Missouri

Spent the holidays at my parents house in Viburnum, Missouri. It was great to visit with family and friends before heading out on the trip. A week and a half back in small town America will reset your perspectives. Made a few gigging trips to the Gasconade River, caught enough fish for 4 or 5 fish frys. Thats how folks cook fish in MO. It is the only way to cook "suckers"- the fish you are allowed to gig. You 'score' the fish fillets into thin strips and the hundreds of tiny bones fry and dissapear. Without this you couldn't eat a sucker, you would choke on a bone and die.

Spent Christmas day with family in Desloge.

Put out traps. While I was there we caught 4 coons, two beavers, and an otter. The otter has an interesting story behind it. The Conservation Department re-introduced the river otter to missouri about 15 years ago and now they are out of control. They completely wipeout the fish in farm ponds. They are decimating fish populations in small Ozark streams. We didn't see any fish in the stream where we caught the otter. Trapping is the only means to attempt to control the otter population.

Did some off-roading in the Blazer. (no pics of this). Came close to rolling it once while trying to back down a steep hill after the engine died near the top of the climb. Apparently carbureted engines don't like to idle on steep inclines. Anyway, the second attempt at this particular hill was successful... no need to test the roll bar strength just yet.

My parents raise big donkeys now. We used to raise sheep. Donkeys are really loud.

I didn't take photos of the town itself, I guess that would have been a good addition. Oh well.