Muscotah

Muscotah is a baseball town, largely because it was the home of the famed Cubs shortstop Joe Tinker. As we drove into town, we saw this yard with a rose garden reminiscent of a wooden backstop, metal silhouettes of ball players, and an epic garden shed shaped like a baseball (including "stitches" made of red rebar). Here's an interesting post relating to how this baseball was made.

No one was home at this house, so we didn't stay long, but the kids couldn't resist mimicking the poses of the lawn ornaments, and I couldn't resist taking a picture of this remarkable shed. (Which, it turns out, was originally a water tower tank!)

In the city park, there's a monument to Tinker, as well as a mural featuring him, Evers, and Chance (the other two ballplayers who were part of the same immortal double play).

The homes in this town were modest and well-maintained, and the lawns were neatly trimmed. The town roads were gravel.

On the edge of town, we saw a beautiful old ruined church, though there's also a nice Church of Christ building in Muscotah as well.

Effingham

Effingham is a town of about 500. It has a downtown, a library, a post office, a park, and a pool. The homes and yards are generally well-maintained -- it seems like people take pride in their hometown.

The town is surrounded by beautiful, peaceful fields and farms. Thanks to all the rain, there was greenery everywhere! The wildflowers practically exploded across the hillsides.

Some of the farms in the area are well-cared for, and others have seen better days. One dead giveaway of a farm that's no longer doing much is a small cluster of rusted silos, crowded all around by uncontrolled thickets of elm, mulberry, or oak trees.

Trust us to find books for sale wherever we go! There was a flea market / craft sale in the Effingham park, and our kids gravitated toward the Usborne book dealer. We left with about $25 less in cash and about $25 worth of books in hand. So it turned out pretty well.

Atchison

Atchison is a bustling town with lots to see and do. Coming into town, we saw a lot of lower-income housing and industrial areas, such as factories and machine shops. The city features many older homes and buildings -- some beautifully well-preserved, and others less so. Much of the construction is of brick, and many of the streets are also brick-paved. This used to be a big, important railroad town back in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These days, it still has a lot of railroad influence.

We got out in Atchison to stretch our legs before proceeding northeast into Doniphan County. The kids and I enjoyed exploring a downtown shopping area while Magen snoozed in the minivan. This town contains a lot of good memories for me -- we spent our anniversary here the year before our oldest son was born. I've included a picture from that trip, just for nostalgia's sake.