The day started out very foggy but eventually cleared off and was beautiful. The roads I travelled today were not your normal Interstate or even 4 lane roads. These were 2 lane and in one case, an unpaved, not quite 2 lane road.
The local weatherman on one of the local channels said the other night that you will see the leaves on the trees in the cemeteries changing first. Did he say what I thought he said? Does he hang out at random cemeteries? How does he know this? Who says this on TV? But then, who stops at random cemeteries to take pictures of the trees changing?? Right? Well, regardless, he was right. Thus, the pictures below.
The journey continues and I pass a sign that says something about a cattle and elk ranch. Not sure exactly what it said but as I kept going, I went over a hill and there sat 4 buck elk under a tree. So, we stop to take some pics. As we are taking pics, a car stops and a man says, "If you want to see some elk up close, turn around, go to M street and take a left, go to E street and take another left and keep driving toward the barn." Mr. W is looking at him like the man was trying to get us shot by driving somewhere we shouldn't. The man says, "I own this place so feel free to go." Well, you don't have to tell us twice!
Off we go and here's what it looked like driving back on the property. Pretty huh?
Sure enough, right as we got to the bottom of this hill, there was a buck with one of the biggest rack of antlers I have ever seen. His harem of does and baby elk where all around him. When I got out to take pics, all females surrounded him as if to protect him. He finally stood up. But, if I had to carry around that rack of antlers, I would probably stay sitting down as much as I could too!
We finally made it to the small town of Ava, Missouri and had lunch at a local restaurant which was good and our waitress gave us some tips on finding the Amish community.
We travel on down the road and as we are passing through the little town of Seymour, Missouri, sister-in-law (Barb) says that she sees an Amish person in their horse and buggy. So, we turn around and drive back toward the horse and buggy. But, there is no horse and buggy......anywhere. We are not talking a lot of area to try to backtrack. We are talking maybe 2 blocks. We are in a pick-up truck, the Amish in a horse and buggy. (If she drank, which she doesn't, I might have thought that she had been hitting the bottle a little early. Maybe Barb needs to have her contact lens strengthened??? just saying.......) So, we head toward the road where their farms are suppose to be located. There were signs on the highway and on the road off the highway that shows the horse and buggy and says, "Share the Road". So, we know we must be in the right place.
As we get to the road where we are suppose to turn, I look and there is a horse and buggy being driven by an Amish woman.
As we continued down this road, we did pass several Amish farms. How do you know it is an Amish farm you ask? They have buggys parked outside in stalls, windmills on the property, the people are dressed differently, and no power equipment. Most of the farms were on this main road so we couldn't really stop to take pics. There was too much traffic. So, sadly, the pic above of the woman driving the horse and buggy is the only pic I got. I guess I'll have to take another trip to the actual Amish country if I want more pics. It will be tough but someone has to do it..... :)
Just as a side note, we were driving down a road when we came upon a barn close to the road. I love old metal barns and think they are great photo ops. I only had time to roll down my window and snap quickly. I like how it turned out so I am including it below.
I LOVE the picture you got of the dirt road on that guy's property. You need to frame your favorite travel pictures some day, these are really good.
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