Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

     Next to pie there are few things in life that I enjoy more than a good road trip. As I like to share with you new and interesting places to visit I have hurried home to write about today’s adventure. After meeting my traveling companion we headed to the HyVee food store in Atlantic to pick up flowers for one of the stops on our itinerary today and headed south on highway 71.

     The crops look good in southwest Iowa for the most part with most of the corn we saw either tasseling or just beginning to. After a quick trip around Viking Lake, which for you campers out there should be a must on your places to camp list, we headed for the Marme Lutheran Cemetery just outside of Stanton. I know that a cemetery sounds like a strange spot to stop on a road trip, but I have been tardy with my once a year trip down to visit the grave of a dear friend from my FFA days. After placing the flowers on her grave we stood around chatting about the different kinds of vases one can get on their headstone, which actually turned into a fascinating trip around the cemetery.

     We headed south once again with no real destination in mind. The original plan had been to head to Atchison, Kansas for the day to see the train museum and birthplace of Amelia Earhart, but time and the fact that we were both tired made us rethink that plan.

    Across the Iowa boarder into Missouri finding gas nearly eight cents cheaper and rolled into Tarkio, Missouri. If ever there was a town that the economy has really hit, we found it here as we rolled down the three blocks of the city’s business district to find nearly every storefront empty and many buildings falling down. The bright spot was finding a seven-bedroom prairie style mansion for sale. We pulled up out front and grabbed a flyer and were treated to a description of the opulence of this 1915 structure. From beveled glass pocket doors to the grand staircase and seven fireplaces, this three full and two half-bath dream home was reasonably priced for $239,000.

     It was nearing the lunch hour and both of us were starting to feel a bit hungry so we headed east to Maryville. Home of Northwest Missouri State University, it is a town I had never visited although it seemed to be the choice of schools for many of my friends. A well-kept business district surrounds a beautiful courthouse square, which is only partially unattractive because of the parking lots placed on what was once the courthouse lawn. I saw a sign for A&G’s, which as some of you know is a popular restaurant in Creston, so we pulled in for a bite to eat.

     The staff greeted us quickly and our meal came with a complementary loaf of homemade bread. The garden fresh salad came with dressing on the side and was nicely presented and fresh. I had the country-fried steak, only because I left my reading glasses in the car and couldn’t see the menu that well. Our entrée came out quickly and we both remarked about how speedy the order was brought to our table as neither of us was half down with our salad. The portions were adequate and the garlic mashed potatoes were good, but didn’t seem warm enough. The steak was excellent in flavor, however I suspected that it had come prefrozen and rewarmed, as the temperature throughout was a little questionable.

     With no real plan for the afternoon I quickly searched Google on my smart phone and we headed south to St. Joe to find the Jesse James home. I will tell you that coming in from the north on I-229 was no easy task as the exit we were told to take took us down along the Missouri River through the industrial area of town and past the stockyards. Incidentally, there is a large brick building with a beautiful spire near the stockyards that looks to be either being torn down or restored, but I couldn’t figure out what it was so if anyone knows please drop me a line.

     After winding our way through a questionable neighborhood we finally found Patee Town area of St. Joe. Filled with interesting museums this little neighborhood is a history buffs dream. The key to the area is the Patee House and Jesse James home standing on the same lot together. The Patee House, once known as the Worlds Hotel is a magnificent building that has been home to the start of the Pony Express, was once used as the headquarters for Union troops during the Civil War and spent decades being used as a manufacturing plant before being turned into a museum in the 1960s.

    A reasonable six dollars will get you into the Patee House, with another four dollars for admission into the house where the outlaw met his end. Because of time we chose to tour the Patee House and walked in by the working carousel.

    Folks, as you know I have been through a lot of museums in my day, but I can honestly say that I now fully understand why it is considered one of the top ten museums in the west. From the full scale locomotive and mail car inside the building to the Grand Ballroom, which was home to the military court during the civil war, this building is packed with items to see. A wing of the old hotel contains a mock up of store fronts from the 1800s and each display has something that shouldn’t be there making a fun game for kids and adults as you walk through. Nestled inside the real scale train depot is a 1050-pound ball of twine once featured on Ripley’s Believe it Or Not. After seeing the ball of twine I wonder if any museum can really do justice after this…my life is complete.

    I could write much more about it, but I feel that in order to do it justice I would invite you to take the drive down there and see for yourself. We left the museum and drove around the block looking at the James home, which seemed really small to me and is nothing like what you have seen in the movies. I’m sure in a future trip we will visit it again and take in the nearby Pony Express Museum. In fact, there are a number of fascinating museums in the St. Joe area. From the Religion and Faith museum to the Art Center to the Glore Psychiatric Museum a person could spend days just wandering around.

     We rushed home so I could write this column, but not before stopping at a boarder fireworks stand so my traveling companion could purchase some sparklers and snaps….yes, yes I know. A great day traveling and a new found appreciation for a place that may be just a little farther than over the fence, but well worth the trip.

See you next week….remember, we’re all in this together.