Country Roads

Southern Iowa, Northern Missouri. 

Pretty country and getting prettier.  

There are Amish communities springing up in several different locations in Southern Iowa and Northern Missouri.  Here, one pretty Sunday morning, the Amish gathered for a Sunday morning worship service.  There must have been 20-25 buggies.  Take that times 4 people (on the average? per buggy) and that was 100 simple folk gathered together for fellowship. 



 Himself and I were well pleased to see this many buggies in one place.  We may never see that again. 

Jamesport, Mo is a small town about the size of Afton with some old brick store buildings, businesses housed in old houses and crafts, collectibles and antiques for sale.  Outside of Jamesport on gravel and black topped roads are more Amish businesses.  There are country stores, greenhouses, horseshoe schools, bakeries and furniture stores housed in homes or on farmsteads.   Jamesport is a tourist area and not all the stores are owned by the Amish.  Some are "English" that might employ young Amish girls to bake or wait tables and to give atmosphere.  Still, the town and shops are picturesque and there are horse and buggies and farm wagons using the streets and the roads -- and little boys in straw hats and little girls in bonnets.  And the pace and the clip clop of horses plodding down the streets and byways, slows the thoughts and soothes the frenzy of folk from a different life style. 

Just east of Leon, Ia when you turn south and take the curvey, blacktop "short cut" to Lineville, Ia, there used to be a Mennonite Church sitting on the right, or the west of the county road.  This summer, the Church burned to the ground.  We aren't exactly sure when it did, but it is gone.  Could it have been burned intentionally? awaiting a bigger, better church?  That just doesn't seem right.  I don't think the Mennonites would have been so wasteful.  I think they would have taken the wooden Church down piece by piece and reused what they could.  It does seem that the Spiritual Community will rebuild on this site. 

One recent Sunday, just at noon, we were headed home and witnessed the sight of a couple of hundred of gentle folk, gathering for a funeral.  Himself had to pull to the shoulder to allow the Procession to pass and as it did, the folks to arrive first were getting out of their vehicles and walking to the grave site.  It must have been a pretty prominent person that died as it was a large funeral. 

Amish sect folks use horse and buggies for transportation.  Mennonites own cars and vans.  You might see Mennoinites in Wal-Mart in their lighter colored clothing, their tennis shoes and the women wearing the little white caps.  Mennonites are more modern than the Amish. 

We saw this hay field with Amish made hay bales in Northern Missouri.  Okay, it might have been southern Iowa.  Those two areas sort of blend together in this old one's mind.  But we can tell these bales are Amish as they are not as neat and uniform as high tech "John Deere" bales -- but they are pleasing to the eye. 

As is this huge house in western Decatur Co or eastern Ringgold.  I can look at this house all day!  At first, I supposed it was a school of some kind but I have looked all over the internet and cannot learn a thing about it.  So now I'm assuming it is a large, old farmstead house.  I may have to stop and knock at the door someday, in order to learn more.  I'll keep you posted! 

I really do enjoy my back road travels.  I just never know what I am going to find.