Before the rain returned, we got a chance to hit up downtown Willow Springs yesterday. Being a poor rural town, there are lots of old decrepit buildings, crumbling houses and barns. We walked down Main Street which is lined with two-story brick buildings, most of which are empty, a few scary restaurants and a pleasant little park that was filled with dogwood trees. The buildings were painted with murals and advertisements about a million and a half years ago so it made for good picture takin’.
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With the nasty weather behind us, we’ve been able to make it out of the house a little bit over the past week. We managed to make a pit stop in a cute little town named Houston, about 30 miles north of where we live, yesterday. We got the chance to roam around downtown for a short time, but only to hit up the famous Forbes Pharmacy Soda Fountain. It was a little odd to find this cute little ice cream parlor in the back of a large pharmacy but it made up for it with it’s old fashioned charm and yummy desserts.
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The nasty weather needs to go away now. It’s getting really old. We’ve had one day of sunshine since arriving in Missouri 9 days ago. There’s been lots of flooding and tornadoes in the surrounding area to keep us cooped up in the house the rest of the time. I have to say, though, that I’m pleasantly surprised at how beautiful this part of the country is. Lots of rolling hills, giant trees, and colorful wildlife are just begging to be photographed. I can’t wait to get out to take some pictures! Tons of old farmhouses and rusty cars abound… Yay for HDR!
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So obviously I haven’t had any time to post recently because we’ve been so busy with the move and all. We finally made it into Missouri early this morning (3:30 am) after a grueling day of panic and travel. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to sell everything we wanted to before the big move but that’s the beauty of Craigslist. Put an ad up, put your stuff out on the curb, and within an hour, it’s gone. Moving for lazy people at it’s finest!
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It’s a beautiful day here in SF and I haven’t even  been outside.  I’m going to miss this place a lot once we leave but there are quite a few things I won’t miss:

1. There’s trash everywhere. Coming from Texas, it was heartbreaking to see such a beautiful place so polluted.  They don’t put up with that crap in Texas. You go to jail if you get caught littering. But in SF, they “clean” the streets once a week so everyone figures that it’s okay to litter. It makes me sad…

2. Okay, I realize assholes are everywhere but they seem to flock to this city. I’m not saying everyone here is rude, because they’re not, but these buttheads take the cake. People will intentionally ignore you and then get in your way and stay there. I could give about a thousand examples but I’ll just leave it at that.

3. Section 8 housing at the beach: Why exactly do the people who are living off the rest of us get the prime real estate?

And now for some things that I will miss:

1. Being a short walk from the Pacific Ocean. I can’t say enough about living steps away from the beach. Well, who wouldn’t like that?

2. There are community gardens and parks everywhere. Even in the worst neighborhoods, you can find the most beautiful scenery.

3. Some really great restaurants like The Citrus Club, Park Chow, Dolly’s, and Sushi Zen. There are quite a few good restaurants here but you have to know where they are. They’re hidden amongst all the bad ones. And there are a lot of bad ones, they’re practically on every street corner. So do your homework first, boys and girls, before heading out to find a good restaurant in SF.

Anyway, at this point I’m blabbing. I need to get back to packing. Crap…

Ever since we moved out to California, we’ve been in love with Northern Cali, particularly the area around Mendocino and Point Arena. Our ultimate goal is to end up there with a little piece of land close to the Pacific. But for now, we’ll just have to keep dreaming unfortunately. I hope y’all enjoy these shots as much as I do…
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