Out West ~ Day 13, Missouri

Rick Vise is a friend, who for several years brought a group of teens to Pontotoc to work on a house for Habitat for Humanity. As Barbara and I were in Missouri, we determined to visit him and his family, if our timing was convenient. Our problem was contacting Rick.

Knowing Rick uses Facebook, I posted a message for him a day or so earlier but did not hear from him until the morning of our intended visit. We, finally, were able to exchange phone numbers and eventually speak to each other. Rick and his youngest daughter were in town; his wife and other two children were out of town. Barbara and I would meet them at a restaurant in Waynesville, MO, for lunch.

Rick had told me it was a two-hour drive from Columbia to Waynesville, and it took me every bit of two hours to make the back-country trek over mostly curvy, two-lane roads. The restaurant was a part of the regional chain supermarket, Price Cutter. It was more than a supermarket deli eating area, it was a full-blown restaurant.
We met Rick and his daughter, Jamie, and were seated and playing catch-up before 11:00 a.m. I was surprised the large restaurant was so crowded, but apparently a lot of folks show up for the breakfast buffet, which was still out when we ordered.

We were glad Rick agreed to see us on short notice, and we were careful not to overstay our welcome as we knew we were already interrupting his plans for the day. So after about an hour and a half of visiting, we said our goodbyes and set our GPS for Cape Girardeau, MO. It was only after we departed that I realized we didn’t get a picture of Rick and Jamie to document the occasion.

Neither of us were getting homesick, but we both noted how the rural areas we saw in Missouri looked similar to parts of north Mississippi. As much as I enjoyed the sights along the two-lane roads in Missouri, I was glad to get back on the Interstate about an hour north of Cape Girardeau.

Barbara and I had friends in Cape, who, knowing we would be returning to Pontotoc via Cape Girardeau, invited us to spend a night with them. Joyce and Wayne Hunter have a beautiful home with several acres and two nice fish ponds, all within ten minutes of downtown. And, their guest bathroom would be a wonderful master bathroom for most of us, with a modern glass shower and separate Jacuzzi-style tub, all in about a twelve foot by fifteen foot (or more) room.

Since the Hunters were saving us a motel bill, we treated them to dinner at the restaurant of their choice, which was Ray’s in nearby Scott City, MO. Wayne, in turn, treated us to a tour of Scott City, and too us to the facility that once housed the Wetterau warehouse where he worked, before SUPERVALU purchased Wetterau and closed the Scott City Distribution Center.

After a wonderful meal, we returned to Cape to have desserts at My Daddy’s Cheesecake. The cheesecake eatery has become a traditional place for me to go with the Hunters when I’m there visiting them on business trips, and while this wasn’t a business trip, we didn’t want to spoil a tradition.

I surprised Joyce by ordering Key Lime Cheesecake. Heretofore, I had ordered plain, unadulterated cheesecake on each visit. Joyce is careful about what she eats as she hopes to maintain her youthful figure forever, so she always selects a cookie or muffin. Wayne, on the other hand, would eat some of everything in the house if she let him.

I could not resist getting a picture of one of their pie displays clearly showing a Lemon Meringue Pie like the ones with which I’m most familiar. Rick Vise once asked me, when he was in Pontotoc on a Habitat trip, if the pie on the table was a Lemon Meringue Pie. I went to great lengths to explain it was a Lemon Ice Box pie and the difference between Lemon Meringue and Lemon Ice Box. Shortly afterwards, somebody produced an empty container showing it was a Mrs. Edwards’ brand, Lemon Meringue Pie. On subsequent trips, Rick has gleefully shared my apparent mistake. So, I made a picture of the pie display to exonerate myself. Just because Mrs. Edwards has it wrong, it doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

All in all, Day 13 was a great day.

Additional pictures with comments are at http://rrnews.org/Week2Day13/