14 Antique Malls Off I-44 In Missouri

We are currently building "The Chirping Frog", an Antiques & More mall located right off a major highway in Illinois.  I would like to create a traveling guide for other antique malls located across the country.  That'll take some time and quite a bit of travel but won't that be loads of fun to research?

Recently we traveled to Oklahoma City picking up custom cabinetry we had built for the shop.  On the way I miraculously stayed awake (so unlike me) and kept a list of all the Malls I saw advertised along the way.  Here's the start of my guide, 14 malls I found while traveling through Missouri off I-44.  I will have to take another trip in order to stop and take a look so I have no recommendations or reviews to give (I'm crying inside but hubby and pup were not stopping).

Have you been to any of these, any comments or critiques?  If you know of any others please let me know so I can add them to my ever-growing list.    

Eureka, MO
Eureka Antique Mall 
Great Midwest Antique Mall

Bourbon, MO
Half Crocked Antiques  Exit 218
Country Cousins Antiques  Exit 214

Cuba, MO
Lone Star Antiques Mall  Exit 208


Rolla, MO
Rolla Antique Mall  Exit 189

Lebanon, MO
Heartland Antique Mall  Exit 127
Jonesy's Antiques  Exit 127

Phillipsurg, MO
Route 66 Antique Mall  Exit 123

Marshfield, MO
Antique Mercantile Exit 100

Springfield, MO
Relics Antique Mall  Exit 46

Republic, MO
Cooper's Antiques  Exit 67

Sarcoxie, MO
Cimarron Antiques  Exit 29

Joplin, MO
Southside Antique Mall 

Saturday Fun

My husband calls me every night on his way home from work.  Friday I had been thinking about the weekend and what all I needed to work on until I found out he was going to the land.  I couldn't pass that up so Miss Pepper and I invited ourselves along.

Years ago my husband and his brother bought some property a couple hours south of us (north for the rest of the family).  The guys use it for hunting property while I simply enjoy a campfire and some peace and quite when I tag along.  They've since sold and purchased a new piece (not quite the same but it'll do) and Saturday I had the opportunity to spend some quiet time reading and just relishing in the solitude.  I think I could live out there without much problem and Miss Pepper, well, she just LOVES it!

 No sooner had we gotten out of the truck and Pepper and I were on our first walk.  I can't let her free at the house, she will not stay in the yard, at the land she roams freely and stays fairly close.  She'll go exploring and then pop back out of the woods or bean field to make sure I'm still there, then she's off again.

This is one of the many hunting blinds on the property.  I do not hunt (don't think I could do it) although I enjoy 3-D shoots, the many hunting "adventures" have been a wonderful way for the guys to bond (including the boys with grandpa and their uncles).

Miss Pepper enjoying her freedom.  I'd swear she's grinning as she runs and explores.

The lyric from a country song, "a man on a tractor with a dog in a field" comes to mind.  Grandpa and his tractor, my husband and his father mowed into the afternoon.  

The land has an old barn and a house.

Look at this construction.  Seems amazing to me that it's still standing.  No footings just a large rock to set the post on.  Wow!

There's also a small pond.  Pepper spent lots of time here cooling off between walks.

I brought along a book to read.  I had plenty to do at home but man, did this little break feel good and I haven't read a book in quite a while.

I walked with Miss Pepper then sat and read for a while before we were up again taking another walk.  This little guy was sitting on the log I placed my book on and nearly gave me a heart attack when quick movement caught my eye.  Cute little guy!

Last year my husband planted Persimmon seeds from the trees here at the house.  Once they'd come up he sent them with his dad and they planted them at the land.  Here's our little baby Persimmon's.  They say the deer like them.

They've got multiple rows such as this one along the edge of the field.

Lots of work to keep it up but I think they rather enjoy it!  Especially grandpa and his tractor.  Hunting season will be here before you know it and I'll be a "hunting widow" for a couple months.  Although I hate being alone for weekends on end throughout the hunting season its really great that the guys have a place to spend some quality time together and they've got some great stories and memories to boot.

