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Knob Lick, Missouri is a tiny unincorporated community in St. Francois County Missouri between Farmington and Fredericktown. The thing the town is best known for is Knob Lick Tower, an old Missouri Conservation Department fire-watch tower that teenagers like to climb late at night.
The Daily Journal is the primary newspaper in the area. This Daily Journal headline about the Knob Lick Cemetery made me sigh a deep sigh and shake my head at small town Missouri. The story itself made me sad for the woman whose body was found and the family she probably leaves behind.
I suppose the headline is effective in that I’m sharing it with people, but I’m sharing it for all of the wrong reasons. Thanks for making Southeast Missourians look like fools, Daily Journal.
You’ve probably been dying to read about my new hobby.
Ever since you saw my post earlier this week about life in Missouri being good, you’ve had trouble sleeping. You’ve tossed and turned in anticipation, wondering what this small town girl’s up to in her free time.
You’ve been reprimanded by your supervisor for compulsively checking A Small Town Girl’s Guide during the work day. You try to explain to them how big of a deal Small Town Girl’s new hobby announcement is, and they just won’t listen. You feel misunderstood. You feel all alone in the small town world you’ve found yourself sucked into. I know. And it’s alright.
Small Town Girl’s pull is magnetic, and the cliff-hanger (pun intended) in that last post was just too much. You need to know what my new hobby is. That new hobby, my internet-stalking, blog-reading friend, is rock climbing.
I’ve started climbing with some frequency, and while I’m still not very good at it, I’m gaining focus and determination through climbing (and through running) that carries over into my work, my relationships, and my perspectives on small town life.
I’ll be leaving this weekend for a hard-earned vacation to a city I’ve wanted to see for years. Any guesses as to which city I’m visiting? I’ll give you a hint; I’ll have the opportunity to practice my new hobby when I arrive there.
Here are a couple of photos of my vacation destination, and the mountains we’ll be hiking, climbing and camping in while we’re there. I’d always admired climbers, but never thought I’ve have the strength and skill to be one. Luckily, life in small town Missouri allows me the resources to try new hobbies like this one. Here’s to hoping our climbing goes well next week.
I just have to tell you how great small town Missouri life has been to me in 2010, and by telling you about all of this, I think you’ll understand why I’ve been posting less often on A Small Town Girl’s Guide – I’ve been out doing so many things this year that it’s hard to find the time to come home and write about them!
 Small Town Girl on a Boat 1. I’m training for my first half marathon, which means that I’m getting super-buff (!!!) and spending most of my free time running.
2. I’ve taken up a new hobby which also helps me feel buff. You’ll have to come back later this week to read more about that.
3. Cool side projects are popping up for me. From writing for additional magazines to potential sponsored travel opportunities to speaking at conferences on social media and nonpfrofits, things have been taking off in a great way outside of my blog. These projects mean that I don’t have quite as much time as I used to for exploring small town, Missouri.
4. By moving to a place where cost of living is so much more manageable than it was in New York City, saving money is easier. As a result I’m taking my first big vacation since moving back to the United States in 2007. Where am I going? You’ll have to come back tomorrow to find out.:-)
Moving from Taipei to New York City to 12-Miles-From-Nowhere has been awful at times. It’s been lonely as hell. It’s been trying and difficult, and it’s made me question who I am, what I want, and what I believe. Sixteen months after starting my job here in rural Missouri though, I can see that this move was exactly where I needed to be, even if I still don’t know all the reasons why.
Opportunities are unfolding that I could never have anticipated, and I’m living out dreams that I never thought I’d be able to accomplish. Sometimes we have to keep our eyes on horizons that seem far out of reach so that we’re on the right trajectory to crash into the amazing things life has in store for us. Wherever you are on your course in life, find that horizon and focus on it. Good things will come, I have faith.
 @milligfunk, @stlwinegirl, @ashleyjane46, and @jenn_if_er If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you might remember my “Race to the Rocker – I won!” recap. That was a farse. This is not.
My relay team for the Joker’s Wild Half Marathon in St. Louis County last weekend won the relay competition. Of course, since the race organizers weren’t the most organized, we didn’t know that we’d won the relay until several days later, and then we only found out because one of our team members hounded the race organizers for our finish time and the finish times of the other teams.
The Joker’s Wild race was seriously hilly – the first 3.5 miles were a gradual uphill, and the next 3 were more or less a long downhill.
