Holy Southern Illinois

We've been making a lot more excursions into Illinois lately for a couple of reasons. One is that we are always on the hunt for Walmart grocery pickup slots and they seem to be in greater supply on the Illinois side. The other reason is we are always on the lookout for new parks to enjoy and being downtown means there is a lot of fun stuff right across the river.

We've driven past signs for the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in the outskirts of Belleville numerous times and always been curious about what the heck that was. I thought maybe there had been a magical miracle in metro east but it sounds like the "Shrine name refers to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome, where legend says snow fell in the summertime".

I learned a new word.

"In Christianity (especially Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Methodist), an oblate is a person who is specifically dedicated to God or to God's service.

Oblates are individuals, either laypersons or clergy, normally living in general society, who, while not professed monks or nuns, have individually affiliated themselves with a monastic community of their choice. They make a formal, private promise (annually renewable or for life, depending on the monastery with which they are affiliated) to follow the Rule of the Order in their private lives as closely as their individual circumstances and prior commitments permit. Such oblates are considered an extended part of the monastic community; for example, Benedictine oblates also often include the post-nominal letters 'OblSB' or 'ObSB' after their names on documents. They are comparable to the tertiaries associated with the various mendicant orders."

The grounds were really nice and there were definitely a lot of unexpected things to look at.

Back at home our television viewing habits have probably been affected by the amount of drama that is now involved with daily life. As a result we are watching copious amounts of The Great British Bake Off as a nice calming form of entertainment.

What's more calming than watching British people comment on the size of the bubbles in a cake mix?

Apocalyptic Artwork

So downtown St. Louis was covered in plywood, protecting businesses' windows from riots after the death of George Floyd.

Corona beer's similar name to coronavirus led to a lot of jokes and I think lower 

We had just started a stroll out the back door, and I noticed a folded up ping pong table in the alley with a "FREE" sign taped to it. It was giant even folded up but luckily it fit into the elevator. Success!

Now that I have this large treasure... what the heck am I going to do with it?

Anyway the objective of our stroll around town today was to check out all of the cool artwork that people are doing on all of the boarded up windows. I was impressed with its quality especially considering how quickly it seemed to pop up overnight.

Mills, Flowers, and Parks

We packed up camp at Trail of Tears State Park and hit some parks on the way back home.

The four-story mill at Bollinger Mill State Historic Site was completed by Burford in 1867, the previous having been burned down by the Union army. The bridge used to sit on a toll road, and had its own toll booth until 1906.

Lydia is a lot less classy than many people think. She hangs out with guys that wear Walmart Spongebob wife beaters and ridiculous horseshoe mustaches.

A butterfly having a bad day.

A great spangled fritillary taking a break at Hawn State Park near Ste. Genevieve, MO. The park covers nearly 5k acres and geology buffs come to the park to see the number of exposed rock types. 

We've been laughing recently about how much rural Missouri likes to showcase ancient farm equipment.

Classed it up in my Walmart Spongebob tank top at Felix Vallé House State Historic Site in Ste. Genevieve, MO. The house is a Federal-style limestone structure built in 1818 by Jacob Phillipson, a merchant from Philadelphia.