VACATION – Hanging out at Rosie’s in Bethel, Missouri and going to Heartland

(this post is about Thursday, April 7, 2011)

I last left you with arriving at Rosie’s place in Bethel Missouri on Wednesday.  Since we got here, we have been SO BUSY with visiting, sharing, fibernating, eating, visiting and llama-ing.  I have not had time to even write on my blog!  Shame on me!  So here I am .. trying to catch up.

Rosie lives in a historic little burg called Bethel, which is explained here:

She bought this little German house right on the edge of town, and has a big barn that lies just outside of the city borders where she could raise her llamas!   It’s a great set up and has city amenities for the house, but grazing area for the llamas.  We were able to pull in the far gate right into the barnyard to set up the motorhome.   The base is firm stone in a circular drive through the barnyard that many years of farm equipment utilized going and coming during it’s productive years.  So it was firm for our rig to park on.

  

Oh, on my last blog, I mis-typed the names of the llamas!  Rosie was using multiple names for the little white one, such as Gem, Jewel, Jinglebuns etc.   Turns out the big cinnamon colored one is named Sasha, the big black and white one is Moon, and the the little white one has the many names!    She is the newest of the bunch.  LOL

 

Rosie is a weaver… and she has a room in the house set up with a loom and her weaving stuff, but also has other looms in the barn and small shed.  We explored all her looms, fibers, books and projects!

 

She is WAYYYY more organized than ME!  I need to get some of these rolling carts of wire baskets---

 

She has a travelling loom that she loads up each fall into her van and heads on our for a month long stint at Dollywood in Tennessee where she is a paid artist demonstrator, 6 days a week for a month. 

 

Sooo to not bore my other readers here, I will send the extra pictures of weaving and looms and stuff to my readers who are weavers via our yahoo group. 

Now, on the other hand, I have pics of some interest to those old car buffs… and those I WILL post on here.  See….  Rosie took us to a special place to eat lunch.  It’s in a big complex called Heartland.   They have an fashioned 50’s style diner with the owner’s antique cars taking up half of the diner!  You sit and eat next to the cars.  NO kidding!  They have a big lunch buffet with many choices, drinks and dessert included.

We met up with Rosie’s dear friends and craftspersons….   Left to right:

Steve, Me, Sue, Joe, Mike, Rosie, Lisa

And here is where Steveio was in his glory!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Steve’s brother Mark had one of these…. a ‘31 Ford Victoria

 

And this one is MY kind of old fashioned vehicle!

Now more about the place where this diner is…. It’s located just north of where Rosie lives, and all the local folks from Bethel and the surrounding communities come to this place called “Heartland”  They patronize it’s restaurants, medical clinic, gas station and other services. There is even a huge dairy herd and an ultra modern milking parlor to tour. They have schools and a college, and provide housing in wonderful stylish brick homes and apartments.  It was started by one man, who built it all in his dream of making a place such as this to be filled with good honest hardworking people and giving those who made mistakes a new chance.  His name is Charlie Sharpe.  This paragraph is from their website and a link to learn more.

Heartland is an intentional community in Northeast Missouri designed to help hurting people get a fresh start in life. We believe Jesus is the answer to every issue we face – including addiction, anger, broken homes, and financial crises. Men, women, and children who commit themselves to the process of restoration find help at Heartland through the power of God and the encouragement of people who have walked a similar path.

http://www.heartland-ministries.org/

http://www.visit-heartland.com/

After having lunch here, we later returned in the evening for a dinner buffet at another location in the Heartland --  at the Ozark Lodge & Steakhouse restaurant, Rosie’s treat!  It was a huge buffet that you could choose from various entrees, salads and desserts.  We ate ourselves silly.  The young men waiting on us were all working to learn new skills, how to get along with people, and how to not succumb to the mistakes they made in their lives back in the city.   We had a very pleasant young man waiting on us, who did a marvelous job.  Charlie Sharpe, and his wife, dined at the table right behind us, so I am sure the young man was on his “best behavior” too.

We got back to Rosie’s with full bellies and went to sleep, after a long day of talking, eating, and talking some more…. whew, we sure find a zillion things to talk about and then think of a zillion more!

 

No miles travelled in the motorhome today, just the Tracker about 20 miles.