“Moon River, wider than a mile.”*

by chuckofish

My mother has regaled everyone with exciting tales of galavanting around Maryland and Virginia with Daughter #2 and DN and sweet baby Katie. Well, guess what? I have also done some galavanting with tales to tell. Just maybe not as exciting. And no cute babies.

On Saturday, I traveled up to Columbia in the State Tahoe to work at the Special Olympics State Summer Games helping share information about a valuable state program that can benefit the athletes. Then, on Sunday, I drove down to Springfield so the bossman could present a prize to a lucky Springfield Cardinals fan. Don’t worry, it rained. Like alternating torrential downpour to sunglasses weather on the hilly backroads one has to take to get to Springfield from Jefferson City (there’s no direct route, seriously).

After an hour rain delay, the Springfield Cardinals took on the San Antonio Missions.

It was a nice stadium and if you lived in Springfield and loved baseball, going to a game would be fun. I just checked and the Cardinals lost 2-9. I left shortly after the game started for wine time.

Like many places, Springfield has approximately one block of old buildings. Hotel Vandivort is the coolest place in Springfield and has a nice bar with actual atmosphere. When I’m forced to spend time in Springfield, I set up my laptop and partake of the wifi and wine. I did an approximate 20 point turn to get the Tahoe into a parking space. I impressed myself.

On Monday morning, I drove down to Branson to accompany the bossman to a couple of events. Whenever I go to Branson, I think of this:

This time, Google maps took me through the theater district. And whoee it really felt like Vegas if it was run by Ned Flanders. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture because I was driving. Also, did you know that half of the Titanic resides in Branson?

After a long meeting and a longer event complete with a live band and a tour of a tiny house, I got on the road back to Jefferson City. And then today at work I got the Blue Screen of Death twice. A+.

*Had to quote the Andy Williams classic in a blog post about Branson.