When I’m travelling, I really don’t expect a lot.  I know every ‘Karen’ starts a rant with that phrase.  But, I like roughing it.  So, when the stove in an RV doesn’t work, I use my camp stove on the truck tailgate – that’s not a problem, it’s a BBQ.  When the taps are running mud in my rented farmhouse, I save water by peeing outside – as the French say, ‘pipi sauvage’, again such fun! Shit happens.  So, if I think you are trying to deliver a quality travel experience and some unforeseen situation got in the way, you’ll probably find me shrugging it off as no big deal.  But, if you put something on your website that you have no intention of delivering, that feels dishonest. 

So, here are my thoughts on our visit to a farm that will go unnamed in Bourbon Missouri.  When your website shows trail rides crossing the Meramec River, don’t tell me I can’t take my horses down to the gravel beach and then send me on a snipe hunt for an alternative location.  When your website says free wifi, don’t tell me it’s only at your house and then refuse to let me sit on your porch to check emails.  Simply put, if you don’t like saying yes, you may want to think about getting out of the hospitality business.

Still, to say that this farm that will go unnamed is a total disappointment is simply not true.  The landscape is beautiful with rolling hills of green grass and wildflowers.  I may have seen one of the most charming, if not spectacular, sunsets of my life while I was feeding my horses in the weed-choked, fly-swarmed paddock.  The river is beautifully clear and inviting, as long as you’re not a horse.  And the hostess is engaging when you aren’t asking her for something specific.

So, what’s my final thought on Day 6 in Missouri?  I give it a 5 out of 10.  The highway system around St. Louis is in horrible need of paving.  Horsemen, if you never thought you needed shipping boots, consider them if your travels take you through the complex of interchanges where 70 hits St. Louis.  And, my first encounter with the Missouri service sector has been underwhelming.  Still, everyone else I’ve met has been delightful and, I’m willing to hope that Day 7, also here on the Meramec River, and Day 8 in the Kansas City area change my mind.