I recently had the chance to visit Vandalia, Illinois.  Our stories from that city will air next week on the American Countryside.  You’re beginning to hear quite a bit about Abraham Lincoln since this is the 150^th anniversary of his presidency and the beginning of the Civil War.  Most people don’t realize that Lincoln’s political life began in Vandalia.

Bill fron Lincoln and the Long Nine's Party in Vandalia

Vandalia was the state capital when Lincoln held his first elected office back in 1834.  One of Lincoln’s greatest accomplishments while serving in the state legislature was…moving the capital from Vandalia.  His political friends in the state house were known as the “long nine” because they were all over six feet tall.  The group helped pass legislation to move the capitol to Springfield.

When that legislation passed, they held a party at Capp’s Tavern in Vandalia.  The bill of $223 included $162 of champagne at $2 per bottle.  You can see the bill on one of the wayside exhibits here.  In fact, the city has done a nice job providing ten unique stories about Lincoln.  Each is told on a storyboard that surrounds the old state capitol here.  It’s a great place to take a break and explore a bit of history behind one of the nation’s greatest presidents.

I had a chance this week to gather some radio interviews for our American Countryside broadcasts in southeastern Missouri.  The state’s bootheel has thousands of acres of flat fertile farmland.  It is quite a contrast to the Ozarks that bound the area on the north and west. 

If you have a chance to travel in this area, you should take time to visit a couple of state park sites near East Prairie.  Big Oak Tree State Park is named for one Burr Oak that was the largest of its species.  In the early 1900s, local residents knew the location of the giant tree among the swampy forests along the Mississippi River.  They would take visitors into the timber to view the large oak.

That tree died in the 1950s, but many state and national champion trees remain.  A boardwalk takes you through the forest and swamp.  Over the years the fertile land was drained allowing farmers to grow crops.  This park preserves over one thousand acres of what this area once looked like.

Adjacent to Big Oak Tree is Towosahgy State Historic Site.  It is the remains of a Mississippian village and ceremonial center occupied from around 1000-1400.  It shows the type of cities that once dotted the landscape up and down the vast river bottom. 

Both sites are free, you simply have to make the drive to get there in extreme southeastern Missouri.

De Soto National Memorial - Bradenton, Florida

This week I was in Bradenton, Florida and did an interview at De Soto National Memorial.  It tells the story of the Spanish explorer and his expedition that landed near this spot in May of 1539.  The story will be a feature on one of our upcoming American Countryside radio programs.

There are over 360 sites in the National Park Service.  My goal is to eventually visit every one of them.  I’m about halfway to that goal.  The next time you are driving or flying somewhere in the U.S. go to the National Park Service website.  You may be surprised at some of the parks, historic sites and memorials that are nearby. 

Places like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and the memorials in D.C. get a lot of attention and deservedly so.  However, I’ve yet to find a NPS site that I didn’t truly enjoy.  I had time this week to hear a ranger in period dress discuss the lives of the Native Americans living in the area at the time of De Soto.  It was fascinating.  It was just a twenty-minute program and it was free.

Many of our NPS sites are open free of charge.  They host plenty of interesting programs and allow us to truly experience all our country has to offer.  By the way, there are some weekends during the year that all NPS sites are open free of charge.  That means you can save $20 or more per park to visit places like Yellowstone on those weekends.

At some point in the future I’ll list some of my favorite “out-of-the-way” NPS sites that you should visit.

I had the chance to speak to a couple of agricultural audiences this past week, one in Florida and the other in central Missouri.  I really enjoyed both stops.  I’ve found people have been surprised at a graphic that I show them about world population. 

We all know that China is the most populous nation in the world.  However, by the year 2050 India will surpass China to become the country with the most people.  In fact, India will add over 650 million people in the next 40 years.  To put this in perspective, 650 million is nearly twice the current population of the United States! 

