Cape Girardeau History and Photos

June 25, 2012

Thebes Courthouse Renovation

The Thebes Courthouse is on the list of places that out-of-town guests get to see. I took Spokesrider and his wife there when he rode his bike from Michigan to New Madrid. Today it was Bob and Claire Rogers from Arizona who got the tour. I worked with Bob at The Athens Messenger in the late 60s. You’ll hear more about him as the week goes on and I drag him to all my favorite haunts.

Museum not open

The museum wasn’t open, but we heard noises inside while we were on the balcony overlooking the Mississippi River. Claire peeked through a crack in the door and saw that the main door was open. Never missing a chance to walk through an open door, we did just that. I was surprised to see how well the place had been fixed up. The last time I was inside the building in the 1960s, the place was empty except for a bust of Lincoln in one of the windows.

Bust of Abe Lincoln

I don’t think this was the Lincoln I saw, but he still looks nice in the window’s light. The Thebes Historical Society has been working hard to preserve the old building, and their efforts are showing. We were lucky to get a sneak peek. The organization’s website says the museum will be closed for awhile to replace some windows and do other repairs. You can check it to see when visitors are officially welcome again.

43 Years of Lila and Ken

Back in the late 60s, I worked with a photographer named Bob Rogers at The Athens Messenger. I guess I should say I worked FOR Bob, since he was the Chief Photographer and nominally my boss. Here he is in a lighting finger exercise I did for a lighting class. (I was supposed to use two lights. I did: a strobe at the camera, and Bob is touching two wires together to fire a flashbulb mounted in the ceiling of the phone booth).

But, that’s not the point of the story.

“When are you guys getting married?”

One day – maybe even on the day when this photo was taken – when Lila was hanging around our office, Bob asked, in his normal diplomatic way, “So, when are you guys getting married?” (That’s Bob’s foot, bottom center, next to the phone.)

Responding in my diplomatic way, I responded, “Bob, pick a date.”

“June 27,” was his answer.

For some reason, that date didn’t work out, so we got married June 23, 1969, 43 years ago. To this day, when anyone asks when we got married, I always say June 27, because that’s the date that stuck in my memory.

Where’s Bob?

I lost track of Bob in 1970 when he sent me a postcard photo of himself climbing a mountain somewhere. I had no idea if he was buried under tons of snow and ice or if he had just lost my address. A few Internet searches over the years turned up way too many people with that name to track down. Finally, out of the blue, he found my bike blog. That’s where I discovered that he and his wife, Claire, are an extraordinary couple who have had adventures most of us have only dreamed about (in some cases, you might classify them as nightmares.) You can read about their world-wide meanderings all over the world by bicycle on their blog, The New Bohemians.

Bob happened to mention that they were traveling in their RV from Arizona to his 50th high school reunion in West Virginia and would love to see if Cape was anything like he’d been reading about. We arranged to get together, coincidentally on our wedding anniversary.

Anniversary celebrated with musical tribute

Bob and Claire cooked a wonderful supper, then Mother joined them in a musical tribute to us. Wife Lila recorded the action on her iPhone.

Stunned silence

Me, I just sat there in stunned silence, much like I did 43 years ago.

Lila was much more articulate. She said, “Old friends, old song, old married couple. Good times.”

June 23, 2012

Kentucky Traffic Safety Message

We cheated death once more. pulling into Cape in late afternoon. I tried to shoot a few frames of the Nashville skyline at the split, but decided that I didn’t want the last photo before (or during) the wreck to be of the Nashville skyline.

Kentucky reinforces safety message

Had I seen this memorial to Kentucky traffic fatalities BEFORE I got to Nashville, I might not have tried to shoot the skyline photo from a moving car. I pull into that rest area on almost every trip, but I don’t recall seeing the memorial before.

June 22, 2012June 22, 2012

Northbound TN I-24

The trip back home to Cape has been mostly uneventful. Getting out of Florida was a wet slog, but traffic was light and my Rain-X meant that I rarely had to run my windshield wipers.

I’m not a big Stephen King fan, but I loaded one his books in my MP3 player and have had the miles click off listening to the horrible happenings in Desperation, NV. Maybe they’re clicking off so quickly because the book dampens any desire you have to go on backroads through desolate countryside.

Most of Thursday was spent escaping Georgia. It’s kind of disheartening to have to go through l0ng states like Florida and Georgia. You have a better feeling of making progress when you’re going through skinny states like Tennessee (if you’re going north and south, that is).

Atop Nickajack Lake bridge

Traffic was moving fine until I got to Atlanta at rush hour. Boy, RUSH hour is a misnomer. They should call it Crawl Hour.

I rounded a curve north of Chattanooga and mentally kicked myself for not being ready to shoot a high railroad bridge that crosses the highway.

I decided I’d better take advantage of the few minutes of daylight I had left to capture the foothills of the eastern Continental Divide.

The photo at the top was taken as we were starting to climb the big bridge over Nickajack Lake, about a third of the way between Chattanooga and Monteagle Pass. The second shot was taken just ever the top of the bridge.

Garish fireworks stand

This fireworks store has always fascinated me, but never enough to get off The Big Road to stop, particularly with a Stephen King horror book playing in the background.

I should be pulling into Cape late Friday afterno0n.