There will be more about our Memorial Day trip back to Carver Creek in a few hours when we return home, but the nine-hour drive to Missouri was kindof spur-of-the-moment after deciding not to go on such a long trip and then, within a couple hours, deciding that I really wanted Jim to see where I lived deep in the Ozark Mountain forest as a teenager. (The house is pictured on the dusty angels blog home page) without plumbing, running water or electricity in the first place we lived.
We drove 5 hours on Sunday and 5 more hours on Monday skirting St. Louis and going south about 100 miles to a small piece of land between the U-curve of an icy cold creek between Ironton and Annapolis, Missouri.
Arriving in the pouring rain, outfitted in knee-high rubber boots, Jim and I drove over an old, cracked, cement slab laid across the creek for those few who find themselves so far back in the forest that only with a very specific, hand drawn map could we find our way. I thanked the heavens for not allowing the creek to flood and block our only entrance into that part of the forest.
We left Sheba in the locked car on the gravel-worn limestone roadway while we tracked through an old trail to find what was left of the first house we lived in scattered in the woods and partly wrapped around giant oak trees recently uprooted by what appears to be a major wind storm.
Jim was very patient with my persistence in showing him every memory of places and people who no longer inhabit this world. I pointed out the massive thick berry bushes, now thick knots of rope entangled in the wild underbrush and old forest. These were planted by Mr. Lloyd Westbrook who lived there with his wife, Esther and daughter, Cyndi. Their son, David Westbrook built the small house pictured on my blog. (Our first house there.) You'll know all this if you've read my book, Dusty Angels and Old Diaries. The Westbrook house got washed away by the creek.
I'll post the rest of the story and pictures in a little while after we get home. Right now Jim is packing the car and I haven't finished dressing!
Stand by for Carver Creek Revisited - Part 2.
Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda
Home: http://dustyangels.blogspot.com
E-Mail: bestnurse@usa.com
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