China currently has a net gain of more than 6000 people per day.  The U.S. is actually growing faster than China, gaining more than 7000 people per day.  What is India’s growth rate?  India has a net gain of 45,000 people per day!  India will add a city the size of Cincinnati this week and a city the size of Dallas this month.

These are intriguing facts and figures.  It shows the tremendous growth occurring in the world’s population AND the importance of agriculture to feed those growing populations.  Billions of lives are literally depending on the ability of agriculture to meet the rising need.  I am excited about the opportunity all of us have in meeting this important goal of ending world hunger and supplying a healthy diet for every citizen in our world!

I recently spoke at the Walt Disney World complex and instead of renting a car, I used the resort’s free shuttle bus, Disney’s Magical Express. 

While riding the bus, the onboard video told me that Disney has now developed a downloadable app that you can use to locate Mickey, Donald or any of the Disney characters.  If you’re in the middle of the Magic Kingdom and your kids need to find Mickey, you simply use your app, which in turn uses GPS to locate him within the park.  Pretty good marketing idea and a money generator to boot since you have to pay for the app.

The thing that really stood out to me while at Disney though was something subtle. On the way back to the airport, my driver did a nice job of being fun and humorous with the passengers.  Once at the airport the bus made a stop at each of the two terminals.  At our first stop (I was riding to the second stop), the driver unloaded departing passengers and loaded those waiting to go to the resort.  He was ready to leave when a teenage girl waved her arms and ran to the bus.

“Is this the right bus?” she asked.  He told her that her hotel was not at Disney and that she would need another bus that left from the other terminal.  However, instead of telling her which bus to take, he said, “You can just ride on my bus, I’m headed to the other terminal.”

That was nice.  He didn’t have to do this.  She was not his customer.  What happened next was amazing.  The rest of the girl’s family appeared, two adults and two children.  They did not speak English and the father was pushing a luggage cart piled so high that you could not see him pushing it.  The driver got off the bus and loaded their luggage to take it to the next terminal. 

Remember, they were not his customers.  It took him about two minutes to do this.  Why is Disney a special place?  Many of those employees (officially called “cast members”) look at their job in an extraordinary way, going out of their way to help others.  Most drivers would have simply told the family that his bus was not the right bus. I guess that is why his bus is, after all, Disney’s Magical Express.  If you want to be an extraordinary leader, a little “extra” makes the difference. 

The air temperature this morning was -13, but the day warmed into the mid-20s.  Yesterday was a difficult day for everyone, humans and animals alike.  As this picture shows, it was quite a dig to reach some of the pastures to feed our cattle.  Notice there are another three tractors on the hill in the background of this picture.  There were four tractors working to clear this road.  They did not attempt to clear the road from the other direction.  There are still some county roads that are not opened.  Schools may be in session tomorrow.  If so, it would be the first day this week.  They’ve missed eight days of school since January 10.

The wind chill is -15 but the sun is shining.  Not sure if the ground hog will see his shadow.  With as much snow as we had here, I’m not sure the ground hog can be found.  He is probably buried underneath a snowdrift somewhere.

I’m a bit worried about our home.  Our daughter, Alison, decided to eat breakfast with her wraparound cap on.  Perhaps she is a little cold and worried the snow will begin falling inside the house.  She is multitasking this morning, eating a granola bar and coloring at the same time.

The winter of 2009-10 was the worst winter in more than 30 years for much of northwest Missouri.  So, it was logical to expect a milder winter this year.  That was the certainly the case until the second week of January.  We’ve almost received our annual average snowfall in just the past three weeks and up to a foot of snow is on the way.

What does that mean on the farm?  Expect cattle feeding to take twice as long.  If we get a blizzard (there are blizzard warnings posted) it could take triple the time.  I remember a couple of times when the sun was setting and we were still feeding.  Normally we would finish by 11am to noon this time of year. 

I’ll probably be scooping feed bunks tomorrow.  If one man scoops all of the bunks, he’ll end up scooping a path almost a half mile long.  Tomorrow should be interesting to say the least!