The first cool mornings at the end of a hot summer feels as refreshing as the first warm spring days after a cold, hard winter.

Word got around that there were a couple of Limpkins hanging out at Busch Wildlife. It’s kind of a big deal since Limpkins, being a tropical wetlands bird, are not typically seen north of Florida. It was a great Labor Day morning.

I discovered that there were fields of sunflowers within a few miles of the house. Thousands of sunflowers planted in a field at the Weldon Spring Conservation Area. I spent three days photographing the flowers at different times of the day.

A couple of this years’ calves started wondering over to our house from the farm next door. I guess our grass tasted better!

On the fourth day of our trip to Tucson, we visited Old Tucson Studios. An old movie studio where many of the old westerns were filmed. “Old Tucson was originally built in 1939 by Columbia Pictures on a Pima County-owned site as a replica of 1860s’ era Tucson for the movie Arizona (1940), starring William Holden and Jean Arthur. Workers built more than 50 buildings in 40 days. Many of those structures are still standing.”, Wikipedia

On the third day of our trip to Tucson, we visited the Casa Grande Ruins near Phoenix. “The national monument consists of the ruins of multiple structures surrounded by a compound wall constructed by the ancient people of the Hohokam period, who farmed the Gila Valley in the early 13th century.”, Wikipedia

On the second day of the Tucson trip, we visited the San Xavier Mission. “A National Historic Landmark, San Xavier Mission was founded as a Catholic mission by Father Eusebio Kino in 1692. Construction of the current church began in 1783 and was completed in 1797. “, Wikipedia

On our annual road trip, Nathan and I drove to Tucson, Arizona. Along the way we stopped at White Sands National Park in Southern New Mexico.

White Sands National Park (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Pat and I took a drive to Clarksville Missouri to take some eagle pictures, but it was so overcast that the pictures were not great. We drove up to Louisiana, across the river and then down to the Grafton Winery The Vineyards outside of Grafton Illinois to have dinner and a bottle of wine. The clouds cleared and we ended up with a beautiful sunset.

Pat and I took a ride down to Dillard’s Mill on a warm, very windy day in December. About a two hour drive south of Cuba, Missouri.