Fort Leonard Wood and Other Missouri Sites – 30 SEP 2011

I started my Army adventure at Fort Leonard Wood and that’s were I finished out this fiscal year. Here’s some odd and ends from my three weeks in Missouri.
The week-end I spent photographing cemeteries in St. Louis, there was an annual balloon festival. A docent at Bellefontaine told me about a park where I could be away from the crowds and get a view of the race. Unfortunately, the wind was taking them the opposite direction…but I got a few shots on the drive back to the hotel by following the balloons.
In researching how MO got its’ motto, “Show Me State,” I found several interesting facts: It is bordered by eight other states, only it and Tennessee share that many borders. It was the starting point for the Pony Express Trail, Oregon Trail and Route 66.
World's Largest Rocking Chair, Fanning, MO
>The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers meet in St. Louis. The northern part of the state has Interior Plains while the southern part has the Ozark Mountains.
Monocoupe II0 Special – STL
It’s in the center in more than one way…24th to enter the Union…St Louis is called the “western-most Eastern city” and Kansas City the “eastern-most Western city”…
TW Finds Friends in a Hotel in Rolla, MO
2010 census put Plato, MO as the 'mean center of the United States population’…it has both Midwestern and Southern cultural influences (which I found reflected in the food).
More Airport Art – STL
“Show-Me” came from either a speech by Congressman Willard Vandiver in 1899 or a miner’s strike in Colorado in the mid-1890’s; they used Missouri miners who needed to be shown CO mining methods.
Missouri Survivors’ Memory Quilt
The lobby of the building was displaying parts of the 2010 Missouri Survivors’ Memory Quilt.
On any Post, you can find war machine displays.
M93A1 FOX Nuclear-Biological-Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle
M1117 “Guardian” Armored Security Vehicle
M48A2 AVLB Armored Vehicle Launched Bridge
Stained-glass Display
Versions of the AVLB were used as early as WWII.
From the third floor of the building I was working in, I was able to observe a formal presentation.