Sunday, May 10, 2009

My Mother's Day

Since neither of my children are able to come home, DH asked what I would like to do. I decided since gas was a little cheaper than last year, and we hadn't been anywhere for a long while.....I wanted a road trip. I also wanted to go on Saturday rather than today. We first drove to the Amish area in Jamesport, MO. There is a little fabric store there that I love to visit. I bought these yard cuts of fabric. They have wonderful prices at this shop. I have plans for a stitchery project using some of these. There is also a bulk food store right next to the fabric store, so I bought some things there too. I did not take pictures here out of respect for the Amish people.

We then drove north and west from Jamesport. We were headed for the town of Rock Port, MO to see some of the power generating wind turbines that are being built around the country. I had read that Rockport is getting 100% of it's electric power from wind generation. You can read about it at www.rockportwind.com if you are interested. DH is a mechanical engineer and was excited about this portion of the trip. He has done a lot of reading about the mechanical aspects of the huge turbines. Mechanical aspects are not my cup of tea.....quilting and cooking is my thing.....but I enjoy one on one time in the car with him.....especially when the blackberry won't work because we are in an area with little to no service!! We got our first glimpse of the huge towers as we got near Conception Junction, MO. I stopped so DH could snap a picture.Since we had never been to this area, we had no idea the road would get even closer to these big guys!This picture doesn't really show how large these things are. Even though they are large, there is no noise and if you notice.....those cows don't seem to mind sharing their peaceful pasture! This still wasn't Rock Port....our destination, so we drove on.Soon we began to see a lot more of these on the horizon. Again the road took us much closer to them than we thought it would. These were near Rock Port and there were lots more of them than at the other location.

We stopped at the entrance gate to snap this photo. The gate was open, but there is a sign that says "Authorized Personnel Only" and we aren't authorized! See that black box at the base of the tower. Those appeared to be about 6 ft. tall. I wonder how these huge things will withstand the tornadoes and severe thunderstorms that often hit this area??

This quilter got a crash course in turbines, wind power, electricity, etc. for Mother's Day. While I still don't understand much of what DH said....I'm so glad we had the day together and could enjoy the beautiful scenery of northwestern Missouri! I'm also glad this country is making an effort to get us off dependency on foreign oil and moving toward clean sources for our energy. Hope this project proves VERY successful.

7 comments:

jovaliquilts said...

I think those windmills are so graceful and beautiful. I've seen a couple quilts that feature them at quilt shows.

Amelia said...

Sounds like a enlightening trip - learning about the wind turbines...We see the blades on the back of long long trucks going on I-40 from time to time....so it would be amazing to see how large the whole pole with blades would be. And you say there is no noise that is strange ...Where did you eat - no trip is complete without eating along the way.

Enjoy today - weather is cool and raining some here.

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Sounds like a lovely trip - we took a short road trip today and drove around two of the nearby lakes - oh it is so beautiful this time of year. Now we are getting ready for our daughters and their families to come over for dinner and fun.

Winona said...

Wow! You were almost in my area. Did you come down I-29 to come home? If you did, you passed our exit. We live about 5 miles from I-29. I just told my dh that we have to make another trip to Jamesport this summer. I would love to visit that quilt shop. Thanks for sharing your roadtrip with us.
Winona

Norma said...

There are a lot of those windmill things in California. It is so cool to come over the hill and see them just go on and on. It is like a scifi movie scene.

Sounds like you got a real education on the whole thing! Nice quilt fabric too!

I admire you for being respectful of the Amish beliefs. I have seen other blogs that sneak pictures of them.

Teresa said...

What a sweet post. My husband and I enjoy just going out for a day or overnight too and just seeing what we can find. I would love to see those wind turbines. I think they look much prettier than the nuclear station big chimneys.

Crispy said...

What a wonderful Mother's day you had Belvie. I love the "Wind Farms" I find them both beautiful and peaceful. I wish the rest of the country would feel the same way....especially in windy North Dakota.

Crispy