 Storm blowing through during Joker's Wild (photo by @stlwinegirl) The course repeats for the second half of the race. The hills combined with a wind and rain storm that literally knocked down a tree near Aid Station #3 gave me a whole lot of respect for the racers running the full length of the half. I stood beside the course, wearing my then-drenched Punk Rock Racing t-shirt and tutu, cheering on the runners who inspired me with their perseverance.
 At the end of my leg of the relay... My explorations of small town Missouri have slowed a bit lately as training for my own half marathon has taken priority. My life seems to revolve around work, running, eating enough to sustain my workouts, and a little bit of rock climbing.
Fittingly, my first half marathon will be in small town Missour at the Cape Girardeau “City of Roses” Half Marathon in mid-September. Until then, I’m basking in the glory of winning my first race.
It’s been sixteen months since I moved back to the St. Louis area from Brooklyn, New York. Because I seek interaction with new people and tend to make friends quickly, I was concerned that St. Louis would begin to feel too small to me once I got on my feet here. I wondered how long it would take me to meet “everyone” in St. Louis.
 STL Wine Girl, The Cubicle Chick and Small Town Girl Just when I thought I knew many of the key players in the St. Louis social media scene, I was invited to attend a St. Louis Yelp Elite party held at the Regional Arts Commission, where I knew only four people, including the Yelp community manager, Abby.
I attended a Yelp Blogger’s Roulette in June and had a great time, but when I arrived at the Regional Arts Commission last night for the Yelp Elite event, I was shocked to realize how many new-to-me faces there were in the room.
 Caricature Artist, Drawing a Portrait of @milligfunk and @stlwinegirl The main gallery area was filled with thirty or so people, and more had migrated to the rooftop deck where an artist was drawing caricature portraits for tips. Everything at the event was themed around the letter “P”.
 @stlwinegirl and @milligfunk with their p-p-p-portrait PBR was being served by a volunteer at the free Yelp bar, and boxes of pizza from St. Louis’ Pi sat on tables in the gallery. Brea photography had a makeshift photo booth set up, Powerade donated bottles of drinks, and Serendipity provided butter pecan ice cream and pineapple sorbet.
 Puff Paint Puff paint was present, and plenty of it. An entire table was set up with plastic Yelp cups to be decorated by guests using puff paint, markers, glitter and more.
As I enjoyed the venue, the portraits, the puff painting, and the food, I ran into a few friends and I had the chance to meet a few new people. More importantly, I saw how many people were in the room who I wish I’d have had time to get to know. Lots of fun girls in hip dresses and great shoes, and a handful of creative-type dudes who would probably be good for smart conversation.
 STL Wine Girl and Small Town Girl - A Picture Frame Portrait In New York, we talk about how small the city really is, despite its huge population. It’s not uncommon to run into old friends in the middle of busy streets or see your ex in a neighborhood they never used to visit.
Thanks to “P”-themed party hosted by Yelp and the Regional Arts Commission in St. Louis, I was reminded that St. Louis is overflowing with people I’ve yet to meet and with reasons to be curious about and interested in the community.
On my list of things to do before I celebrate my 30th birthday is learn to make martinis. Considering that I love fresh fruit and that I love to make things from scratch, it’s not far-fetched that I’d attempt making my own blueberry-infused vodka to use in blueberry cocktails (martinis included) later this month.
I’m fascinated by the berries and the vodka, coexisting in this chilled 2-quart jar. The longer the vodka sits, the more the skins of the berries tint the vodka purplish-blue, so that each time I open my refrigerator I’m graced with a new variation on the same ingredients. The vodka and the blueberries are on a journey.
While the flavors of the blueberries and the vodka will eventually blend, the berries themselves remain firm. There’s something allegorical about this relationship that gives me hope that I can continue to adapt to rural Missouri without losing what distinguishes my life experiences from those of the friends and family who surround me here.
As with so many aspects of my life in Small Town Missouri, the vodka’s incubation tests my patience. It’s the slow change of the vodka and blueberries that fascinates me though, and so my experiment with homemade liquor has become a lesson in enjoying the process – of my kitchen concoctions, and also of myself.
I discovered a treasure on Saturday.
Somewhere roughly halfway between Farmington and Fredericktown, Missouri on Highway OO (just south of the intersection of Highway DD) lie forty acres of blueberries.
