A Small Town Girl’s Guide has been many things to me since moving from New York City to rural Missouri in March of 2009. While I thought that I’d inspire readers to explore small town Missouri with my posts, I’ve found that my readers inspire me to do the same, constantly thinking about our state as fodder for good stories and creative photographs.

When I began writing online, I’d had one academic paper published internationally, but had never been published as an editorial or creative writer. My writing has now been seen in print in River Hills Traveler and Aire Magazine. It all goes as planned my first story will appear in Insider573 Magazine this month.

In addition to print publication, I’ve recently been invited to syndicate my posts through other regional websites. I’m excited to announce that posts from A Small Town Girl’s Guide that relate to Missouri nature and the outdoors will begin to be syndicated through the River Hills Traveler Blog effective immediately.

More exciting news regarding syndication is on the horizon. If you’re interested in syndicating A Small Town Girl’s Guide or hiring me as a freelance writer or photographer, please contact me.

She took me along Saturday for a trip to O’Dear, a paper crafting store in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri. I’d heard her talk about this place as if it were the pinnacle of small town craft suppliers, so I was beyond surprised to find that O’Dear sits a few hundred yards off of Highway 32, down a rough gravel road, in a field, in the middle of nowhere.

Long Gravel Road, photo by smalltowngirl

I made a quick pass through the store before heading back outside to sit on a bench and watch a tractor drive up and down the road, smoothing the gravel. The skies were some of the most beautiful skies of the summer, and I was content to sit beneath them in the warm August sun while my mom shopped for paper crafting supplies inside.

It’s not just cutesy moms who shop at O’Dear. On Saturday, a Harley Davidson sat parked on the gravel outside the store, complete with two black leather-bound riders and two helmets covered in bumper stickers saying things like “Free the Boobies” and “It’s a Sick World and I’m a Happy Guy.”

Free the Boobies, photo by smalltowngirl

“Happy Guy” Harley rider shared my bench for a few minutes for a smoke break while his wife finished their shopping inside.

I had witnessed this intimidatingly tough-looking, leather glove-wearing, poney-tailed dude excitedly commenting on “cute” scrap booking paper inside the store moments before, and I grinned, thinking about the absurdity of life in Small Town, Missouri.

Where else could I sit a quarter mile down a crooked gravel road, ten miles from anywhere, talking to a guy who wears “Free the Boobies” bumper stickers on his head at a store selling scrap booking supplies?

O'Dear, photo by smalltowngirl

O’Dear is, from what the scrap bookers in small town Missouri tell me, a wonderful scrap booking supply store. O’Dear is located somewhere down Highway 32, between Farmington, Missouri and I-55 in Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri. Store hours vary a bit, but the store is typically open Monday through Friday from 9-4:30 and Saturday from 10-3:30.

(Sinclair, for those of you not from the Midwest, is a gas station chain whose trademark is a green dinosaur.)

Behold, the bizarre small town Missouri rooftop Sinclair dinosaur:

Rooftop Dino, photo by smalltowngirl

Part of the way into this video, I thought, “Hmmm, his art is kind of neat.”

And by the end of this video, I was inspired.

“I have learning difficulties, you know I can’t read or write. I had to find a way to express myself…the teachers at school made me feel small, so they made me feel like ‘nothing’. I’m trying to prove to the world that ‘nothing’ doesn’t exist.”

What a great reminder that everyone brings something to this world. Check it out:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYi458oI0-8&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]