Mulvanys on the Road: Columbus Day Activities

Today is the final day the boys will be here. Hunter was scheduled to take a trail ride. Papaw had always ridden with him but because of his knee replacement surgery, he was not able to mount the horse. Fortunately, Hunter was old enough to go on his own. The trail ride takes about an hour. When he was finished we took a short hike to an old church. This is the only hike we will take here. It is sad to be at this point in life. Most of the trails begin at the bottom of a 70-step stairs and Carol and I didn't want to go either down or up those steps so we opted not to take any of the hikes. Hunter wanted to cross the bridge at the bottom of the steps so he went alone while we visited the nature center.

We drove back to Montezuma to walk across the old B&O Railroad Bridge. The B&O train came through Salem and in 1965, I would ride the train back into St. Louis and the Old Union Station. I would get on the train at 6:30 a.m., ride the 2-hour trip to the station, arrive at 8:30 a.m. and then walk two blocks to the Evangeline where I stayed during the week. During the week I attended Patricia Stevens Business School in St. Louis. I did that nearly every Monday for nine months until I graduated from school and went to work for the Civil Service Commission in St. Louis.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing Chicken Foot. Keegan and Papaw hiked around the top of the canyons that the boys always explored while they are here. Kara and Jason got here around 8:00 p.m. We had a campfire going for hot dogs and smores. As we were talking, we mentioned that we have been camping at Turkey Run with Hunter for 10 years. Hunter said that to him Turkey Run is sacred. I think he meant that it has very special memories for him because he has been camping here each October since he was four years old. We reminded him that when he was four, we had to convince him to spend the night with us because he wanted to go home. Now, he doesn't want to go home! We told him he will have to bring his family here. The Ozees left around 10:00 p.m. and the RV seemed very quiet.