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Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
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Let's talk trash The photo of roadside litter showing all the bottles, bags and boxes tossed from passing vehicles created some healthy discussions about our trash. Columbia native Ann Heskamp Curtis sent us this letter: Dear Linda, I just wanted to tell you how much I'm enjoying the pictures of Adair County on columbiamagazine.com. I've been downloading all of them! Well, not this one with the garbage. One of the first things I always do when I visit my Mother (Mrs. Effie Heskamp on Jamestown Street in Columbia) is go outside and pick up garbage. Living downstream from the fast food corridor provides quite a lot of it. Even when I was home in January, I went out and cleared beer cans, fast food wrappers, cigarette butts and much, much more. My pet peeve: the Town Branch at the foot of Jamestown Hill. I have photos of that! Regards, Ann Heskamp Curtis Anntikk@aol.com Torrance, California I'm also enclosing below an article from "Westways," a publication of the Southern California Auto Club about "agri-tourism". It's about farms as tourist destinations . . . seems like Adair County would be well suited to that. Ann *********** On preserving 'agri-culture' By Paul Lasley and Elizabeth Harryman ("Reprinted with permission from WESTWAYS c2002 Automobile Club of Southern California.") When Britain's Prince Charles hosted a reception for some 40 travel journalists and travel industry executives from around the world last May, it was no accident that he held the reception at Highgrove, his home in the English countryside. "People are drawn to the English landscape, with its small villages, family-owned farms, and historic buildings," he said in a brief talk he gave after greeting and chatting with each of us. "That rare blend of nature, architecture, man, and I might say, God, has created a distinctive and beautiful countryside. It's important to preserve 'agri-culture,' the culture of farming communities and the spiritual and philosophical dimensions they give to our society." The Prince of Wales is onto something. Rural tourism, or agri-tourism, is a growing trend in the U.S. and abroad. More than 60 percent of U.S. adults reported taking a trip to a small town or village in the past three years, according to a 2001 poll conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America. Listening to Prince Charles reminded us that some of our happiest travels have been in the country. Like the day we hiked to a rural village in China's Fujian province and marveled at the raised vegetable beds that were tended by hand. Or the Halloween night we sat, spellbound, in a cemetery behind a little white church in Mariposa, a town in California's gold country, as a storyteller shared ghost tales with a small group of adventurers. Or the time we stayed on a sheep station outside Melbourne, Australia, and helped the dogs work the sheep (actually the dogs did all the work while we watched). Vacations such as these offer city folk like us a chance to reconnect with the land at affordable prices, because hotels, restaurants, and attractions in small towns are typically less expensive than similar properties in large cities. In addition, rural vacations boost local economies. "Poverty got us into the business," says David Curtis, half-jokingly. Curtis and his wife, Carol Springer, opened Meramec Farm, their 460-acre property near Bourbon, Missouri, to paying guests 20 years ago. "This farm's been in Carol's family for six generations, but the days when a family could make a living from a small farm are gone," he says. "In the early '80s, it became clear that we had to find something to supplement our income." So the couple opened the farm as a kind of B&B with livestock. "Farm stays are like visiting grandma's -- if your own grandma didn't have a farm," says Pat Dickerman, who wrote the first edition of the popular Farm, Ranch & County Vacations in America in 1949. "It was after the war. Farmers were struggling When I asked them if they'd like to be listed in what was then just a pamphlet, many thought no one would come." But the idea was an instant success. Farm adventures can make lasting impressions on kids. Dan Forth, a radio consultant who lives in Connecticut, says two of his children are still talking about the farm vacation his family took in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, six years ago. "Amanda, who was eight, went crazy over the clves and piglets," he says. "She even sneaked out to the barn at four in the morning to take a peek at some newborn kittens. Michael, who was 10, took a turn at milking a cow. He said the milk 'smelled bad,' and milking the cow felt 'euwww.' But it was a real adventure for all the kids." Rural vacations can be as simple as driving into the countryside. "We always try to get off the main highways," says Catherine Stephenson, a criminal prosecutor with the San Diego district attorney's office. Six years ago, along with her husband, Clarence, and their 16-year-old son, Brian, she began a project to visit all 50 U.S. state capitols (they're up to 49). "When you get off the beaten path, you find interesting places, like the reconstructed earthen Mandan (Native American) lodge we saw in North Dakota," Stephenson says. "People are so proud of their communities." We've seen community pride in towns from Bodie, California, to Bibury, the tiny village in England's Cotswolds region where we stayed before meeting Prince Charles at Highgrove. The Bibury Court Hotel's green lawn slopes to a pasture where black Aberdeen Angus graze. As we stood in front of the hotel one morning, its general manager, Simon Gould, called to a red-haired man with wire-rimmed glasses who was walking a chocolate-brown Labrador retriever. "Good morning, vicar," Gould said. "Good morning, Simon," replied Vicar Graham Martin. The vicar welcomed us to Bibury and introduced us to Charlie Brown, the big, friendly puppy at his side. We felt as though we'd walked into a Merchant Ivory film. After chatting with the vicar, we walked through the village, which has buildings from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, all made from Cotswold stone. We stopped at Arlington Row, a block of cottages where weavers once worked, paused to smell the fragrance of early spring lilacs, and visited a trout farm. Everywhere we walked, residents said good morning and exchanged pleasantries. When we returned from our walk, we sat in the hotel's oak-paneled drawing room and sipped cups of butternut squash soup while, through a window, we watched a pheasant foraging on the lawn. A vacation fit for royalty. *** KEEP 'EM DOWN ON THE FARM Rural vacations in the U.S. and abroad range from working farms that rent a few rooms to professionally operated inns. Many offer rooms for well under $100 a night, which often includes breakfast. "The internet is now the main way to find information about farm and ranch stays," says Pat Dickerman, who no longer publishes her seminal guide (it remained in print until 1995). "Check the website of the country or state you're interested in visiting," she says. "Many have listings of farm vacation properties." More resources: www.visitbritain.com, www.biburycourt.co.uk and www.meramecfarm.com This story was posted on 2003-05-10 13:40:55
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