VACATION – Time out at Rosie’s with her Llama Ladies

(this post is about Wednesday, April 6, 2011)

As I last left you in the blog I posted yesterday, we were zooming across the rest of Kansas and crossed into Missouri along the northern route on highway 36.  We stopped for a quick lunch in a small town of   Clarence, Missouri.  We ate our lunch under a tree in a church parkinglot. There was the coolest gas station setup with old cars and even an old popup camping trailer from the 50’s and 60’s.

I googled and googled on the internet over and over to find out ANYTHING about this place, but could not find a single thing!  If any of you know any thing about an old historic MFA oil station in Clarence, MO please let me know about it?   Hmmmmmmmmmmm

    

The place was closed, so we couldn’t go inside, but there was a kid in there who wanted to get out!  LOL

 

We drove on over to Shelbina, and after threading our way through some dicey road construction, we had to loop around back through the tiny town to be able to head north on route 15.  We noticed the diesel was cheapest there that we had seen our whole trip so far!  So we topped off the tank, though we really didn’t need it yet.

fuel in in Shelbina
$3.79 gallon
38.2 gallons  $145.00

 

From there we turned north and went up route 15 to Bethel, MO.  What a quaint little town that has a bunch of old old buildings and homes from the German inhabitants back in the 1800’s in a colony.  More about Bethel to be found here:

 

We pulled up the dead end street to Rosie’s place, and lo and behold there was a TRAFFIC JAM!  Yes, in her tiny town we had a semi truck unloading supplies at the little pottery across the road, so while Steve waited down the road, I hopped out and went up to Rosie, who was waiting in the yard.  HUGS HUGS HUGS!   It’s been a few years since we have greeted in person, but we write multiple times every day and have known each other for a long time!  

 

Once Steveio got the rig figured out the best way to come in the yard, (a firm base of stone and gravel loops around the house to the barn)  we were settled in and happy. 

The llamas were very very curious about the rig, and keep sneaking over to sniff it and check it out.  Rosie warned us they will try to lick it!   LLAMA KISSES!  

Duke was fascinated by them and we first had the dogs meet them while on leash.  Ducky wasn’t all that interested, she just wanted to go in Rosie’s house to see if there was any food to be had.  But Duke kept sneaking over to give them llamas another look.  Finally his instinct took over and he insisted he had to HERD them!   Well, after a few times, enough was enough and I put him back on his rope. 

 

Moon, Jinglebuns and Jewel

   

 

 

Across the road from Rosie are her good friends, Sue and Joe…. with a fascinating business!

They own a pottery studio business called SJ Pottery.  They specialize in traditionally inspired redware, wood fired saltglazed stoneware and other traditional pottery.   Here is their information:

SJ Pottery  -   Sue Skinner   &   Joe Jostes   -    660-284-6549

sjpots@marktwain.net

 

We toured the pottery and Steve got a nice coffee mug, and I bought something else but I can’t post it here yet because a certain family member reads this blog and might see what their special souvenir is. So we can’t ruin the surprise now, can we?

  

Our son-in-law Mark has always been intriqued by pottery and did some while in school.  Someday he would like a kiln and a potters wheel set up.  I bet that he would just go nuts in a place like this!

  

Each room held more and more fascinating tools and toys and works of art in various stages of creation.

  

The room with the kilns was still very warm, after the recent batches of pottery had been removed

  

Rosie does packing for them to ship out their pottery around the world, so she has her own work area, complete with bubble wrap to play with!  

They were packing up their trailers and trucks to get ready for a show on the road, so we didn’t want to stay too long or get in their way.  We sure were grateful they took some time out of their for our unplanned tour.

 

Back across the road to Rosie’s little farm, we gabbed and gabbed the afternoon away, and Rosie had prepared us a delicious dinner on the patio!   Pork chops and mushrooms over noodles, a tossed salad and I made some biscuits in my Easy Bake Oven that we took outside.  What a feast!

Signs of spring were popping up all over Rosie’s yard, and we toured her little workshed that soon will be another space for a loom… she can weave while throwing open the double doors wide to the sunshine and fresh air!   And through the little kitty door on the far bottom right side of her shed (see below)

  

Little Molly makes her way in and out of the shed… we found her curled up in a box by the top rafters.  She looks crabby because we disturbed her nap.  But it also might have been because a certain naughty dog was in her *domain* and she didn’t think that was right either! Or because she had to sleep on pine needles?

    

More gabbing and gabbing, while Steve solved a little furnace situation for Rosie, then we shared some glasses of wine and soon both Steve and I were yawning… time to retire out to the back barnyard, and dose off. 

Knowing the guard llamas were doing their work and making sure we were safe and sound in Bethel, MO.

 

209 miles travelled today

4,386 miles travelled so far