Like Sand In The Cat Box in Life

I had the macular hole repair done on March 20, and my mom was here until April 2. What they don’t tell you is that you have to wait for the gas bubble in your eye to dissipate before you can see out the operative eye and that can take six to eight weeks. I have just been driving to Quick Trip and the grocery store but next week I will have to take the bull by the horns and get back to the gym and lunching with my friends as I can tell my old friend depression is coming back. Yesterday I slept until 1 in the afternoon. Even though logically I know that I have to wait for the gas bubble to dissipate before I know to what extent my vision will come back, I find myself worrying about what if it doesn’t. How I probably wouldnt be able to get a license when it expires in July and then I will be right back to Uber to get around. I guess there are worse things and at least for now I have the money to afford Uber rides.

Mom and I did get to take the trip we had planned. We went to Jefferson City, St Louis, St Genevive, Cape Girardeau, Mo, and then Louisville , Ky. The first day we went to Jefferson City, the capitol of Missouri. We had already seen the capitol and the Govenor’s Mansion in prior trips so we went to the Deborah Cooper Park on Adrian’s island which is across the street from Capitol Dome and offers views of both the Capitol and the Missouri river. Mom and I love Lewis and Clark, Huck Finn which in large part we got from my grandpa. We could spend hours watching the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.

My only reason for wanting to go to St Louis was to see Murphy the male eagle that made a nest on the ground and was trying to hatch a rock. His keepers gave him a real eagle baby that had fell out of a tree and he was able to take care of it unit it was old enough to release back into the wild. He did this again in 2024 and was well on his way in 2025. Well, what they don’t advertise on their website is that while he is trying to raise a baby to release back into the wild, he is not on display which makes sense but if I had known that I would have waited on a time when someone else was driving and navigating to brave St Louis traffic. Sadly, there was a bad storm that night and Murphy was found dead the next morning. We did get to see eagles, falcons, hawks, and pelicans. My favorites were the pelican. They have two kinds of animals there. Some were imprinted on humans and so can never be let back into the wild, and the others were animals who had been in accidents and can never fly so can’t ever go back in the wild.  From there we went on to St Genevive. Our nerves were frazzled by St Louis traffic, so we got a motel room and had a dinner of peanut butter crackers. 

The next morning, we had breakfast at Mimi’s cafe in St Genevive. Me and my sweet tooth loved it because they had yummy cinnamon rolls, but mom didn’t like it because they did not have a way to keep the eggs cold. This was to start a common theme for while mom was with me. We could never find a restaurant that could make both of us happy. After breakfast we wanted to tour a historic home, but they didn’t start until 11 and we were set to tour a Tiger Sanctuary at 11 so we tried to go to a place with good views of the Missouri but they were having a 5K race and all the roads were blocked off, so we headed to Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary. After never being to a Tiger Sanctuary before this makes my second one in a year. I must admit that I liked Cedar Cove in Kansas more because they had more animals, and they had my favorite white tiger. Crown Ridge only had 3 Tigers. We then headed to Cape Girardeau which was only an hour’s drive south.

Our first stop was at Riverfront Bridge Park which is where the old bridge that crossed into Illinois was. We had a panoramic view of the river. We then went to the Trail of Tears state park. I had no idea that the trail of tears went through Missouri so found it very interesting but sad. They best part was we met a Ranger at the park, and she let me hold her snake. We also talked about the Snake Road in Illinois, and she gave me the names of some Facebook groups and guides to travel with or guide me. She also gave me a book all about the snakes found in Missouri. Our last stop was at the Missouri Sate Mural. It’s a mural built along the flood wall of all the famous people from Missouri. I was amazed by all the people that I had no idea were from Missouri. Our trip was kind of spoiled by some unattended dogs who were too interested in us, so we headed back to the car. We decided to spend the night in Cape Girardeau and after checking in we didn’t want to get back in the car, so we walked about seven minutes to an area where there were lots of restaurants. Mom was put off by anything that called itself a bar, tavern, or coffee shop so we ended up at a very expensive place, 36 restaurants, where the steak dinner would have meant a 100 tab so I tried to convince myself I could eat the chicken. The best part of the meal was the fried cauliflower rarebit and the house salad with sliced apple, and they also made one heck of a good bloody Mary.

The next day we crossed the river into Illinois and then Kentucky headed for Paducah. I wanted to go to the quilt museum there, but it was Sunday, and they didn’t open until one, so we ended up having breakfast at a Waffle House and then heading on to Louisville. The view coming into Louisville from the south was beautiful. We could see three hills with the city spread out in front of us. It had been a long day of driving, so we got a hotel and ate a dinner of popcorn and candy bars. We ate breakfast at the hotel and mom was content with her warm scrambled eggs, and I was happy with my cinnamon roll. We then went on to find the Louisville Slugger Museum. It was in the downtown area so we thought we would find a place to park and then use my phone for directions. Only problem was when choosing to go left or right I chose right, and we went blocks out of our way only to find that if I had gone left, we would have only had to walk half a block. The museum was interesting. We got to hear about how the company was still owned by the family who started it back in the 1880’s. We then saw how the bats are made today. My favorite part was getting to hold Babe Ruths part. I asked mom to take a picture of me looking like a pro taking a swing at the ball. She asked if I was sure because she is a bad picture taker. I thought no one could mess up a cell phone picture but she really knew what she was talking about.

There were lots of other things we wanted to do in Louisville, but the weather was freezing, and they were all outside. At this point it was Monday, and the surgery center was harassing me to fill out some forms with my phone and I could not get the link on my phone to work so I thought maybe I needed a PC to fill them out. They were refusing to confirm my surgery appt until they were done so we decided to head for home. The only interesting thing we saw on the way back was a city in Indiana called New Albany. The town was right next to the Ohio river with beautiful mansions overlooking the river. Someday I want to stay there and explore the are more.