Finally got these working again. [View Full Entry]

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I'm at Denver Airport and my flight has been delayed by an hour...rather, as they put it, "craft delayed", so I'm guessing wherever the plane is coming from is bad weather. In any case, I'm now going to enjoy a steak burrito here at the airport. I'm hoping they might "make-up" the time during our flight so that we do not arrive at Vancouver much later than expected. [View Full Entry]

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Right. In ten minutes I'm going to leave the lap of luxury that is the Hyatt Place Airport and head for the airport, drop off my rental car and check-in for my first flight to Denver. A short layover and then onwards to Vancouver! I'm going home. :-)) [View Full Entry]

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I hadn't realized what I had been "putting up with" over the past week until I opened the door to my room here at the Hyatt Place Airport. I just about started crying (see pics). I decided to treat myself for my last night here, and what a well-needed treat it is turning out to be! No strange, old, unidentifiable smells (and they were all non-smoking rooms) with furniture you were almost afraid to sit on and bathrooms you didn't want to look too closely at. Now I will say that these motels cost $50-$60 a night and I'm paying $125 [View Full Entry]

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Well, I've made it back to Columbia. Today started in Hannibal with a visit to the Mark Twain Caves--an interesting visit. Limestone really is quite fascinating to look at. Then it was a nice leisurely drive to Paris, but this time I took a southern route, passing through New London, Center and Perry before hitting my old stomping grounds of Florida, Stoutsville and Paris. Taking a chance on my instincts (and gps accuracy), I took a turn off the road to search for the Stoutsville Cemetery, not marked on any map. It didn't take too long (and only one wrong road) [View Full Entry]

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So, today I played the tourist to a "T". I meandered Main St through the Arts Festival, did the Mark Twain Museum (another squashed penny!!), Mark Twain's boyhood home and then Molly Brown's home with appropriate meal breaks in between. Tommorow I leave Hannibal, but before I do I might take in Mark Twain's Cave (there's few caves in this region). [View Full Entry]

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...and lots of sleeping! I woke up in Paris to some impressive thunder and lightening storms. And it lasted hours! A load of laundry later and I was on the road, heading westward towards Hannibal--boyhood home of Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens) (oh, and he was born in Florida, MO). I arrived, I checked-in, and I slept, in that order. Then I awoke, drove the short distance to Hannibal downtown, parked and took a chance that the Mark Twain Riverboat would have room for me on their dinner cruise, sans reservation. They did. And so for two hours we cruised the [View Full Entry]

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It's the weekend! and everything's closed up for the Memorial Day Long Weekend so I can't do any research. Yeah!!! I need a break. Today I play tourist. [View Full Entry]

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So I got a late start today, but I did get to the Paris Courthouse. I started out looking up land and personal taxes. From these I learned that James William Painter (grandpa's dad) was in the area until at least the late 1890s (putting the Oklahoma theory into a very small timeframe and hopefully making it much easier to track down). Then I went over to the Probate Court Clerks' office and actually touched documents that the Painters touched and signed when they drew them up in 1856. The oldest documents I came across were probate papers for George Painter, [View Full Entry]

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I saw it coming up yesterday afternnon and here it is, full-blown. I'm homesick. I'm tired of travelling. (can you hear the whine in my voice). I miss my kitties. I want to be home. And even as I sit here trying to talk myself out of these thoughts are remembering what great research I've gotten done (ok, so let's go home!) and what interesting things the Courthouse here might have (or might not), and won't it be something to see the graves of some of these ancestors (if I can find them)...well, you see what happens. So, then I say, [View Full Entry]

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