Any other "hunting widows" out there?  If its not hunting, how else do the guys in your family spend quality time together?

Backpacking in Grand Teton National Park- Part 2

Good Morning from Grand Teton National Park.  Just woke up and its raining, again (it's Thursday today).  Spent last night at South Fork Lower Cascade Canyon and today we're off to Holly Lake for our final night in the wilderness.  Today we will be climbing to Paintbrush Divide (last month we would have needed Ice Axes, thank goodness we don't now, not sure we would of made it).  

We've been out since Monday and have had a great time so far, beautiful scenery and good times with the boys.  Here's the link to Part 1 in case you missed it.

We packed up in a light drizzle and headed out with all our rain gear on.  Our path led us up Cascade Canyon to a gorgeous lake called Lake Solitude, a climb of roughly 600 ft.  Would make a beautiful spot for a cabin, just saying!

Here I am all decked out in my raingear.  I pretty much wore it all day, even after it quit raining, for warmth.

My husband took some really great panoramic pictures with his phone.  This is somewhere along the path climbing through Cascade Canyon towards Paintbrush Divide.

Here we are at Lake Solitude.  We snacked while packing up camp this morning then hiked for a couple miles before stopping for breakfast.  We made some oatmeal and rested here at beautiful Lake Solitude before climbing 2.4 miles and roughly 1700 ft to the top of Paintbrush Divide.

The view down to Lake Solitude and Cascade Canyon from midway up to Paintbrush Divide.

Another view down from the hike up to Paintbrush divide.

In late June you'd of needed Ice Axes to make it up to Paintbrush Divide and the path would of been completely hidden by snow.  That would not have been fun!

This is the best picture I have of Paintbrush Divide.  It was nearly impossible to get pictures.  At the top, once you get out in the open the wind is blowing so hard that you can barely stand against it.  The trail is right at the top with a cliff on the other side, we went down hill from the trail to avoid being blown right off the mountain.  I'm not kidding, the wind was blowing that hard.  All I could do was bend over and push my way forward in an effort to get across the open area and into some protected cover.  WOW!  Talk about an adrenaline rush.

Here's a glimpse as to why they call it Paintbrush!

Here's a great shot my husband took on his cell phone once we got into some cover.  You can see the trail there on the right of the picture.  It was such a beautiful view but unbelievable winds!  Scary!

Again, that's the trail right beneath the snow towards the bottom of the picture.  The flat area above the snow, towards the top of the picture is Paintbrush Divide.

We walked through multiple snow banks going down the mountain after Paintbrush Divide.  I slipped and fell on the next one.  Didn't hurt myself at all just slid on melted snow and landed, softly on my tush.

This is the view into the valley, tomorrow's hike.  Towards the left of the picture is Holly Lake where we'll be camping for the night.

As we were setting up camp this deer kept working her way closer and closer to camp.  Think she was looking for an easy meal.

The boys were in charge of collecting water, this is the lake drainage area and was the closest source for tonight.

Here's campsite 2 at Holly Lake.  The lake is off the top right and corner of the photo while the drainage is off to the top left.

We bought some cards to bring with us so we could keep ourselves busy at night.  This site was set up for it.  We played a couple rounds here before it started raining and we headed off to bed.

We had mountains on three sides and the valley opened up on the other.  The winds were coming from the mountain side and rushing through camp all night long.  Thought the tent was going to lift right off the ground with us in it.  Amazing!

The boys were nearly giddy in the morning, last hike out and then food and bathrooms.  Too funny.  Complete strangers asked them about their hike and all they could say was how happy they were to have real bathrooms.  Geez guys!  

Anyhow, if you've followed along I'm sure you've noticed the hiking was gorgeous and we had no problems while out in the wilderness.  Any complications centered around the park and how user-friendly it might or might not be.  When we picked up bear vaults and our permit on Sunday we asked multiple questions of the worker and made some plans for our exit.  Well, needless to say things did not go quite as smoothly as we'd hoped.  

