Well, the Love of My Life (LOML) and I rested from woodworking a little bit this past weekend. We were chasing the gorgeous Fall colors – and we found some! You will see them, below. Unlike the Eastern part of the State, in NW Missouri we have mostly rolling hills. You will find rolling hill after rolling hill, for as far as the eye can see; and some hills are much taller than others. We don’t have any mountains in Missouri, though.

We took a short ride on Sunday morning, making a complete circle from St Joseph to Maryville, to Conception Abby, Stanberry, King City, Union Star, and back home. The entire trip was around 100 miles, and about three hours, counting the time to get out of the truck and bracket several shots of the same scene, trying to get the best colors. These maps are courtesy of MapQuest on the Internet.

First, the overall map of Missouri:

This was our route on Sunday:

We headed North from St Joseph, toward Maryville, about 30 miles North of us. Driving along we came up on this stretch of road – the people in this home must have a gorgeous view:

And just outside Maryville, this nice view:

East and then South we arrived in the town of Conception, home of Conception Abbey. I took the following photos on the grounds of the Abbey:

1. On arrival, this is the scene that greets you – the Abbey itself:

2. Gorgeous colors help to frame the twin towers:

3. Across the street was this tree, as if on fire:

4. Just as we were leaving we saw these trees, at the entrance to the cemetery:

Now we are on our way to Stanberry – a corn field shortly after the harvest (not many trees here…):

Just after we arrived in Stanberry we saw this gorgeous sight:

King City has become the home of an experimental wind turbine farm – the wind blows most of the time:

And after making the turn toward home, just past King City:

I hope you enjoyed this tour as much I enjoyed sharing it with you. Thanks for looking!

Oh – please leave me a comment to let me know if you enjoyed this journey.

—— Al