Adventure Friday: That Time We Met Lowell Davis

At the end of our self guided tour de Red Oak II, we found a spectacular water fountain. Behind the fountain, a house with a porch, and on the porch, a small man smoking a pipe. It had to be Lowell Davis. 

 

Valerie was brave and asked and he just shrugged like "yeah I guess! And beckoned us up to his porch for a visit. I love Varies description of that experience. 

 

 
"Meg and I gathered our kids to the porch and Lowell told us the story of Red Oak II.  This was such a pragmatic, interesting guy.  His talent is awe-inspiring, but he is a self-proclaimed simple guy, unimpressed by the wealth that his art has provided him. And, frankly, could easily continue to provide if he cared at all. 

"Not only did we get the story-telling on the porch, Mr Davis invited us into his home, which is a pre-Civil War beauty that belonged to Belle Starr-- a notorious American outlaw who was born in Carthage, Missouri.  Davis has connected the small wooden Starr cabin to another home of later history. (the green one)  Inside his home were walls covered by his art-- animal pieces with characteristics of Davis himself.  He told us that he could sell them for thousands.  We believed him!  They were just awesome and he let me take pictures of them!  Davis was also an amazing pewter artist.  His stuff is just terrific.

"Meeting Lowell Davis was just a wonderful ending to an amazing adventure to Red Oak II.  And before we left, he described several large art pieces that he had done in the Carthage community.  Meg and I navigated past several of them-- a chicken truck riding along Route 66, a pioneer woman driving a combine at Weatherhill Farms, and an old lady sculpture resting on the porch of the old LeGrange prairie school.  
  
Meeting Lowell Davis was just a wonderful ending to an amazing adventure to Red Oak II.  And before we left, he described several large art pieces that he had done in the Carthage community.  Meg and I navigated past several of them-- a chicken truck riding along Route 66, a pioneer woman driving a combine at Weatherhill Farms, and an old lady sculpture resting on the porch of the old LeGrange prairie school." -Valerie C

This day was just the best. I can't wait to go back to this fascinating place. 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, I totally think Lowell Davis looks just like Ron Pallilo from Welcome back Kotter. Just sayin'. 

 

 

Adventure Friday: Red Oak II

Our next stop on the Willy Adventure was a drive into the countryside of Carthage, Missouri and to a wonderful project called, "Red Oak II". Just pulling up, I knew it would be a great day. 

 
Really, this was, by far, the coolest adventure Friday discovery, to date. I read about this project/installation/mini town called Red Oak II. It's just outside of Carthage, Mo, and since that's only an hour from here, well...we had to go! This day spoke all of my love languages. All of 'em. With a big sky of puffy white clouds, all of the the late 1800's-early 1900's buildings with big porches, chickens running around, and lovely landscaping, I felt like we were on a movie set for When Calls the Heart, or some other frontier show. Except the dusty old west feel was replaced by swampy cat tails, giant, drippy willow trees, and sticky humid air. It was all really wonderful to take in. I think I exclaimed, "hey, look at this!" about 100 times over fun little details. And again, because I'm doing thisfrom my phone and my blog editor app has dropped drafts of this post twice, I'm so giving up on writing about it all over again. Valerie's journaling is so much more detailed than any effort of mine anyway, so here are some of the things she had to say about this unique little place. Most of the photo creds go to her too. 

"We had this place all to ourselves and at first we tread with great care because it felt as though we were intruding.   It was so blazing interesting and yet, not a soul was there!  It was odd and wonderful.

"They say that Red Oak II was the brainchild of artist Lowell Davis who grew up in the "real” Red Oak, Missouri, about 18 miles northwest of the "new” Red Oak II.

"The original Red Oak, like many other rural agricultural towns across the country, started to fade sometime after World War II, when people began to move to the cities. After Davis had left the area for a number of years in a very successful graphic design career in Arlington Texas, he returned in the 1970’s to find his home town had become a ghost town.

"In 1987, Davis was living on a farm near Carthage that was little more than an empty cornfield. the artist in him soon led him to turn his acreage into a tribute to his home town. He began to buy homes and businesses from the original townsite and other rural ghost towns, painstakingly moving them to the new site and restoring them to their original "grandeur.”

"Davis has a love for the simpler times of the past that are reflected, not only in his "new" town, but also in his paintings and sculptures. Of his re-created town, he said: "Red Oak II is a combination of a painting and a sculpture, and it is just made from things that someone else threw away."
 
 

 

 

"Today, each of the buildings in Red Oak II are privately owned. Davis lives in the Belle Starr house, where the infamous lady outlaw grew up, as well as owning a couple of other buildings. The buildings were once filled with period pieces and had a lively restaurant and more, but Davis went through a nasty divorce where he had to sell off that stuff.
 
"This quaint "ghost town” includes a Phillips 66 station, an old schoolhouse, feed store, diner, town hall, jail, and several homes. Two buildings that were important in Davis' life are the blacksmith shop, where his great-grandfather once practiced his trade and the General Store, that was run by Lowell's father and where he learned to sculpt and paint. Both buildings were moved from the original Red Oak townsite. Situated throughout the property are numerous Davis sculptures and old vehicles." -Valerie C

 

 

 

 

 

I think the church and the pond were my favorites. I just love an old church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adventure Friday: All Aboard Ice Cream

Last Friday was rainy and just dreary. I normally don't mind a day like this to stay in and get some housework done, but it was the weekend and I felt the call to go play.  The kids weren't feeling overly enthusiastic about being trapped indoors, either. We needed out.

