Cape Girardeau History and Photos

May 21, 2014

Levy County Quilt Museum

When I told Wife Lila that the Warriorettes and I were going to stop for the night in Chiefland, Florida, she sent me a link to the Levy County Quilt Museum just outside of town. She said it looked like it was small enough that we could see it all in about 15 minutes.

As it turned out, the place was HUGE.

Open Tuesday – Saturday

It’s open 10-3 Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free, and there are plenty of volunteers around who are more than happy to talk with you about quilting in general and the museum in particular.

Visitors from all over

The volunteers are especially proud of the maps they have showing where their visitors come from. The East Coast is well-represented, but they get international visitors, too.

I stuck a pin in for Cape Girardeau, Curator Jessica marked Athens, Ohio, and Anne tagged her past and future home of Texas.

Political quilt

One quilt contains neckties worn by Presidents Ford and Carter, plus ties worn by more than two dozen governors.

History of the museum

A brochure says, “In 1983, the Log Cabin Quilters were formed and met in various homes throughout Levy County. Two of the founders were Mary Brookins (1934 – 1988) and Winelle Horne (1924 – 2012). Over the years, interest grew in building a place to call their own. From 1988 – 1990, the members raised $18,000 and, with the aid of a 99-year lease on this site from Thomas Brookins (Mary’s husband), the construction began in 1993. Inmates from Lancaster Correctional Institution worked four days a week for four years helping in the construction of the building.”

Photo gallery of quilt museum

The place is full of interesting exhibits and relatively inexpensive hand-crafted items for sale. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

May 20, 2014

Abbey Basilica of Maryhelp

The Road Warriorettes and I needed to kill some time before chowing down at a fish camp in Gastonia, N.C., so we headed over to Belmont Abbey College, which was founded in 1876. I covered stories there for The Gastonia Gazette, but didn’t know too much about the college and the most prominent building on campus, the Mary Help of Christians Abbey Basilica. That name is quite a mouthful, so most of the locals just call it “Belmont Abbey.”

Stained glass windows won prize in 1893

The church at Belmont Abbey, completed in 1893, was once the only abbey cathedral in the nation. In 1998 it was named a Minor Basilica by Rome, a rare Papal honor. Located on the 650-acre campus of Belmont Abbey College, its beautiful painted-glass windows won a gold prize at the Colombian Exposition in 1893, reports a Gaston County website.

Slaves once sold on stone baptismal font

I hadn’t read this story when we were at the church, so I didn’t know to look for the baptismal font. From the county website: The church contains a stone baptismal font which, according to local legend, was first used by American Indians in the area, and then as a block upon which slaves were sold. When the monks arrived in 1876, they named the monastery “Mariastein” (Mary stone) in recognition of the stone’s prominence. Later, after renovation of the church, Abbot Walter Coggin, O.S.B., proposed the adaptation of the stone into a baptismal font. He had it marked with a plaque reading, “Upon this rock, men once were sold into slavery. Now upon this rock, through the waters of Baptism, men become free children of God.”

Belmont Abbey photo gallery

The college website says the Abbey Basilica is open throughout the day for prayer and meditation, and visitors are welcome. The monks ask only that “decorum, quiet and reverence of the church be maintained.”

Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

May 19, 2014

Loxahatchee Everglades Tour

When you have visitors like Curator Jessica from Ohio, you can’t send them back to the Midwest without having seen a gator or two.

Wife Lila and I have had good luck with the Loxahatchee Everglades Tours folks at the end of Loxahatchee Road (used to be known as Lox Road) on the Palm Beach – Broward County line, so I hauled our visitor down there at an unacceptably early hour by my standards. As it turned out, we were a couple of minutes late to make the first boat: the couple in front of us took the last two seats. We killed the time watching a gator swim through a pipe from one canal to another, visiting very clean restrooms and scoping out the displays.

Miz Jessica was willing to pose with a bobcat, the Ohio University team mascot, but she wouldn’t stick her head in the mouth of even a stuffed alligator. There was a sign asking visitors not to touch the displays, so I couldn’t try to convince her to lick the reptile like she did the St. Louis Arch.

Blue Heron having lunch

We had scarcely started the ride when we came upon a blue heron chowing down on a small gar. He flipped him around until he was headed down head first. When the boat got closer, the bird decided on having a to-go meal, and flew off with the fish sticking out of his mouth.

Photo gallery of airboat ride

Here’s a selection of what we saw on our airboat ride. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

May 18, 2014

Last Gasp of Missouri

Almost every visit I shoot a series of photos when I first hit the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge leaving Illinois for Missouri, and a series when head back out of the state. (Click on the photo to make it larger.)

No, I don’t shoot and drive at the same time. I adjust the polarizing filter and exposure long before I get to the bridge, set the zoom on a medium length and just balance the camera on the steering wheel with one hand. I shift the angle after I see the image that pops up on the LCD display on the camera’s back. It’s a matter of luck, not particularly skill.

The little green sign on the right side of the frame, just at the crest of the bridge, tells me I’m leaving the Show Me state and entering Illinois.

See you again in the summer.

[Editor’s Note: I’m doing a quick post because I have to get up before the chickens to take Curator Jessica on an airboat ride in the Everglades. I tried to discourage her by describing what would happen if the airplane propeller behind her back broke loose if the boat hit a snag at high speed: she’d turn into a pink spray the gators could suck down with a straw. Ohio Gal thinks I’m kidding, but wait until she sees it.]