For those of you who were unable to read my column last week, June 7 was Connie and I’s 33 wedding anniversary. As luck would have it, it fell on a Friday this year giving us a chance to take a mini one night vacation.
It was a leisurely one hour drive to our destination. When we arrived in town it was dinner time. There were no fast food franchises in the area, which is good. When traveling to a new area, and you are not in a rush, I have found it best to sample the local cuisine.
So we stopped in at a locally owned bar and grill called the Haystack. You know you are at a dining establishment frequented by the local community as soon as you enter the front door and everyone turns to look at the strangers who just entered.
We weren’t disappointed.
If our faces didn’t give us away our clothing surely would have. Having come straight from work, not wanting to waste time changing clothes, I was in khaki dress slacks with a button down dress shirt, my usual work attire. Connie wore a nice floral top with jeans.
The locals were dressed a little more casually — shorts, jeans or overalls and t-shirts. I have always preferred to be overdressed for an occasion than under dressed so it didn’t bother me at all.
We ordered a couple of Blue Moons on tap to go with an appetizer of fried cheese sticks and a main entree of St. Louis style pizza. Our food was just what we wanted and the waitress courteous.
Connie and I have lived most of our lives in Owensville, what I consider to be a small town. At least Owensville is a small town compared to Washington, Rolla, Jefferson City or St. Louis. Where we went spent Friday night was a small town from another era.
Both of the neighboring communities to Owensville — Bland and Rosebud — have populations similar to where we went but there was something different at our destination. Perhaps it was this way because the main highway only skirted the town. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the main highway was closed because of water over the road.
I don’t remember seeing a speed limit sign in town, but there was no need. The streets weren’t straight, or long enough to go much over 25 mph.
Anyway as we drove around to familiarize ourselves with our surroundings, everyone, I mean everyone, waved at us. They waved at us from their pickup trucks and from their porches, giving us a nice welcome.
They surely knew that the vehicle we were in was not local.
Finally we drove up the hill to our destination, the highest point in the village. Being a teacher and working in a school house for most of her life, Connie’s bucket list included spending the night in a school. So, when she discovered the Old School on the Hill Bed and Breakfast, we had to spend a night there.
Constructed in 1876, with an addition some 20 years later, this old school included four main classrooms that were turned into a bedroom, each complete with its own private bathroom.
As we walked up the stairway you could feel the history on the wooden steps, worn down from the thousands of students who raced up and down the stairs each day for over 40 years. Just outside our room, in the hallway was the workings of a 100-year-old operating pendulum clock.
The square footage of the room we stayed in, Professor Turner’s Room, was about the same as the efficiency apartment Connie and I lived in our first year of marriage in Hannibal.
The room, decorated perfectly, included a king size brass bed, two armoires (one for clothes and one for the TV), a couch, a small table for eating, a two person jetted tub, separate shower and more.
On the top floor of the School on the Hill, with seven windows, our room had a wonderful view from which we watched the sunset on the 33rd year of our marriage.
Our hosts, Leroy and Debbie Huff joined us for breakfast Saturday morning.
The road sign lists the current population as 396. According to the bed and breakfast’s website Chamois was founded in 1856 as a railroad and river town and at one time had the largest population in Osage County, over 1000.
It took us over two hours for the return trip home on Saturday as we took a detour to Morrison due to the Missouri river covering parts of Hwy. 100. After that we viewed the flood in Gasconade and Hermann before retuning home in the early afternoon completing a wonderful drive through the countryside.
F
or those of you who were unable to read my column last week, June 7 was Connie and I’s 33 wedding anniversary. As luck would have it, it fell on a Friday this year giving us a chance to take a mini one night vacation.
It was a leisurely one hour drive to our destination. When we arrived in town it was dinner time. There were no fast food franchises in the area, which is good. When traveling to a new area, and you are not in a rush, I have found it best to sample the local cuisine.
So we stopped in at a locally owned bar and grill called the Haystack. You know you are at a dining establishment frequented by the local community as soon as you enter the front door and everyone turns to look at the strangers who just entered.
We weren’t disappointed.
If our faces didn’t give us away our clothing surely would have. Having come straight from work, not wanting to waste time changing clothes, I was in khaki dress slacks with a button down dress shirt, my usual work attire. Connie wore a nice floral top with jeans.
The locals were dressed a little more casually — shorts, jeans or overalls and t-shirts. I have always preferred to be overdressed for an occasion than under dressed so it didn’t bother me at all.
We ordered a couple of Blue Moons on tap to go with an appetizer of fried cheese sticks and a main entree of St. Louis style pizza. Our food was just what we wanted and the waitress courteous.
Connie and I have lived most of our lives in Owensville, what I consider to be a small town. At least Owensville is a small town compared to Washington, Rolla, Jefferson City or St. Louis. Where we went spent Friday night was a small town from another era.
Both of the neighboring communities to Owensville — Bland and Rosebud — have populations similar to where we went but there was something different at our destination. Perhaps it was this way because the main highway only skirted the town. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the main highway was closed because of water over the road.
I don’t remember seeing a speed limit sign in town, but there was no need. The streets weren’t straight, or long enough to go much over 25 mph.
