We left Wallace Creek and headed to Redman Creek Campground, Wappapello, Missouri. It was a long drive for us and we stopped a couple of times to stretch our legs and have lunch.
We crossed the bridge that took us from Mississippi into Arkansas. We've been here before, back in 2015, when we visited Memphis. I linked to that blog in the last post.
Then into Missouri, our first time in this state.
A new sticker added to our State map that shows the states that Lily has been in. Still a lot to see.
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| Our Site |
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| Behind our campsite |
May 13th, 2018
We went for a drive around Wappapello Lake, Corps of Engineers areas.
It was a pretty area and maintained very well.
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| Bryan loved this view. Just needed his fishing rod. |
We looked at the other campground, Peoples Creek. It was a pretty campground but some of the campsites were under water!!!
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| Want to keep your feet cool!! |
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| Someone was out fishing |
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| Getting ready to BBQ |
We had a couple of places we wanted to see today. We had to laugh as "Bitchin Betty" our GPS pronounces Missouri as Misery!!!!! We quite like what we have seen of Missouri so far though, so definitely not miserable!!!!
On our travels we saw a number of animals crossing the road!!!
It started with two turtles. I'll call them kamikaze turtles as we had to swerve to avoid them. There wasn't any other traffic so it was ok and they were safe. We saw several others on the back road that we were on, at different stages of crossing the road. Apparently this is a normal occurrence in this area, Why did the turtle cross the road?
As we were driving into Bloomfield Cemetery, we just missed a snake as it slithered across the road and further into the cemetery a beaver darted across the road in front of us. It must be the day for wildlife to cross the road!!!!
We found the Stoddard County Confederate Memorial Project. It is an ongoing project started by Larry Arnold about 25 years ago to place markers for the Stoddard County Confederates that died during the Civil War. He also wanted to put how they died on the reverse of the markers, as he had seen on some others that had been found elsewhere. Please read this LINK to learn about this. It was quite moving here as we walked around looking at the markers and gravestones.
I was reading the names as I walked along the stones and I found some that may be of interest to my cousins, Janice Dennis & Lisa Watts. Maybe they are very distant relatives of yours!!!
I'm not sure they are all legible in the blog but you can read the names in my original pictures.
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Calvin Watts, Pvt. Madison County
Company H, 3rd Inf. Regt. MSG Died at Bloomfield
Born: May 20, 1843 After Battle of
Died: Nov. 1, 1861 Fredricktown, Mo.
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Henry H. Dennis, Pvt. Captured
Company B, 2nd Mo. Inf. Regt. MSG 8-3-62
Born: Jan. 14, 1825 Stoddard County
Died: Nov. 15, 1862 Died of Illness
Alton, Il.
Maggie Chapman, this one's for you or Steve. Not part of the civil war markers but next to them.
"The above stones are for two brothers that served on the legendary ironclad, the CSS Arkansas. Stephan Minton, age 16, was a curious Irish lad whom Capt. Brown made reference to in the ship's log. Minton had stuck his head out of a gunport for a view and was immediately decapitated by an enemy shell. The Captain unkowningly asked another Missouri gunner, Smith Minton (Stephan's brother) to "throw that body overboard,". Smith Minton's reply was, "I can't sir, that's my brother." Smith Minton would survive the war but die of illness in Texas where he lies buried in an unmarked grave. While the Minton brother's remains lie elsewhere, their memory lives on in Stoddard County where they enlisted in 1861."
The Stars and Stripes Museum is a small museum for the military newspaper of this name. The first edition was written here. This is available ONLINE for anyone interested. It used to be distributed to the base in Upper Heyford and occasionally to the desert when Bryan was deployed there.
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| This lady was painting a picture inside the exhibit |
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| This lady gave us an excellent tour |
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| Painting by High School Art students to mark the 100th anniversary of America's entry into WWI |
We had an interesting chat with the volunteers there and could have stayed all day chatting but we had to leave and get something to eat.
Quite an interesting couple of days. Tomorrow we move on further North.
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