Liberty Farms sells pick-’em-yourself blackberries and blueberries at seriously reasonable rates. I bought just over three pounds of blueberries for less than nine dollars. If you’re having trouble visualizing three pounds of blueberries, imagine a basketball – that’s roughly the size of my blueberry stash.
Now that I’ve come home with so many blueberries the real fun begins – deciding what to do with all of them. Stay tuned for my blueberry cooking (and drinking!) experiments.
A week ago I attended the Desoto, Missouri Farmers Market. Desoto is a small town located thirty miles or so south of St. Louis, and its farmers market was a really strong one.
 bashful One of the most fun parts of the Desoto Farmers Market is the animals for sale by Hammond Farms. The Hammonds raise llamas, alpacas, emu, goats, mini donkeys, mini Dexter cattle, peacocks, turkeys, pheasants, ornamental chickens, and probably a few other animals that Mr. Hammond and I forgot to talk about.
The Hammonds had mini-pot bellied pigs, goats and bunnies at the market on Saturday. Who knew that there was such a thing as a mini-pot bellied pig? Look at that adorable little pink nose, and check out how tiny those feet are!
If you live near Jefferson County, I’d suggest checking out Hammond Farms and the Desoto Farmers Market. Stay tuned for most posts on summer farming and markets in small town Missouri!
 @milligfunk @rizzotees @jenncloud and @iamcloud Monday night was Sauce Magazine’s “Saucy Soiree”, a coming-out party of sorts for the winners of its Readers Choice awards for local restaurants and bars. Held at The Four Seasons Hotel on St. Louis’s riverfront hot spot, The Landing, the party was overflowing. Rumor had it that Sauce anticipated 600 attendees, and more than 1,000 showed up.
My first observation at Saucy Soiree was that there was a disproportionate number of very tall men in the room. The photo, above, does the tall-men phenomenon absolutely no justice. Everywhere it turned, it seemed I was dodging an elbow in my face as these super-tall dudes balanced drinks and food, making sudden sharp turns.
Super-tall men aside, the event was an easy way to sample food and drinks from some the finest establishments in the Lou. From barbque to chilled blueberry soup and cucumber-infused gin, Saucy Soiree reminded me that while we aren’t New York City, St. Louis is still a proud food town.
The event also brought out the city’s sophistication. I’ve not been to an event yet in St. Louis where the baseline sense of style was as high as it was at this event. Saucy Soiree brought out folks with fashion sensibilities on all ends of the spectrum, from hipster to elegant, metrosexual to Bohemian.
**
Thanks to the team at Scorch Agency for inviting me to attend.
Learn more about Sauce Magazine here.
Learn more about Scorch Agency here.
I was thrilled when I found an invitation in my inbox from Abby, the Yelp Community Manager in St. Louis, inviting me to participate in a Blogger’s Roulette during Yelp Eats! week June 21st-27th. Drinks and dinner were served at The Shaved Duck in the Tower Grove neighborhood of St. Louis.
The restaurant was cozy, with exposed brick walls and hardwood floors. The bar was small and personal with more than fifty beers on their menu, and since many of those were locally-brewer, The Shaved Duck earned brownie points – or brew points – with this small town girl.
We were served a prix fixe menu with two choices for each course. I selected smoked wings with mango habanero barbeque sauce as my appetizer. The plate was heaping with wings, and the wings were heaping with meat. The flavor of the wings was so good that I found myself bypassing the mango habanero barbeque sauce, even though it, too, was very good.
 My entrée of choice was duck flatbread with smoked tomatoes, spinach, bleu cheese and bourbon drizzle, and oh. my. gosh. it was great. This dish alone would have made my drive to St. Louis for Yelp Eats! completely worth it.
Desert was hummingbird cake, which I’ve only just learned is a Southern tradition. The cake is similar in texture to carrot cake, but is sweeter, with pineapples and bananas both included in its ingredients list. Add some crushed pecans and a rich cream cheese icing, and you’ve got yourself a scrumptious ending to a flavor-filled meal.
Approximately ten bloggers attended Yelp Eats!, each bringing his/her own unique perspectives on St. Louis and social media with them to the table. As a result, the conversation was smart and friendly, and as an extra perk; genuine.
St. Louis does many things right, includingg barbeque, beer, and people.Kudos to Abby at Yelp for bringing the three together for the Yelp Eats! Blogger Roulette.
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