
Ominous
The balmy 79 degrees F felt almost sticky at the beginning. Stash was so happy to be out on a walk.
Autumnal beauty Misleading Serenity Alone on the trails Same creek different directionIron determination to continue Unexpected in a bird nest – walnut? The colors of autumn barely hanging on in some places. Barely The wind picked up
The temperature dropped 20 degrees, the wind kicked up 20 mph, and the horizontal rain pelted us.
The leaves swirled like tornadoes Collecting data
Stash knew trouble was afoot, she dragged me back to the car. She was disgusted in me that I resisted too long and she was left to be molested by the swirling leaves.
I will have to regain her confidence. She just hasn’t lived through enough seasons in St Louis.
Since the Covid shut down all my vacations in 2020 I have been heading out on short trips to see parks, small towns, geological formations, and wildlife. On Halloween, I visited some of the most rural areas in the Midwest – central western Illinois. You can’t find any coffee shops, there aren’t any museums, there are barely any people. The land is glaciated and generally flat. There is lots of corn. And of course, colorful trees.
Illinois has an abundance of sweet gums and maples.
After the Mexican war and Blackhawk war soldiers were given land in Illinois. One gentleman, George Meyer, was given a beautiful piece of property in western Illinois near the Illinois River. This land had a spring and a small town grew up around it. The man lived to be 104 years old, so everyone believed the water was healing. After George passed on, a real estate man got his hands on it and sold the water for decades. Later this area became Siloam Springs State Park. This history is hidden among the picnic pavilions and hiking trails.
In the valley today. The spring is still there. The huckster who sold the water built this pavilion and a lodge. The park has also added a reservoir lake the sycamores are beautiful. The sycamore leaves fill me with awe – they are large and the patterns are cool A sunny day on Halloween is a treat indeed. We found a forgotten pavilion filled with mystery We saw no people. It’s like Western Illinois is abandoned. A ruin from an society long forgotten. Serenity or spookiness?
We left Siloam Springs for the biggest town in the region – Jacksonville: the county seat of Morgan county. When we arrived, it too was a ghost town.
Live Downtown with the ghosts of the…Trail of Death March of Death
Or…
Memorial to the Abolition of SlaveryClosed today…
I don’t know if the coffee shop was really closed today or everyday. I don’t know how it could survive with no people. I walked into the bakery to see if I could find a doughnut. The door was open but nobody was inside. I could see cakes and cupcakes – but no doughnuts. And no people.
The missing people of Jacksonville – at least had a cannon.
We wandered to another remote state park – Beaver Dam State Park. We heard there was people there.
But there were none. Not even ducks. Or Beavers. The observation deck was inaccessible and frankly looked like a good place for zombies. The concessionaires were gone but supplies were available. The people of western Illinois were simply gone
Freshly "Pic'ed" 