Tag: Mississippi River

MotorCoach Blog 42

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I am a Motorcoach . . .

. . . well, two motorcoaches for this blog. Two Six Four here, with my long-time travel cohort, Two Six Zero. We want . . .

Thank you Four. A big hello to all you motorcoachblog passengers. And let me underscore what my distinguished garage-mate stated in my introduction there: long-time! In the passenger service industry long-time is an honorable qualification.

“Uh, I actually wasn’t meaning to introduce you, Zero. Just giving the usual opening to the blog. So, if I could continue without interruption . . . As I was almost saying, we want to address this distasteful business about end of service dismemberment – as in buckets of “spare parts,” and “basket cases” – and all such matters inappropriate for a coach industry blog but tastelessly mentioned at length by that youngster, Two Seven Three, in the previous two blogs.

Well stated Four.

Thank you. Now, admittedly, Zero and I are among the elder coaches in our fleet. But we take great pride in things like much experience, many miles, many passengers served, and many compliments on how well we still do all of this.

Amen to that! Heck, Four and I helped grow this industry to the proud, prominent place it now enjoys on the roadways of America.

Yes we did, we’ve been a part of that for sure. But, back to our point . . . which we thought we would demonstrate by sharing with you a couple of places famously esteemed for agedness to which we have delivered passengers recently.

And looked fabulous doing it!

Indeed!

But, I do prefer ‘time-honored status’ over ‘agedness.’ That is the point we’re making isn’t it Four?

You’re right. Time-honored Status . . . here it is:

Selfies

(which by definition means I’m in them . . . though you might have to look for me)

Me (Two Six Four) at Mark Twain’s boyhood home in Hannibal, Missouri. Long before becoming a famous author, Samuel Clemens lived here in this house built by his father in 1844. That white fence calls to mind Tom Sawyer getting his friends to do some whitewashing for him in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – vintage 1876. Look how nice and white they’re still keeping Aunt Polly’s fence. A clear case of values standing the test of time: “Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

Just down the road, and just outside the entrance to the Mark Twain Cave, stands a Burr Oak the Department of Agriculture listed among Famous and Historic Trees of the United States. It was a seedling in 1731.

And here I am (Two Six Zero) in Cole Camp, Missouri, where German heritage is inseparable from town identity. The layout of the town dates back to 1857, but it was in the early 1830s that German Immigrants – mostly “Hanoverians” (from Lower Saxony) began leaving their homeland and making their way here. This Immigrant Memorial at the center of town tells their story.

The districts that made up the province of Germany from which most of the immigrants originated are recalled here by thirty-eight district crests on the wall of the memorial. Across the street from the Immigrant Memorial my passengers (members of the Chor Des Deutschen Kulturvereins of St. Louis) participated in the annual Sangerfest (singing festival), celebrating time-honored German heritage in song.

Here Is The News!

MEETING THE NEWS on the roadways of America, first-hand, real time, real world news—going out and discovering the news . . .

SPOKEN NEWS: Plattdeutsch, spoken mainly in northern Germany and with beginnings documented as early as the 9th Century, is still spoken in Cole Camp, Missouri.

RELEVANT NEWS: The Wabash Bridge (most distant) is a vertical lift railroad bridge. It carries trains across the Mississippi River between Hannibal, Missouri and Pike County, Illinois; and when raised, it also allows river traffic to move up and down the river. Originally built as a swing span in 1871, the Wabash served trains, pedestrian traffic and wagons, later adding automobiles. It became a rail-only bridge in 1936 with the opening of a new highway bridge downstream. Renovation in 1994 converted the Wabash to a vertical lift bridge (that’s one year after I – Two Six Four – rolled off the MCI assembly line, and three years before Two Six Zero put tread to pavement exiting the Prevost assembly plant).

COMET NEWS: “The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes,” wrote Shakespeare in Julius Caesar. Perhaps that is why the later penman, Mark Twain, passionately wanted Halley’s Comet to escort him from this life. That Mark Twain was born in a year of Halley’s passing (1835) was certainly a contributing factor to his wish, which came true in 1910. From the first recorded observation of the Comet in 240 B.C. by Chinese astronomers to the identification of the comet’s orbit by Sir Edmond Halley in 1705, it has shown up every seventy-six years, with little variation. All those orbital travels (trillions of miles) . . . still dependable, still on time!

MUST SEE...

(Unlike selfies, these are not about me, but about travel discoveries I think you’d like to know about.)

If you are into “fests,” Cole Camp, Missouri is the place to be in May for Mayfest, early June for Sangerfest, September for the famous Cole Camp Street Fair, October for Octoberfest, and late November for Christbaumfest. And when in Cole Camp, (a half hour south of Sedalia on 65), the town museum is a treasury of regional history.

The Mark Twain Museum is a must see for its Mark Twain and Hannibal history as well as its many Norman Rockwell originals, illustrative of Mark Twain’s 19th Century classics about life on the Mississippi River.

Quote Of The Day samples

“Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” ― Mark Twain

“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” ―Mark Twain


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MotorCoach Blog 12 Route 66 Edition

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I am a motorcoach…

. . . with insight on those who accept the extravagant invitation to travel. These of course are called travelers, and their primary noteworthy distinction is that of turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. For example: putting one foot in front of the other. What could be more ordinary? Yet, do it enough times and you’ve got journey, experience, adventure, accomplishment, and transformation.

