The only home of throwed rolls

Sikeston, a small town in the "boot heel" of southeastern Missouri, is an unlikely place for tourism. But if you happen to be driving down Interstate 55 toward Memphis, you're probably already craving some good ol' comfort food. So consider having lunch at Lambert's Cafe.

As "The Only Home of Throwed Rolls," Lambert's delivers true to word - a guy comes around yelling "Hot rolls!" with a southern twang and literally throws a piping hot bread roll your way. You can see my thumb in the picture as I tried to catch and take a shot at the same time. The roll bounced on my shoulder before landing on my arm. Shortly after, a parade of servers come around and serve a variety of "pass arounds" of fried okra, fried potatoes, macaroni and tomatoes, black eyed peas, and sorghum and honey. Yummy. If you can still eat a full meal after all that, more power to you. We barely finished ours.

This is what happens when ticks ruin your weekend

Having just bought our Marmot Earlylight 2-person tent, we were excited to try it out. We drove an hour south to Hawn State Park in Sainte Genevieve on Memorial Day weekend. We took the scenic route, hiking approximately eight miles before heading to campsite.

Even though we were against it, we made several applications of DEET - but the ticks wouldn't relent. The sneaky little buggers made it through my heavy duty gaiters too. It just wasn't fun anymore.

Disappointed, we headed back to the trail head, ate our Spanish rice and bean wraps on one of the picnic sites and drove back home that same night. We had just enough energy to assemble the tent in the living room which was, thankfully, quite easy to do. Then we passed out for the night.

The next day, we opted for a leisurely kayak in Forest Park. A half hour later, a thunderstorm quickly moved in. Amidst strong winds and choppy waves, it took a lot of paddling effort to get back to the Boathouse. In Forest Park, you say? Imagine that.