ShareCommentary by Jo Schaper
Bashing the U.S. Postal Service is a time-honored American tradition. When things go wrong, it often requires patience to get to the bottom of the problem. At the same time, the USPS is what makes Traveler as we know it possible. It’s still the cheapest way to get 4 or [...]

ShareOne of the new categories this year in the Traveler Readers Choice nominations is “The best place for coffee and pie.”
Emery is the connoisseur of coffee, not me, but homemade pie is always tempting. There is a restaurant in Washington, Missouri, which boasts about their pie. The meringue is 6 inches deep. I measured. [...]

ShareRick Mansfield, who writes periodically for Traveler, including the Irb Ellerman story in the September issue, also sends out occasional news reports from his home town of Ellington. This is a big fish story we received at Traveler on August 29. Rick didn’t say, but we’re guessing it was in the St. Francis or on [...]

ShareIn the real world, its almost always a good thing when our friends introduce us to friends of theirs, especially when the first friend thinks we have things in common, and might actually form another friendship in this world which is often way too uncaring and cold.
Here are a few introductions to some friends [...]

ShareBack when Marvel Cave put in a few rides to keep the claustrophobic entertained while their family members were underground (now known as Silver Dollar City) and long before there was anything like Nashville in the Ozarks or Branson West, there was the Baldknobbers music show.

Share(MDC news release by Jim Low. Reprinted in its entirety to let our readers reflect on 2010 conservation news events. – Jo.)
Following is a month-by-month roundup of some of the year’s significant conservation-related events.
JANUARY
Anglers made some of the Show-Me State’s biggest news last year. The action began Jan. 19, when 15-year-old Joshua Lee Vance of [...]

Shareby Jo Schaper
Yes, folks, today is THE DAY. One hundred seventy five years ago, on a chill day at the very tag end of November, in the small town of Florida, Mo. Samuel Langhorne Clemens entered this world screaming and squalling.
From beyond the grave, he’s still screaming and squalling, pointing out the foibles of [...]

Share Photos courtesy KansasCity.com.
The MR340 isn’t about floating.
The annual paddling race left Kansas City yesterday morning headed for St. Charles. The bulk of paddlers arrived at Jefferson City this morning, and already (Wednesday at 5 p.m.) some participants are passing New Haven, between Hermann and Washington, Missouri. Race officials are estimating that this may [...]

ShareThe results are now known for the 2010 Mingo Swamp Friends Flora and Fauna Photo Contest.
Aaron Horrell, co-chair of the event and Traveler nature writer, sent this list of winning photos and photographers:
Best of Show:

• “Black – Bellied whistling Ducks on Monopoly Marsh” by Chris Barrigar of Bloomfield – Winner.

• “Foggy Fall Color” by [...]

Share I’ve been pretty busy this week, but not too busy to send out attaboys (and one attagirl) to actual friends of mine from the St. Louis metro area who replied to an Internet call for help from total strangers to rescue a prized coonhound trapped in a cave for over two days. The rescue [...]