Louisiana, MO

Fri. we went to historic Louisiana, MO on the banks of the Mississippi River. Louisiana has a lot of big grand old houses. The kind of house that if one were younger it would be really interesting to try to restore to its original grand state. While there we also toured the Whittle Shortline Railroad hand crafted wooden toy train factory. As the name implies they make wooden toy trains as well as Volvo trucks, UPS trucks and Fed-ex trucks. They are also starting to make several different multi tiered wooden puzzles that that they cut with a laser cutter. Later in the afternoon we drove across the river to Pleasant Hill Ill. to my cousin Gail & Chris Ball's house. In the evening we went to Kampsville Ill. and ate catfish at a restaurant on the banks of the Illinois River.
The trees here are just starting to show a little bit of color change, once in a while you will see one that the top has turned a bright red. With all of the moisture they have had this summer they are expecting to have a lot of color in a week or two.
They are harvesting corn and soybeans in the fields in the Mississippi river bottoms. Seeing the combines out in the fields still gets this old farm boy/seed corn salesman excited. It just makes me want to pull over and go ride on the combine to see how it is doing.