Cape Girardeau, Missouri
August 31st - September 4th, 2001
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The last time I remember being in Missouri must have been at least 10
or more years ago. Wait... 14 years. It was before they changed houses. (Thanks for correcting me Kathy!)
That was a trip with the whole family to visit some of my relatives, the
Grabels. After a long stint of me not really being acting like part of the family, my younger sister decides
to get married and I decide to catch up on the years of not really knowing them. It was a month
after my sister's wedding that some of them came back into town for my grandmother's funeral. That
circumstance wasn't the best, but the visit was good.
Months pass and I'm talking with Kristen online when she convinces me to come out on Labor Day weekend for a visit with the family on their own turf. She arranges to pick me up in Saint Louis and drive me down to Cape Girardeau dragging her roommate Kelly along with her. The two of them together is just a riot. Two hours of Kristen driving the way I do with the two of them singing their lungs out. Well, Kristen was. Kelly kept getting embarrased for some reason. Was it something in the chocolate or Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody? She's fairly camera shy, so I did the best I can. She also said something about not putting these pictures on the Internet, but I don't know what she's talking about...
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We arrive in Cape Girardeau that evening and sit down
for some food. Some of Kristen's friends stop by and plans are made for what is going
to happen the next day. Wes, the oldest cousin on that side is playing in a couple
bands. I don't know what you'd really call it... Jazz... Bluegrass... Rock? A mix
of everything. More about the music in a bit. We were heading out to the Black River,
about 2 hours west of the Cape to go camping and hear the bands. I knew no one
other than the cousins, but that never stopped me!
So much for Friday night. Everyone turns in and I catch
up on the news and what not. I even get Eric, youngest cousin, to say a few words. (Tough
thing to do from what I hear.) He's not quiet, he's just direct and short-answered. Okay,
so maybe quiet is a nicer term. :) At this point, Wes has graduated college, Kristen
is going on the 4th year out of four and a half and Eric is completing High School. Last
time I really talked with them was back in what? My high school years? Geez. My 10th
year reunion is coming up... We'll see if I go to that one!
Back to the trip. Saturday morning... the girls go through their preparations, I just sit back and stay out of the way. Not much I can do since I don't know my way around. We just make sure we have enough gear for all of us and enough wine to drink. Fred is an amateur wine bottler, so we grab some of the bottles from his first batch and hit the road. It turns out to be a caravan of us. Me, Kelly & Kristen in one car, Lee and Kristine (Wes's girlfriend) in another and Jeff and Marcus in the lead. Two hours later, we arrive in the midst of Nowhere, Missouri which is located right next to the Black River.
We unload, meet the rest of the group and hit the river. I
can't remember names very well, so I'm just going to skip all of that. The river
was awesome. Very clear, very comfortable (just a little cool to start with, but at
two in the morning, it was incredible) and even comes with this cool rope swing. I have
a few shots of Kristen on the swing and one of Kelly in the river. This is following
all of the pictures of the campsite above. There was some guy at a nearby site that
dove into too shallow of water and was just sitting there holding his injured head
for a while. I think he had planned on staying for the weekend, but with that kind of
injury, his friends packed up after a bit and took him home. Not really something
to laugh at, but it was still somewhat humerous.
After the river and hanging out by the campsite for a while,
we made our way up to the stage. One of the band members was running a bit late, so
there was a lot of time to sit around and chill. I fixed some spaghetti for dinner
and plopped down in front of the stage. Around 8:30, Wes's first band Color Will
started and played for a few hours. They played a few songs by various artists that
I didn't recognize, that particular set of genres is not my forte, then
they played some original pieces. It was just smooth and perfect for the weekend. They
have a very creative style and some really great songs of their own. After Color Will
completed, they took a 10 minute drum break and the next group Cape Rock Drive
(of which Wes is also a member) took to the stage. They played for at least another 2
hours and kept it going. I took LOTS of photos from each set and Kelly grabbed a dozen
or so as well. Since there were so many pictures, I moved them to a seperate
page for faster loading. Just click on one of the links: But other than the bands, I got some intesting, mostly candid, shots of the crowd as well. Someone, *cough* Kelly *cough*, caught a picture of Kristen, Kristine and I dancing, then I turned around and got a few of Mike and Jeff. Somehow, some glowsticks ended up in front of the stage, so there was some fun entertainment just tossing those around... had nothing at all to do with the wine and other influences that were around... nope nothing! It's also pretty fun to see what can happen when you take a picture of someone who's half asleep... But I'm not allowed to show ya. :) The funniest scene had to be with Wes taking sips straight from the wine bottles whenever possible. Between songs, measures, whatever... Just funny with the sax in one hand and the bottle in the other. At the end of it all, we have the stage being set for the second performance. For a campground, they had a well built stage. Decent ramp, enough power for all the equipment and more. The lighting sucked for photos, so I used the flash for everything. If I had thought about it more, I probably could have taken some better shots, but I didn't pack the tripod so I was a little limited. I'll do better next time... Whenever I'm back out for the next major event.
