Thursday, July 24, 2008

Marshfield to Eminence

On Wednesday we left our motel and got about 100 yards when the heavens opened with a cloud burst. We took shelter under the awning of a Sonic Drive-In. When the rain let up we continued out of town on Hwy 38. Luckily that was the last rain we saw, and luckily the day remained overcast, holding the temperature to reasonable levels. We decided to go long, and set our caps on Houston (no.. not Texas). We went 67 miles that all looked pretty much like the picture above. Periodically we would top out on a beautiful large plateau of rich grassland, then begin a rolling descent followed by a rolling ascent. Over all it was a very pleasant day topped off by a great steak dinner with a wonderful fresh salad (something we have come to crave) AND a martini, a real rarety on the back roads of Kansas and Missouri. If you find yourself in Houston, Missouri, eat at The Legendary, you won't be disappointed.

This morning we left Houston on Hwy 17 under a blissfully cloudy sky which prevailed all day. The countryside is beautiful and as we roll east we begin to notice some pines and other conifers mixed in with the prevailing hardwoods. Also as we move deeper into the Ozarks, the communities are becoming less affluent than in western Missouri. When we get to Summersville we head east on Hwy 106. About five miles west of Eminence is Alley Spring which has a daily outflow large enough to irrigate 24 thousand acres of Salinas Valley crops. Near the spring a state of the art mill was built in 1897 with the idea of importing wheat and exporting flour all over the nation. There was one glitch, the railroad decided to route elsewhere. The mill shortly went bust. The State took it over in 1927 and has maintained it as part of the park system.

After visiting Alley Spring, we climbed over a steep ridge and descended to Eminence, a tourist destination in south central Missouri in the heart of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pretty.

Dave and Belinda said...

Hi Leslie, yes it is pretty. My gosh, I just posted and was reviewing the post and there was your comment! You were right on it.

Anonymous said...

Some spring! Is that red building with the wooden security bars the Legendary?

Anonymous said...

Hi John, no, that big red building is the mill that is built next to the spring.

Michael Podolny said...

Isn't amazing the difference in the perception and attitude toward water between the (desert) West and the East?

Dave and Belinda said...

Michael, there are some really big springs here in Missouri, of which Alley is the second biggest. The spring with the most outflow, Big Spring, is truly amazing and eclipses all the others with an outflow of 840 (not a typo!)million gallons a day. To your point, I'm sure nothing like this exists in the West. In Missouri enough rain falls to irrigate most crops and not even lawns have sprinkler systems so most of this spring water just runs off.