On the road again

Iris in full bloom in a garden in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri 

After staring at the snow melting ever so slowly, the S.O. and I decided that maybe it was like that old saying about a watched pot never boiling. You know, as long as we were watching it, the snow wasn't going to leave. So we hit the road for Missouri. We've been down here for about a week now, and it has been a pleasant break from the mud season. Up north I can't even tell where the flowerbeds are; down here lilacs, bearded iris, peonies, and a zillion other things are in full bloom. We've done a little bit of playing tourist, a little bit of shopping, and checked out several of the campgrounds that are close to where the Younger Daughter lives. It's been nice. We wandered around historic Ste. Genevieve one day and checked out the ruins of the Einstein Mine on the Mark Twain National Forest. We even managed to stumble across an event the S.O. could get enthusiastic about: the 47th Annual Azalea Festival in Fredricktown.

The Azalea Festival was interesting. It had a lot of things going on -- a carnival (complete with a tilt-and-hurl), an arts and crafts fair, a children's pet show with the pets all dressed up in various costumes. I wasn't sure if it was possible for a dog to look truly embarrassed until I saw a vizsla dressed in a hot pink tutu with matching hot pink nail polish on its toes. The one thing the Azalea Festival did not have was azaleas -- the crafts fair was set up in "Azalea Park," which was basically just a big flat green open space down the hill from the courthouse square. No azaleas, at least none that I could see.

Up the hill from the carnival, the arts and crafts, and the dogs dressed in strange costumes was the one event that interested the S.O. It was a pretty decent car show with a wide variety of entries, although based on the photos he took, I think he was most interested in the classic hot rods.

 Monday we'll be heading home to the tundra. If we're lucky, the worst of the Mud Season will be over.