Although I’d like to write an entire blog on the section of trail that I hiked, for now I’d like to show you some of the arachinids who were hanging out on their webs across my trail.

Itsy Bitsy Spider, photo by smalltowngirl

I don’t know what I was thinking hiking in August, but my hike was hot, humid, and spider-infested.

A few hundred feet into the trail, the spiderwebs started to become problematic. Over and over again, I felt their sticky threads wrap around my arms, legs, or face, and found myself swatting at the air like a maniac, trying to get the webs off of my skin.

I picked up a long, thin stick, which I carried like a sword in front of my body, trying to knock spiderwebs down.  Along I plodded, slicing my stick-sword through the air, a full-blown war waged between myself and these eight-legged creepy crawlers.

This gigantic spider, with a body well larger than my thumb, was intimidating. I didn’t want to make him mad at me, so I left his web intact and asked him to please not bother me as I deftly snuck beneath his web.

Big spider, photo by smalltowngirl

Spiders were everywhere. To say I saw hundreds of them is not an exaggeration. I saw red ones, black ones and gray ones; big ones little ones and itsy bitsy ones.

For good measure, I took a few shots of some daddy long legs, hanging upside down in a cave.  Daddy long legs are arachnids, although they aren’t techinically spiders. I thought this last shot rounded out my spider photo collection nicely.

long legs, photo by smalltowngirl

Population 158

The entire downtown of Caledonia, which straddles Missouri State Highway 21, is approximately three blocks long. Most of the buildings in Caledonia are dated from the mid-1800s.

Parking in Caledonia means pulling onto the shoulder of the highway. This photo shows the bulk of downtown…

Downtown Caledonia, photo by smalltowngirl

I took this shot standing in the middle of State Hwy 21. No traffic. At all.

Downtown Caledonia, photo by smalltowngirl

A nice local guy and his grandaughter stopped and visited with me. Our clothes stuck to us, and sweat dripped in our eyes in the afternoon sun as he told me about Caledonia’s Scoth-Irish history and the ice cream parlor down the street in the back of Carr House Antiques.

Just as I pulled into Carr House’s gravel parking lot, the batteries in my camera died. The ice cream was good, although the ice cream parlor itself looked like it was under renovation.

This tiny little village really does have some nice people and some fantastic buildings. Stay tuned for a post on the oldest Presbyterian church west of the Mississippi River and it’s big, tough guard dog.

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]