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After the bands finished up and the last song was dying out, we
took a few mins to clean up the place and then slid over to a campfire for some
warmth and relaxation. I actually skipped the offered food at first and Wes and I hit the river. I went
from tired to decently awake after a minute or two in the river. With the mist coming up off the
water and the full moon out, I probably could have had an awesome picture... if I had
only brought my camera out.
After the quick swim and drying off, we went back and downed those S'mores. (And a little bit of wine.) It was about 4 AM or so when things really wound down. I made it back to the tent and passed out. The morning was a little rough, but everyone managed. Breakfast was whatever you could find or some of Jeff's massive pancake mix. Too bad I ate too many S'mores. Wes had to get to work that afternoon, so we struck camp and headed home. Some of the group stayed for the weekend. (or longer.) Back at the Chateau de Grabel, we recovered with some quick showers and then headed out for dinner at the famous Lamberts! Home of the Throwed Rolls. I'd never heard of it until that weekend, but it is a fairly famous place. Good home-style food and some good side dishes. The best part had to have been the rolls. The wheel 'em straight out from the kitchen and just start tossing them at whoever has their hands raised. They are usually pretty accurate, but every now and then, someone, *cough* Kelly *cough*, gets beaned in the head with a roll. I stuffed myself stupid and we rolled ourselves back home. Not that stuffing myself stupid takes much. :) That night ended pretty uneventfully. We were all just stuffed into sleepiness. Zzz... Okay, so the photos to the right do not really fit the text above. Deal with it. :) The backyard has this cool rope swing that Kristen can jump from the porch and land on. As a guy, I think I would be in serious pain, but I wasn't about to try it and find out. I'll leave that to the brave ones.
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The next day, Monday, was the end of the weekend for most of
us. Kristen and Kelly had to head back to Mizzou and so I was stuck with the
rest of the family and a cookout. Tough times! First Fred showed me around the garden
and the pond he has in the yard. It was going to be the original site of their
house, but it kept filling up with water, so it just became a pond. We did a little fishing
and I caught a 5-pound catfish which we just let go. I'm not much of a fish person, but
it's cool to have a pond and a nice stream running through the yard. Fred spends a lot of
time on that yard, but it does look great.
I managed to get pictures of just about everything. I was still playing with the new zoom lens, so I wanted to see if I knew what I was doing for bird photography. I still don't have the full knack for it, but I'm beginning to understand it a bit more. I even got a few good pictures of the family: Eric, Fred, Wes with Kristineine, a couple more shots of Kristine, then the birds, Ginger, and two of Tiger. Ginger is the mother of Bear who looks pretty much exactly like her. After socializing and hanging out with the family. Wes, Kristine and I headed downtown and shot some pool. After that we drove around the campus for a bit, saw his place and then headed back to the Grabel residence for a snack and part of a movie. We were all fairly tired... And it was like 2 or 3 AM, so we called it a night. The next day, I managed to break the Grabel's computer before leaving and then Fred took me up to the Saint Louis airport. Guess I'll be making another trip to Missouri to make sure their new machine is still working...
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This space reserved for the photographs from Kathy's camera.
Which finally arrived sometime in 2002! I gave her such
a hard time about holding back on me... and she finally relents and sends them! These are
photos taken from after the Wes Fest. First of us on the couch after eating our share
at Lamberts. Then the last two are right before the girls left for their trip out of town.
(Kelly wasn't quite ready for the first one!)
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