The garage smells of new rubber wanting to meet the road. I just put a new set of Pirelli All-Season Touring tires on the wife's car. They're Italian and the auto is Korean. And with this European and Asian world-mix sitting in the garage it didn't seem right to hold them in down here on the farm when adventure and touring were calling. We all could be out on a road trip by merely backing out into the alley and pointing the touring tires somewhere away from here. We had been wanting to visit Grant at the University of Missouri in Columbia (CoMO as it is known by the local slang); so, we two said how about next weekend we 'go Como'?
Grant will be graduating in mid-May, and we will be there then in the thick of all the confusion and locust swarm of parents to celebrate at the appropriate time. But, if we showed up a month early, we figured we could pretty much have the run of the place to ourselves, and Grant could provide a tour of his haunts on and off campus relatively free from the madding crowds to come. We also planned to work in a Missouri literary tour; visiting Hannibal, MO, boyhood home of Mark Twain (Samuel Clements) on the Northeast quadrant of the state along the muddy Mississippi. Then make a second pilgrimage to Mansfield, MO to visit the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the "Little House on the Prairie" series of books, an oft referenced source of 19th Century American pioneer life and favorite read of Sue's going way back.
We put in 1551 miles (RT) with pleasant spring time weather all along the way - other than the drainage ditch drencher driving dime-sized hail stones upon us on I-44 in Rolla. The boldly color profuse blooms of the red bud and dogwood trees were blooming in the wooded understory beside interstate and rural highway all through Missouri. The lurid colors of the red bud are nature's "red carpet" rolled out for the entrance of Spring.
Our four-day round trip begins with a series of photos from Grant's environs as a radio journalism student at Mizzou.
Grant's house is several blocks from campus, and he shares it with three other roommates.
Certainly no room for parents to crash, so we booked a room at Como HoJo not too far from the action. Our first night we shared the motel parking lot with a Severe Storm/Tornado chasing vehicle. The tornadoes that ripped the St Louis area the day before had moved further east and left us with pleasant weather for our stay in Missouri.
The University of Missouri (1839) the oldest public university west of the Mississippi. Grant quickly grew to appreciate the marble and brick buildings that give the place a solid and stately character and the well appointed grounds that he believes makes it one of the more beautiful universities to be found.
The Mizzou journalism school has a long and honored relationship with China, And as a gift the J-School was presented a pair of marble lions that sit guarding the integrity of The School of Journalism in an archway were the spoken word is magnified and and the echo projected. The story goes: Once there were two students who as they walked under the lion-guarded archway were boasting between themselves about how clever they were to have just cheated on an exam without arousing the suspicion of the professor.
The professor who had just given these students the exam was some distance away, but from the acoustics of the archway, he was able to hear their boastful conversation.
When these two students had their exams returned, they were dismayed to discover that their professor had given them both failing grades. When they asked why they had flunked after giving the correct answers, the professor told them that their cheating was the reason for their grade of zero.
With dropped jaws, they asked how he had uncovered what they believed to be an air-tight scheme? The professor's only explanation was, "The lions told me".
Grant has worked as the Associate Director of Programming for KCOU, the campus radio station. In past years he has co-hosted a talk show with his roommate Carson and done sports broadcasting as production work also at KCOU.
Beside his volunteer work at the campus radio station, he has a part-time paying job at a commercial station where he monitors the equipment and does production work for some of the sports programming, We visited his workplace on a quiet Saturday morning, bringing him donuts.
Of course a parents job is to buy food while visiting the college kids. We had a late dinner at The Heidelberg followed by a visit to Hot Box Cookies [a name that carries the connotation of "munchies" after pot smoking]. Breakfast at cafe Berlin (twice). We were pleased to have Kaileen, Grant's girlfriend, join us on several dining occasions.
Grant will be graduating in mid-May, and we will be there then in the thick of all the confusion and locust swarm of parents to celebrate at the appropriate time. But, if we showed up a month early, we figured we could pretty much have the run of the place to ourselves, and Grant could provide a tour of his haunts on and off campus relatively free from the madding crowds to come. We also planned to work in a Missouri literary tour; visiting Hannibal, MO, boyhood home of Mark Twain (Samuel Clements) on the Northeast quadrant of the state along the muddy Mississippi. Then make a second pilgrimage to Mansfield, MO to visit the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the "Little House on the Prairie" series of books, an oft referenced source of 19th Century American pioneer life and favorite read of Sue's going way back.
We put in 1551 miles (RT) with pleasant spring time weather all along the way - other than the drainage ditch drencher driving dime-sized hail stones upon us on I-44 in Rolla. The boldly color profuse blooms of the red bud and dogwood trees were blooming in the wooded understory beside interstate and rural highway all through Missouri. The lurid colors of the red bud are nature's "red carpet" rolled out for the entrance of Spring.
Our four-day round trip begins with a series of photos from Grant's environs as a radio journalism student at Mizzou.
Certainly no room for parents to crash, so we booked a room at Como HoJo not too far from the action. Our first night we shared the motel parking lot with a Severe Storm/Tornado chasing vehicle. The tornadoes that ripped the St Louis area the day before had moved further east and left us with pleasant weather for our stay in Missouri.
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| Armored severe storm chase vehicle is a chick magnet |
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| Storm chaser equipped with hydraulic 6-inch spikes to anchor in-place 1-inch steel debris shields and wielded plating. The 3-man crew says it is mostly boring driving around all spring and summer with a small percentage of excitement and a bit of terror thrown in at 135 mph. |
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| Fine Print on license frame "Do Not Follow During Adverse Weather" |
The University of Missouri (1839) the oldest public university west of the Mississippi. Grant quickly grew to appreciate the marble and brick buildings that give the place a solid and stately character and the well appointed grounds that he believes makes it one of the more beautiful universities to be found.
 |
| Jesse Hall (Administration) is set behind the famed pillars of a former building that long ago burned - leaving just the stone columns |
The Mizzou journalism school has a long and honored relationship with China, And as a gift the J-School was presented a pair of marble lions that sit guarding the integrity of The School of Journalism in an archway were the spoken word is magnified and and the echo projected. The story goes: Once there were two students who as they walked under the lion-guarded archway were boasting between themselves about how clever they were to have just cheated on an exam without arousing the suspicion of the professor.
The professor who had just given these students the exam was some distance away, but from the acoustics of the archway, he was able to hear their boastful conversation.
When these two students had their exams returned, they were dismayed to discover that their professor had given them both failing grades. When they asked why they had flunked after giving the correct answers, the professor told them that their cheating was the reason for their grade of zero.
With dropped jaws, they asked how he had uncovered what they believed to be an air-tight scheme? The professor's only explanation was, "The lions told me".
 |
| One of the pair of lions guarding the integrity of the Missouri School of Journalism |
Grant has worked as the Associate Director of Programming for KCOU, the campus radio station. In past years he has co-hosted a talk show with his roommate Carson and done sports broadcasting as production work also at KCOU.
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| Grant in his domain KCOU sound board and controls |
Beside his volunteer work at the campus radio station, he has a part-time paying job at a commercial station where he monitors the equipment and does production work for some of the sports programming, We visited his workplace on a quiet Saturday morning, bringing him donuts.
 |
| Grant explains to his mother, what knobs do what and when he has to push the right buttons as we tour Zimmer Radio Group |
Of course a parents job is to buy food while visiting the college kids. We had a late dinner at The Heidelberg followed by a visit to Hot Box Cookies [a name that carries the connotation of "munchies" after pot smoking]. Breakfast at cafe Berlin (twice). We were pleased to have Kaileen, Grant's girlfriend, join us on several dining occasions.
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