I started searching the web for info about Route 66 and started planning a little field trip to Joplin. Then I came across a blog with a few exciting places to explore between Joplin and Carthage and texted my kindred spirit adventure mom friend Valerie to see if she'd been to any of them. No?! Well we must go then. Today! Now! In. The rain! And that's what we did! We loaded up my kiddies plus Val and two chandler boys into the Willy fun bus and set out for adventure. 

 

First stop:All aboard Ice Cream in Joplin. 

 
I'm too lazy to write all about the details of these great places so I'm totally copy/pasting excerps from Valerie's blog. She's wonderful with words and gives accurate accounts of details I overlook or forget easily. I'm "borrowing" several of her photos as well, and you can tell which ones are hers because they're real photos taken with a legit camera by a person with actual photography talents! 

"Hamburgers at $1.90 was a deal! You could add ham and call it a "sow".  You could add bacon and call it a "pig".  Or, you could add both and call it a "farm".  You could single it, or double or triple it.  We had to get a "farm" just to try it, and we were sold.  We also tried the homemade ice cream, because that is what this place has been known for since 1953.

"So, we met the owner of the place while there and he told us that he had just recently purchased the long-living Joplin favorite from the original owners.  Somewhere along the way they purchased this long and amazing mail train car from the Kansas Missouri Railroad.  He said that the car was extra long because it had an interesting purpose.  Not only did it make the normal mail stops, it carried Secret Service people on it who were there protecting the Federal Reserves gold bars that were secreted inside the mail train.  So cool.

"The big loud bell was awesome to ring.  there was also a little train that you could ride for a couple of bucks.  Darn.  It's transmission was on the skids." -Valerie C

Don't worry, she politely left out the part where I let my kids climb on the little train ride and gave an employee a heart attack Wren he ran outside and scolded them for touching and moving it. Oopsie! Leave it those Willy kids to stir up trouble! Haha. That was our cue to split and head on to our next adventure! 

 

First some pics. I loved this little dive. We will definitely come back. We are inside the train car in a booth below the mail slots with labels from towns around northwest Arkansas and southwest Missouri. Such a fun place. Everything was super affordable, but we just kept ordering more things, I think I had four different transactions that added up to like $35 by the time we all enjoyed all the pig burgers and ice cream to hearts and bellies content. 

 

 

 

 

 

Corbin and Quincy in the Pool: Stingrays Swim Meet

 

Corbin and Quincy rocked their swim meet! I'm really impressed by the effort these kids give. You can do hard things, Willies! 

Corbin was terrified. He ran to me just moments before his event and said he was worried he would drown. Truth, this guy JUST learned how to swim, so the fear was from a legit place. In fact, only a week before the event he was still stopping multiple times along the way down the pool to hang/rest on the walls or lane lines. 

But nothing like a little competition to light a fire of security. He wasn't about to sink in front of an audience! I watched nervously from a corner and feigned excitement for Corbin. He started toward me one last time, and Coach Lisa caught him en route to quitting and put him in a relay right then. 

He knew his teammates were counting on him, and he was able to start from standing in the shallow end. This gave him greatbrelief since much of his fears about sinking came from his inability to dive. He took off and he did it. I became the obnoxious mother cheering from the sideline, guiding him to the end of the pool. "Don't give up! You're doing a great job! Almost there, Corbin! You can do it!" And ur was quite metaphoric for motherhood. We tell our kids, "you're ready for this! I believe in you!" And we teach them all we can and let em loose. And sometimes they do sink. But we're right there on the sidelines cheering and guiding them. 

He did it. And you can tell by the satisfied grin on his face that he was very proud. 

His next event was a 25 free, which he did with confidence, knowing he had already done it just 30 minutes before, and finally, he loved the kickboard race, which was the event of his choosing that he signed up for. 

Quincy signed up for a 25 free, a 25 backstroke, and 2 relays! I'm most impressed by her dives, this year. She's come a long way  from the jovial belly flop start! She is all business and jumps in with form and determination to dinher best. Her back stroke was really great and she didn't touch the lanes even once. She took third in freestyle.  This tiny swimmer got a late start to the joy of swimming with all the ear trouble we've had. Now, she independently pops those ear plugs in and just goes for it.  Great job Quincy! 

FHE Downtown Bentonville

 I can't remember the last time we just got in the car and took a drive. We ended up walking the trails at Compton Gardens, discovering some new downtown art, and finding bentonville rocks. What a great place we get to live in. 

Camp Wild: Breakfast in the Park

 

Is it totally awesome or totally pathetic that most camp wild activities revolve around food? What can I say? We love to eat! 

I mixed up pancake batter for 80-100 pancakes and our hens provided 4 dozen eggs. Katie brought sausage, juice and chocolate milk. Julie handled syrups, paper products, bottled waters, and equipment for all the outdoor games. We loaded 5 bikes up on the van and met for breakfast and games at metfield park. The weather was gorgeous. The kids played tennis, mini golf, and rode bikes on the pump track. 

 

 

 

I brought a baking soda and vinegar powered rocket kit and Corbin, Jackson, and Sam

carefully assembled it. No launch. What a bust. Landon and Cold still had fun shaking baking soda and vinegar together though. 

 

 

After nearly 3 hours of park fun, we packed up and finished out our fun with Brain Freeze Sno Whips (formerly frozen tung) we miss the flavors of frozen tung, but the service was really wonderful at brain freeze. I'm easily bought by companies that go out of their way to make children feel welcome and appreciated. 5 stars for this! Plus the pineapple orange whip was pretty fabulous!