ziplining

I did something crazy a few weeks ago with my son D, his girl K and some of their friends. After an hour drive south of home, we met at Meramec Caverns for some high flying fun. we went ziplining, it was exhilarating. The worst part was climbing up the towers to get high enough.

i'm getting suited up with the body harness, something you want when you are 80-100 feet off the ground.

getting ready to take off on the fastest of the 5 lines. we went about 50 miles an hour and it was so fast it was over before you realized it

waiting for the rest of the group

coming into the last tower, this one was 1200 feet long and you had time to take in the scenery

we had lunch inside the caverns at a nice restaurant and wandered around the little museum they have at the entrance to the cave. this is an iron boat found buried under mud in the Meramec river close to the caves. it weighed 400 pounds and possibly was used to deliver gunpowder down river to the Union troops during the Civil War

The Meramec caverns are reported to be a hideout of the outlaw Jesse James in the early 1870's because it was big enough for his men and horses

some of the fall color on the bluffs

Halloween

I know this is a little late but here is D's halloween costume that his mom and i made. D was a komodo dragon lizard. He really really likes reptiles; can't wait to see what he will want in 2012

2nd book club book

this was my second book with the book club. Another book that I wouldn't have read on my own it was pretty good, I'd give it a 8.

Klondike park

Early one Saturday morning I took yet another road trip with my poor camera

begging for mercy. It has been getting quite a work out lately.

I drove to Klondike park about 20 miles from my home

R had told me about this park and about the views from the overlook. What she didn't tell me it was up a mountain. I was the only person in this area and hoped I didn't run into any animals, 2 legged or 4 legged. The view was wonderful. The rich farm lands of Augusta bottoms, rich with the soil that the Missouri river leaves when it floods

this is at the top of the overlook, thank goodness I didn't have to climb any higher, I was really out of breath

panoramic view of the fall colors

this is the Labadie power plant that sits along the river; there is something wrong with seeing smoke stacks in this pretty view. The lake is a abandon quarry where silica sand was once mined. The sand is like powered sugar and glistens in the sun.

I am seeing faces in the stranges places lately.

another face

I was a little early to see much fall color on the trees but I wanted to take advantage of nice weather we have been having

this monarch butterfly posed very nicely for me

Lewis and Clark are supposed to have camped on the opposite bank

beauty shot

haunted ghost tour at the Missouri Penientary

another image filled post, again too many pix not to show them! The kids and i went on a haunted prison tour in our state capital, Jefferson City. We drove up in early afternoon, had dinner, drove around for an hour or so lost trying to find the prison. Jeff City is very very quiet on a Saturday evening. The tour is held after dark with flashlights, but there was a big group ahead of us and they all had the flashlights, most of the people in our group used their cell phones for light. The building above is one of the cell blocks.

this building contains the solitary confinement cells; also known as the dungeon, or the hole. One prisoner was in his cell in the complete dark for 18 days. When we entered this building, my ears popped like there was an attitude change. That was the first strange thing that happened

me standing in front of one of the cell doors

this is a picture of a ghost! This was taken in the dark, the only editing i did was to correct the contrast. I see a figure standing on the steps, take a look and tell me which side it is standing and which set of steps. I give the answer at the end of this post

the first room a prisoner would see. This building was closed in 2004 and the amount of decay was astounding.

some of the cells

one of the cell blocks purported to have a ghost

son D, behind bars. He is a corrections office in a jail, so he is usually on the other side of the bars. We were warned no to shut any of the cell doors because there were 900 keys for this building and the prison only has 6 of them left.

one of the cell in the "hole" we all crowded into a very small hall, then the guide had everyone turn off their lights; absolute dark! Everyone commented on how cold it was, I was very very warm, (second strange thing)

this is the building that contained solitary confinement.

S and B sitting in the gas chamber. A total of 40 people were executed in this chamber. Out of the 40, 22 of them were Black, 1 was a woman. The last prisoner executed was in 1998. The third strange thing happened as I was taking photos in here. The picture before this one show the bottom 1/2 of the photo's offset from the top.

D and K in the gas chamber. I wanted to sit in the chair but got a very uncomfortable feeling and had to get out of the chamber. A few other strange things: D and K's cell phone clocks changed times D's showed 3:00 am and K's showed 6:00 pm, but the real time was about 10:30, they both swore that they didn't touch the time setting. Right around the time I took the photo of the ghost, D tripped on a perfectly level piece of the drive.

Now for the reveal of the ghost I see a figure on the left side of the steps the second flight up, let me know if you see it. You can see video of the prison on youtube search for creepz ghost commandos missouri penientary

art romp

This post probably has the most photos I've ever uploaded in one post, but this evening was so much fun I couldn't leave any of them out! The art romp was an evening of different types of art and the chance to do some art. It was held at the Foundry art centre that I visited earlier this year. R and I spent the evening visiting all the exhibits. The photos above is from a photo booth. We got so silly with the props

one of the stilt walkers, this guy was kind of creepy these murals were all made out of Mardi Gras beads that the artist brings back from New Orleans after the Mardi Gras parades. R getting ready to make a glass bead. This was harder than it looked; we had to keep the glass rod turning at the same time as keeping it close to the flame; at the same time putting the mandrel in the center to make the opening. We each made a bead and I'm looking for a chain to wear mine.

I found this writing and scroll very interesting. I would never be able to do this, my handwriting is terrible, since I'm always on the computer typing.

this artist was doing water color and she used salt on the color to get different resist of the water color. She made it look so easy.

there was an aerialist, a big band sound band, jugglers, sculptures, potters and the iron pour

the iron pour was too cool. The worked used a coke furnace to melt the iron ore to 1200 degrees (648.8 c) then it went into a bucket to be poured in molds

very interesting, can't imagine seeing a pour like this in a big foundry

pouring the iron into the molds to make decorative items.

reception

the wedding cake, H's colors were purple and silver my sister T and little Miss M

H and T in the father-daughter dance

my other great niece, D. My camera was acting up all evening and most of the photos of the reception were too dark or blurry to use. The ones of the little ones turned out good.