We were told there was a shuttle from Jenny Lake (which is where we'd be exiting the wilderness).  We didn't think to ask where at Jenny Lake.  There's a "Lodge" and a Visitor's Center.  We were closer to the "Lodge" so that's where we headed.  The boys were planning lunch, very excited for food and bathrooms.  Well, the "Lodge", not a Lodge, it's just a bunch of cabins that can be rented.  No bathrooms or food for public purchase and definately no shuttle.  The Visitors Center is another 3 miles.  The boys were not happy.

Here's Jenny Lake, absolutely beautiful lake with outstanding views of the mountains.

We took a quick break on a bench and a sweet lady offered to take our picture.  Turned out great, thanks!

 Caleb was looking for a bear the whole time.  Finally, last day and the most populated area of the park, saw a bear.  Completely ignored us.

So, here we are, exhausted, haven't eaten a real meal for nearly a week, looking forward to one so badly that we didn't even eat breakfast this morning, we simply packed up and headed out (we did eat a snack before leaving though) thinking Jenny Lake would offer Lunch and then head into town for dinner (that was hubby's plan anyhow).  Well, again, thwarted!  Jenny Lake has a small visitors center and gift shop.  Snacks again.  Also found the shuttle schedule.  Yeah, not a consistent schedule and it doesn't drop off where we were told.  It's 1:00pm and the shuttle is done for the day.  

So, taxi cab it is.  Dropped our packs, grabbed a snack and lounged in the shade to wait for the taxi, still dreaming of a cheeseburger and fries!

First stop after getting back to our car is getting a camp site for the night.  We had planned a white water rafting trip for 8:30 am in the morning and were planning to head out of town right after that.  Thwarted again!  Wouldn't you know it.  If you read Part 1 I mentioned that the park offers no reservations for their campgrounds.  Pulled into the campground, no sites available.  Now what?

Hubby, being the excellent planner that he is, immediately called the white water rafting company to see if they had any openings.  It's now 3:30pm and their next trip begins at 4:30, we could make that.  So, off we go.  Still haven't had a meal, just snacks, but with no place to stay for the night we might as well hit the road, but not without our white water rafting trip.

We had a great time.  Our trip was through Jackson Hole White Water Rafting Company and I believe our guide was Tom, he did an excellent job.  So glad we went.  We got back to our car about 8:30, still no real food for the day so our next stop, that hamburger and fries we'd been dreaming of all day (well, for many days depending on who you ask).

We ended up walking into MacPhail's Burgers at 8:45 pm, they close at 9.  Felt bad but we'd tried to eat there before we started our backpacking adventure and the line was out the door.  Thought we'd give it another try and we were all dying for a burger.  By the time we got seated it was nearly 9:45 and we were starving.  They were very gracious and kind, considering it was 10:30 before we left (I think that's par for the course around there).  Food was great and their kindness was greatly appreciated!  We sat at the bar and were really impressed with them, they were so friendly and considerate, I'm sure they could tell by looking (or smelling) that we'd had quite the week.  We even got the cook asking us how our meal was, don't get that very often.

Our trip home began at 10:30 pm after a wonderful meal and a strenuous, adventure filled day!  We drove about an hour out of town before we found a place to stay.  

Moral of the story:  Do your research?  I was not as prepared as I could of been for the difficulties of traversing this particular park.  Some of our obstacles I could have saved us from if I'd done a little more research (namely a phone call, the internet was not much help either).

Have you been to Grand Teton National Park?  How was your trip?  Anything to add or share that might help the next person heading out that way?

Backpacking in Grand Teton National Park- Part 1

Last year for our 20th Wedding Anniversary my husband and I went to Yosemite on our first back-country camping experience.  We had such a great time that on the way home we started thinking about our next trip and invited the boys to come along.

This year the four of us ended up at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.  What a great dynamic with the boys involved, so glad they came (not sure they'll come again, but at least they gave it a shot).

Here's a brief (well, not so brief) detailing of  our trip with some of the laughs, frustrations and in's/out's of the park.

