5/2/2011
The day started with a tour of the Precious Moments Chapel. It is the workplace of Sam Butcher, the creator of the Precious Moments figurines. Girls love this stuff but I must admit, the little figures with the big round eyes sure were cute! Yeah that’s right I said they were cute. Now while I was on this little tour, I got to thinking. I thought about the relevance of being in a place where the artist devoted his life to children. I thought about what I am doing and I asked myself if it was a sign. Originally I was to take a route south of the interstate. Instead I opted to go on a northern route. Had I gone the other way I never would have passed the town of Carthage. I would never have known it was the town where Precious Moments was created. I would have never thought about this man’s life’s work. His life’s work is magnificent!
When we hit the road, the air was crisp and cold and it had a bite. The weather is bearable when bundled up but if your run, sweat, and then stop, you are asking for trouble. I go through several changes of clothes on cold days for just this reason. I’m sure it keeps me from getting sick.
Why didn’t anyone ever tell me Missouri was so beautiful? There are so many lush, green trees. I ran through an area that smelled like Christmas. It was the best smell every and it seemed to give me a boost of energy. I ran on the rolling hills yet again not realizing I was running the Ozarks. For some reason I imagined high altitude. Not the case. Apparently it doesn’t reach the dizzying heights of Flagstaff or Albuquerque. Having already passed through vicious hills with crazy switchbacks I’m sure has conditioned me to take anything under five thousand feet. As I ran I still managed to take plenty of pictures but it seemed to consume less time than ususal. I got lots of animal shots today and still covered some substantial ground. It was like the miles just continued to pass. In fact I didn’t even want to stop. The time was early. But, we were hungry and there was a Mexican restaurant that seemed to have plenty of customers. That meant the food was going to be good. We stopped, I had a corona with my spinach enchiladas and we called it the day. Not too far away the Greenstay hotel was calling my name. 
Leave a reply