Did you know I have an elevator? I’m proud of that. It’s a commitment: leave no willing passenger behind. Recently a man climbed aboard – and I do mean climbed! He even required help doing so, someone else supplying aid in lifting his right leg the height of one step at a time. An affliction had
claimed nearly all function on the right side of his once healthy body. But he wasn’t letting it prevent his traveling. He recognizes what many do not: the value of time’s diminishing opportunity. And some day, when climbing is no longer possible, I expect he will board by use of my elevator . . . because that man’s a traveler.

Selfies

(which by definition means I’m in them . . . though you might have to look for me)

Extensive travel does not necessarily require days or weeks, or even physical miles. Without traveling more than a few blocks, one can discover thousands of miles and hundreds of years of history that converge along the original Route 66 downtown corridor in St. Louis.

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At left in the photo above is the south leg of the Gateway Arch, the extraordinary achievement of modern architecture and engineering completed in 1963. It is anchored deep in the bedrock along the western shore of the Mississippi River. In the foreground of the photo is the International Fur Exchange Building, a last remnant of the fur trade upon which St. Louis was founded.

Long before there was a Route 66 there was a Mississippi River, centerpiece of one of the greatest river systems in the world. And long before there was a Gold Rush, or oil fields, or commodity exchanges there was fur trading, a booming economic phenomenon with vast international reach and influence. In 1764, smack dab in the middle of the Mississippi River’s continental connectivity, St. Louis was founded by Pierre Laclede as a fur trading hub. From there the city grew, and by 1900 had become the fourth largest city in the United States. In the 1990s fur trade was nearly forgotten. In 1997 the International Fur Exchange was 60% demolished by wrecking ball when Charles Drury stepped in to halt the demolition. While converting the building into a hotel, Drury was careful to save the original character of the architecture. His rescue also saved this important link to St. Louis and North American history.

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From my location in front of the Drury Hotel/International Fur Exchange, reflection of the original St. Louis courthouse across the street calls to mind another significant piece of American history. It was at this courthouse that in 1846 Dred and Harriet Scott filed their suit for freedom. The case later went to the United States Supreme Court. And though the court’s 1957 decision was not in favor of the Scotts, it was a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement, ultimately leading to the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth constitutional amendments.

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In the early 1900s, St. Louis so dominated the U.S. shoe industry in the Midwest, the South, and the West that the New York based shoe company, Endicott Johnson, built a factory in St. Louis at the corner of Tucker (Route 66) and Spruce for fear of being squeezed out of the industry. The building’s ornamental brick and large arched windows (above) remain an attractive architectural feature of the city.

Here Is The News!

MEETING THE NEWS on the roadways of America, first-hand, real time, real world news—going out and discovering the news . . .

NEWS IN FRENCH: In 1764 Pierre Laclede handed over the enormous land clearing and construction project to be called St. Louis to a fourteen year old boy named Auguste Chouteau. Chouteau proved worthy of the task. As the new self-governed French settlement (under Spanish rule) grew, Chouteau’s descendants continued to be prominent leaders. So much so that in 1820, by their influence, the Missouri State Constitution was penned in both English and French versions (see French version below). Three of its signees were Pierre Chouteau (son of Auguste Chouteau), Nathan Boone (son of Daniel Boone), and Joseph Charless, founder of the St. Louis Missouri Gazette, the first newspaper published west of the Mississippi.
MoConstFrench

NEWS OF CONNECTIONS: Stretching from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, the “superhighway” system connected to the Mississippi River reached into Montana and the Northwest via the Missouri River, to the Great Lakes, Canada, and on to the Atlantic Ocean via the Illinois River, to the original thirteen colonies and the Atlantic seaboard via the Ohio River and its tributaries, to the deep South via the Tennessee River, and to Oklahoma and Colorado via the Arkansas River. But one of its most important connections was the Osage River, heart of the Osage Indian Empire of central North America – a key partner in the international fur trade. The Osage Indians were the protectors of the Chouteau family and “Fort” St. Louis through both fur trading and marital partnership.

MUST SEE...

(Unlike selfies, these are not about me, but about places you’ll want to visit.)

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Most people think of T.S. Eliot as a British poet. That’s because in 1914, at age 25, he moved to Britain, in 1927, at age 39, became a British citizen, in 1948 won the Nobel Prize in Literature as a British poet, is immortalized by a large stone in the poet’s corner of Westminster Abbey in London, and is celebrated as one of the great poets of the Twentieth Century. But T.S. Eliot was born in St. Louis in 1888, at 2635 Locust Street. The sight of this Nobel Laureate’s birthplace and boyhood home is now a parking lot. But it is commemorated by a round metal plaque in the sidewalk nearby.

Part of Route 66 in Illinois was laid out along what was known as the Pontiac trail, named after the great Ottawa Indian Chief famous for his leadership of Indian resistance to British invasion. In St. Louis you will find a claim to Chief Pontiac’s burial site on a plaque on the side of a parking garage at the corner of Walnut and Broadway, across the street from Busch Memorial Stadium and just a few blocks off of old Route 66.
potiacCheifplaquecheifPontiacGravesite

Yes, all of this you can discover without traveling more than two tenths of a mile! It only takes getting out there.

Quote Of The Day samples

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tsu

“When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.” – George Washington Carver

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