We left our home on Friday morning and arrived in the park Saturday afternoon, driving around a bit to find our trailhead and then set off to find a place to sleep.  Saw Deer and Moose immediately, how great is that? 

 One of the pitfalls (in my opinion) of the park is that there's no reservations for the campgrounds.  That makes it a little difficult.  Can you imagine pulling a trailer across the country to visit the park only to pull in and find there's no spot available?  Well, we managed to get a site for Saturday and Sunday before entering the back-country on Monday morning, thankfully, we were not so lucky later on in our adventure.  

Sunday was planning day, we had a few questions and needed to pick up bear vaults and our permit.  We woke up early planning to run to the local athletic center that offered showers to travelers (at $5 a pop) for our last shower of the week only to find they didn't open till 12 on Sunday.  Oh well, off to church a little dirty (we tried).  Goofed in Jackson for the afternoon, planned a white water rafting trip for Saturday morning before heading out of town (at 8:30 a.m. I'm going to freeze to death) and hit the visitor center for the necessities.  Tomorrow, the true adventure begins!

This is the trailhead where we began our journey, at Granite Canyon.  I have two favorite spots when backpacking, the highest highs on top of the mountain where you can see for miles and feel like you can reach up and touch the clouds.  Amazing, and the lowest lows, walking through the cool, shaded canyons usually following water, just beautiful!  Our stopping point for the night is Marion Lake, roughly 7.2 miles up the mountain with a climb of roughly 2250 ft (the valley is at approximately 7000 ft while Marion Lake is at 9250).

The first day is always rough, your body is adjusting to carrying 40 extra pounds (for hours on end) while climbing uphill nearly the entire way, don't forget about the altitude changes as well.  Caleb, my youngest led the way, followed by Jacob, the oldest while Jason and I brought up the rear.  They took off at a quick pace, we just looked at each other and smiled. 

I kept waiting for the pretty views while hiking in granite canyon and in all honesty, didn't happen until the very end.  Usually in the canyons you're following water rushing down the mountain and the views are spectacular, not in this particular canyon, you can hear the water but never get a great view of it.  

We crossed a couple bridges and Caleb had us answering riddles for "safe passage".  

Riddle #1:

Two mothers and two daughters went fishing.  They brought home a small fish, a big fish and a grand fish, yet they all brought home a fish.  How is this so?

Thankfully my husband figured it out, Jacob and I might still be standing on that bridge! (the answer is at the end of the post.)

Riddle #2:

As you get dry, I get wet?

He went easy on us, this one Jacob and I both got quickly. 

That little game ended shortly thereafter when the true climbing began.  Here's our first night's campsite at Marion Lake.  The next couple pictures are the views past those trees.  Outstanding!  I could brush my teeth standing at the edge of that cliff  every morning for the rest of my life.  Just beautiful!

As we were climbing the last 1/2 mile or so to the lake Caleb managed to drop to the rear, grumbling and miserable.  Jason and I just died laughing.  At one point he said, "if I wasn't wearing this stupid backpack I'd be crawling right now".  He did amazing but that final climb was grueling and he lost it just a little bit.

We were so exhausted.  Slept like a baby and woke up feeling pretty good, ready for another grueling day.  (Day 2 is nearly as bad as day 1).

We had planned a short day, thank goodness.  As my body adjusts to the altitude my legs just burn when traveling uphill.  Wow!  I take a dozen steps or so and have to stop to let my legs quit hurting, another dozen steps, rest, repeat.  I assume that's the altitude because after day 2 it goes away.  I still climb at a snail's pace but my legs no longer burn and I can consistently climb without stopping every two seconds, thank goodness because the true climbing hasn't even begun yet!

Day 2 we are traveling from Marion Lake to Death Canyon Shelf.  Around 6 miles (it's really hard to know the mileage, maps say one thing, signs say another, I'm guestimating on the low side).

I was so exhausted by the time we got to the lake that I didn't get any pictures on the way in, this is the view from day 2 looking down at the lake (we walked in from the top middle of the lake, following the canyon up in front of the cliff on the left of the picture).  Our campsite was off the the left, bottom corner of the picture.

