Day 1 In the Ozarks

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Depart Chicago, IL 11:55PM on Tuesday, May 18th via Megabus

Arrive in St. Louis, MO 6:25AM on Wednesday, May 19th

Sit around in the Civic Center MetroLink Station with my computer. I am dehydrated so I get a soda.

Depart St. Louis, MO 8:25AM on Wednesday, May 19th via Greyhound

I have never taken a Greyhound bus before but it was quite the experience. I was clearly out of my element. For one, I was the only person that had purchased my ticket at home and printed it out. Is it cheaper to buy at the station? Maybe it was the area and/or my destination but I was the only person on the bus who had a full set of teeth. Not to say that people missing teeth are in any way less than but, for me, I was clearly out of my element. Whatever, I made it and it was absolutely fine.

Arrive in Springfield, MO 12:45PM on Wednesday, May 19th

Springfield, MO

My parents arrive at the Greyhound bus terminal in Springfield. I was starving and so was the rest of my family. We decided to venture to Ryan's restaurant. This place is the exact same as a Golden Corral except maybe a little bit cleaner. I am not a huge fan of all you can eat, especially since my diet has been horrific lately but it was a nice change of pace. The food was good, there were plenty of vegetarian options and I devoured their pizza.

Wilson's Creek National Battlefield
The battlefield was so-so. The movie, recommended by the park ranger, was indeed worth watching. I wish I had done more research on when and where our civil war ancestors from Missouri fought. It is more than likely that one of them fought here. If that were the case, maybe I would have appreciated it more. After the movie, we decided to drive the about 5 mile loop around the battlefield. At this point, the weather turns for the worst and it is now pooring. If you did not stop here on your vacation, you would not be missing very much. The only thing that wasn't woods or fields was a home about halfway through. The home was pretty neat - the insides appeared to be from the state it would have been back during the civil war. Unfortunately, it was locked.

The Library Center of the Springfield-Greene County Library District
I made it a point to come here because we had ancestors that resided in Springfield and I wanted to do some family research. The library is beautiful and must have been renovated recently. It was an enormous location and lots of people inside. The local history section had it's own librarian which was extremely helpful. Luckily for me, the obituaries were indexed by name and date. It is always a pleasure when this is the case. Unfortunately for me though, all of my ancestors (that I had death dates for) died in their 90's and their spouses (if they had spouses) were not named in the obituaries. It was still quite a treat to find and read about my ancestors in their obituaries.

Springfield Hot Glass
We went to this blown glass gallery. It was pretty nice but very expensive (as to be expected). It was in the art district which was pleasantly surprising. The art district was full of great gallerys and stores. For a small Midwestern town, it definitely was worth seeing.

Jefferson Street Footbridge
Even though it claims to be one of the longest foot bridges in America, it was pretty lame. Sorry but someone had to say it.

Nuclear Submarine & Wild Bill Hitchcock Shootout Site
BORING. Ok, it was not that bad but the nuclear submarine is just the tip top of it. Not really worth it. As for the Wild Bill Hitchcock shootout site, it was in a town square. The town square was fairly picturesque. Since the weather still was not that great, we did not stay outside of the car for that long. It appeared like there were some neat restaurants and taverns in and around the square which may have been worth visiting if we were hungry or if I needed a drink. Maybe next time.

Westgate Emerald Pointe Resort
This is where we would be staying for our trip. It was actually very nice. There was a pool table upstairs and a television in every room for a total of 5 televisions. For the first night, my father made us all homemade pizza's in the oven. For me, I had just cheese and freshly sliced beefsteak tomatoes. It was rather delicious. Then, we played a family game of pool while we watched the first season finale of Modern Family. I had a couple beers, which unfortunately were Millers but beggars cannot be choosers.

Goodnight.

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