More things to notice on this trek through life.

After working for a week at the Missouri VMTH we are "stuck" in the Tiger Hotel 
because Georgia is feeling punky and not up to traveling today. So to make use of the time, I thought I should do a posting since the last post was just after my cardiac bypass surgery. 

Plaque on Tiger Hotel

Let me start by saying that this locum was great. The residents I worked with were wonderful and everyone I interfaced with was just super. A really fun time, except that Georgia couldn't get out much. We decided to step it up a bit in housing and rented an Executive Suite at the Tiger. Pretty swanky place for a refurbished old hotel. Not sure I would ever get used to depending on hotel employees for everything when I'm so use to doing things myself.  

Georgia in Louisiana, Missouri on the Mississippi

I may come back to this, but I started thinking about writing a post when we crossed the Mississippi River in Louisiana, Missouri where we stayed in a refurbished 1850's building at The Eagles Nest Bed and Breakfast. It was a great mixture of modern and quaint (again much like the Tiger). One of the things we liked about that place was that we didn't feel pressured to interact with others. The breakfast was great. Louisana seems to really be working on becoming a touristy river town, but may have a long road because although the main street of town is going through some really nice renovation, when you get away from there, you see lots of empty buildings run down residences. Not sure they will be able to overcome this enough for folks to want to come and visit. Hope so, but not sure. We came here because it was on the route from home to Columbia, Missouri, home of the Missouri Tigers. 

So as we left Pittsfield, Illinois and I-72 to head across the countryside toward Columbia, we had noticed that we were in Pike County, Illinois. As I walked around Louisiana Sunday morning, I noticed on one of the town's 20 murals that it was dedicated to Zebulon Pike, the caucasian discoverer of Pike's Peak in Colorado. We started seeing his name around town and as we pulled out, it was clear that we were in Pike County, Missouri. My mind flashed back to our many trips on I-74 between Champaign County Illinois and the various places we have frequented over the years in Indiana. On that trip, you go through Danville, Illinois which is in Vermillion County, Illinois. You go from there to Vermillion County, Indiana. So I got to thinking..... I'm betting the area names probably came about before the State lines were drawn and many lines were drawn through communities. So now of course, I wonder how many adjacent counties of the same name in different states actually exist. Not sure I have the gumption to research that. Maybe that would be easiest done as a Facebook project by asking folks to list the ones they know. Hmmmmmm... OK, Guess that's all on that subject. Any thoughts? 
 
Back to the locum work. One very important thing to note is that as a St. Louis Cardinal fan, it certainly is an honor to be working in Clydesdale Hall. Need to see if it was named after some person named Clydesdale or if it could be named after the horses. I must wonder because all over the vet school are images of mules, so I think the Missouri Mule has taken up residence there. So here is a picture of Clydesdale Hall. 

Another important fact is that Clydesdale Hall is across the street from several Agriculture building including the Dairy Department's Bucks Ice Cream  where one of the imaging residents took me the last day during a light point in the schedule. Not sure, but I'm thinking he is a frequent partaker. He also knew quite a bit about Sparkys Ice Cream downtown. I have to agree that it is pretty tasty ice cream (Mizzou).... (Didn't make it to Sparky's). Well, that reminded me of our days on the Purdue campus where the Dairy Department's Ice Cream was also a favorite. And According to the Edam Cheeseballs that are shipped to us each fall by our friend Mike Thomas, at Mississippi State, the Dairy folks there turn out some really good cheese. Guess that could be another research project, to see what the different universities put out that is good besides students.  

I can't close this without mentioning other food. Friends took us out to eat at a couple of really tasty places,  Addisons  is right around the corner from us at the Tiger. A happening place with really tasty food. Then I got to

reconnect with a former imaging resident from Illinois Jesse Nagy and his fantastic wife Dusty who took me to Chris McDs  for some more tasty goodies. Speaking of seeing former colleagues, There was Keith Branson in anesthesiology and Keven Keagan in equine (although Dave Wilson was away and I missed hooking up with Philip Johnson, but did get to see one of my favorites from Oregon State, Shannon Reid. Dusty by the way works with Food Animals. Before I get off the food, I must mention that our next door neighbors are familiar with Columbia as their daughter did her college work at the U of Missouri. The place they mentioned that stuck in my mind was Shakespeares Pizza    which is temporarily on 8th street, just down the block from us. We ate there twice. That tell you anything???? As an aside, here is a cute little thing that occurred while eating with Jesse and Dusty. Another former resident with whom I wrote the book, is a graduate of the vet school at the University of Missouri and knows Jesse and Dusty well. While we were eating he sent me a message pertaining to the book and asked if I had run into Jesse. Shortly after that, he texted Jesse to tell me "Hi" if he saw me. So I snapped this picture and texted it to him.... His reply, "I take it that Jesse said "hi" for me."    

I think I have rambled enough for now. while we were in Missouri, we missed the gender reveal to unveil our 4th great grandchild (and first girl) Penelope Jane and  a celebration of completion of high school work for our grand-daughter CJ. It was fun and fulfilling, but ready to get back home. Wondering what shape the gardens are in at this point.