Anyway as we drove around to familiarize ourselves with our surroundings, everyone, I mean everyone, waved at us. They waved at us from their pickup trucks and from their porches, giving us a nice welcome.
They surely knew that the vehicle we were in was not local.
Finally we drove up the hill to our destination, the highest point in the village. Being a teacher and working in a school house for most of her life, Connie’s bucket list included spending the night in a school. So, when she discovered the Old School on the Hill Bed and Breakfast, we had to spend a night there.
Constructed in 1876, with an addition some 20 years later, this old school included four main classrooms that were turned into a bedroom, each complete with its own private bathroom.
As we walked up the stairway you could feel the history on the wooden steps, worn down from the thousands of students who raced up and down the stairs each day for over 40 years. Just outside our room, in the hallway was the workings of a 100-year-old operating pendulum clock.
The square footage of the room we stayed in, Professor Turner’s Room, was about the same as the efficiency apartment Connie and I lived in our first year of marriage in Hannibal.
The room, decorated perfectly, included a king size brass bed, two armoires (one for clothes and one for the TV), a couch, a small table for eating, a two person jetted tub, separate shower and more.
On the top floor of the School on the Hill, with seven windows, our room had a wonderful view from which we watched the sunset on the 33rd year of our marriage.
Our hosts, Leroy and Debbie Huff joined us for breakfast Saturday morning.
The road sign lists the current population as 396. According to the bed and breakfast’s website Chamois was founded in 1856 as a railroad and river town and at one time had the largest population in Osage County, over 1000.
It took us over two hours for the return trip home on Saturday as we took a detour to Morrison due to the Missouri river covering parts of Hwy. 100. After that we viewed the flood in Gasconade and Hermann before retuning home in the early afternoon completing a wonderful drive through the countryside.
F
or those of you who were unable to read my column last week, June 7 was Connie and I’s 33 wedding anniversary. As luck would have it, it fell on a Friday this year giving us a chance to take a mini one night vacation.
It was a leisurely one hour drive to our destination. When we arrived in town it was dinner time. There were no fast food franchises in the area, which is good. When traveling to a new area, and you are not in a rush, I have found it best to sample the local cuisine.
So we stopped in at a locally owned bar and grill called the Haystack. You know you are at a dining establishment frequented by the local community as soon as you enter the front door and everyone turns to look at the strangers who just entered.
We weren’t disappointed.
If our faces didn’t give us away our clothing surely would have. Having come straight from work, not wanting to waste time changing clothes, I was in khaki dress slacks with a button down dress shirt, my usual work attire. Connie wore a nice floral top with jeans.
The locals were dressed a little more casually — shorts, jeans or overalls and t-shirts. I have always preferred to be overdressed for an occasion than under dressed so it didn’t bother me at all.
We ordered a couple of Blue Moons on tap to go with an appetizer of fried cheese sticks and a main entree of St. Louis style pizza. Our food was just what we wanted and the waitress courteous.
Connie and I have lived most of our lives in Owensville, what I consider to be a small town. At least Owensville is a small town compared to Washington, Rolla, Jefferson City or St. Louis. Where we went spent Friday night was a small town from another era.
Both of the neighboring communities to Owensville — Bland and Rosebud — have populations similar to where we went but there was something different at our destination. Perhaps it was this way because the main highway only skirted the town. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the main highway was closed because of water over the road.
I don’t remember seeing a speed limit sign in town, but there was no need. The streets weren’t straight, or long enough to go much over 25 mph.
Anyway as we drove around to familiarize ourselves with our surroundings, everyone, I mean everyone, waved at us. They waved at us from their pickup trucks and from their porches, giving us a nice welcome.
They surely knew that the vehicle we were in was not local.
Finally we drove up the hill to our destination, the highest point in the village. Being a teacher and working in a school house for most of her life, Connie’s bucket list included spending the night in a school. So, when she discovered the Old School on the Hill Bed and Breakfast, we had to spend a night there.
Constructed in 1876, with an addition some 20 years later, this old school included four main classrooms that were turned into a bedroom, each complete with its own private bathroom.
As we walked up the stairway you could feel the history on the wooden steps, worn down from the thousands of students who raced up and down the stairs each day for over 40 years. Just outside our room, in the hallway was the workings of a 100-year-old operating pendulum clock.
The square footage of the room we stayed in, Professor Turner’s Room, was about the same as the efficiency apartment Connie and I lived in our first year of marriage in Hannibal.
The room, decorated perfectly, included a king size brass bed, two armoires (one for clothes and one for the TV), a couch, a small table for eating, a two person jetted tub, separate shower and more.
On the top floor of the School on the Hill, with seven windows, our room had a wonderful view from which we watched the sunset on the 33rd year of our marriage.
Our hosts, Leroy and Debbie Huff joined us for breakfast Saturday morning.
The road sign lists the current population as 396. According to the bed and breakfast’s website Chamois was founded in 1856 as a railroad and river town and at one time had the largest population in Osage County, over 1000.
It took us over two hours for the return trip home on Saturday as we took a detour to Morrison due to the Missouri river covering parts of Hwy. 100. After that we viewed the flood in Gasconade and Hermann before retuning home in the early afternoon completing a wonderful drive through the countryside.
