A Story to Tell

Everyone has a story to tell.  You’re reading part of ours right now.  We got a glimpse into a few people’s stories today, all wildly different from each other, all very interesting

The first story came from the proprietor of Lead Mine Country Store, a grocery store with attached restaurant on a lonely road near the Lead Mine Conservation area.  We weren’t in any hurry today so we thought we would visit some of the local stores.  It turns out that this area has a clan of old-order Mennonite people, so it has lots of small businesses.  We visited another grocery store and a furniture store selling rough hewn furniture, all beautiful stuff, before arriving here.

The building was homey, with a large porch with stuff for sale.  Two peacocks in full plumage were perched on the railings.  There’s no electricity so the place is lit with light pipes from the roof.  The hum of a diesel reefer unit from a semi trailer could be heard in the background.

Deb is always really good at striking up conversations with complete strangers so we talked with the proprietor for awhile.  He was a former Episcopal priest, having moved here a while back from Colorado to be closer to family.  We talked about origins for a bit, how some of my family had immigrated from the Netherlands and adapted the flower business for the climate.  “In the flower business, we would marry ‘em and bury ‘em,” I told him, as gladiolas were used often in weddings and funerals.  It took him just a bit to make the connection, then he told us, “In my business, we would hatch ‘em, match ‘em, and then dispatch ‘em.”  That’s when he told us that he was an Episcopal priest, doing baptisms, weddings, and funerals.  We all had a good chuckle over this.

We drove towards Springfield, stopping at Costco and Aldi for supplies, and Culver’s for dessert, before arriving at the Bass Pro Shop.  This is the grand-daddy of all Bass Pro Shops, as it all started here when a guy named Johnny Morris started selling some fishing tackle out of his dad’s liquor store.  Since 1972, this business has grown into a large outdoor retailer with nearly 200 stores.  And this one is impressive place indeed.  Not content to just sell stuff, they have made their stores into destinations, with three-story waterfalls, aquariums, outdoor displays brought indoors, and, in the case of this location, several on-site museums.  One of those museums outlines the life of Johnny Morris and how he not only sells stuff but is also passionate about conservation.

We spent over two hours in this cavernous store and still did not cover all of it.  And for the most part, we didn’t even look at the products for sale.

Leaving here, we drove to our stop for the night, a private property at the end of a dead end road just outside of Springfield.  Through the network of boondockers that we are a part of, we found this place conveniently located just off the highway.

Cheryl, the owner, came out to greet us just after we parked the RV.  We had a nice conversation and we heard a little bit of her story.  How she likes to travel, both domestically and internationally.  She has been to South Africa several times and even owned a house there for a while.  She enjoys off-road Jeeping and likes the area around Moab, Utah.  She is involved with a disaster relief organization called Convoy of Hope.  And she lets drifters like us boondock on her lovely 15-acre property by Springfield, Missouri.

So, from Episcopal priest to outdoor entrepreneur to traveler/volunteer, we collected a few stories today as we are writing our own. So glad you could join us in this story.