The wildflowers were amazing!

Day 2 Campsite at Death Canyon Shelf.  At Grand Teton National Park they have "camping zones" in the backcountry with designated spots in most of the zones.  We needed to camp near the very end of this zone in order to keep the next days hike under 10 miles (or so).

Our second night out was hysterical.  About 2 a.m. Jacob woke us up, shining his light around and moving like crazy.  The blow up mats we sleep on make all kinds of squeaky noises when you move around.  He was definately moving around.  When Jason asked him what was going on he said he saw something "with antlers" outside the tent, really close.  Jason turned on his light (much brighter) than the boys and whatever it was ran off.  We all went back to sleep, talking and laughing.  In the morning while having our coffee I told Jason I hadn't realized it at the time but I did hear whatever it was for probably twenty minutes before Jacob woke us up.  It was "grunting".  I assumed it was the boys, sore and moaning when they turned over.  Plausible, right!  Turns out whatever animal was outside our tent was more than likely the culprit.  We gave Jacob a hard time, as usual, but there was definately something there, just not exactly sure what.

Two days down, today we are traveling from Death Canyon Shelf to South Fork Lower Cascade Canyon via Hurricane Pass, which is very aptly named, roughly 10 miles with absolutely gorgeous views.

Around the bend is a drop down to a valley and then we'll be climbing the other side.  The first of many ups n downs on our way to Hurricane Pass.

We came over the mountain on the top of the picture, into the valley and up the other side where I took the picture from.  Gorgeous views and not a bad walk.  Day 3, my legs aren't burning anymore, assuming I've adjusted somewhat to the altitude now.

We will be climbing up there!

Here we are thinking, "we made it"!  Not even close.

This is hurricane pass  (10,400 ft) with Grand Teton off to the right.  You can't see them but if I had a recording you'd be hearing screaming and crying right now.  Off to the left of the picture is a family taking a break and a little girl who is NOT HAPPY!  She's had enough off this trip.  Poor thing.  She was miserable and wasn't afraid to show it.  The winds up here are amazing so we kept moving, Jacob held back and the father turned to him and said, "these are the moments" which he thought was hysterical.  He also said the little girl was screaming, "everything hurts".  Can you imagine, what a brave family?  A hike such as this is hard enough for adults who can weigh the incredible views and the sense of accomplishment with the physical exhertion, most children cannot do that, they only feel the pain and boredom without much appreciation for the beauty.

Although this was one of our longest hikes it was also one of our best days, gorgeous views and plenty of downhill and flat areas to compensate for the climbs.

This is the view over the side of Hurricane Pass.

We about froze to death waiting for Jason to get the camera set and take the picture.

As we were climbing down the other side of Hurricane Pass Caleb was kicking himself, he really wanted to scream out, "Leo Marvin, Dr. Leo Marvin" from the top.  The boys quoted that movie the entire trip ("baby steps" was another frequent saying), kept us laughing (What About Bob is the movie in case you didn't catch the reference)

Our campsite for night three of our trip.  Beautiful spot with rushing water off to the right, I just love that sound.  It rained on us for the final push to get here, stopped for a little bit while we set up and fixed dinner then rained for the rest of the night.  We all crammed into the boys tent to play cards (the blue tent has more headroom), very uncomfortable and stinky, but we had a good time.

Three days down, only one more night to go.  I always have mixed feelings as our trip is coming to an end, I could stay out here forever.  Tomorrow is Paintbrush Divide, lots of climbing.  Caleb is begging to take the bypass and head out early.  Are you kidding me?  Not gonna happen.  They also tried to take the tram up the mountain on the first day, I told them it's all part of the experience, we needed to hoof it and "feel the pain" of the climb.  We made it!

Stay tuned, more of our trip to come with some ins/outs for the park as well.  

If you're wanting to view more pictures from our trip you can find an album on Facebook at

 Grand Tetons 2015

Answers to the riddles:  #1, it was three generations, a daughter, mom and grandmother.  #2, a towel.