Osceola Cheese - Disappointment on Highway 13

When traveling through Missouri, there are lots of fascinating spots to visit for a quick break. Those brown Missouri Department of Conservation signs point to dozens of small parks, and the flea markets and antique shops hold treasures.

But the Osceola Cheese Shop is not one of them.

Always crowded with slow-moving sample-takers, the store is harshly lit, poorly laid out and filled with cheese that mostly tastes like American with artificial flavorings. On top of that, you get "gifts" offered by an attached Christian bookstore and Precious Moments figurines next to dew rags festooned with the flag of the Confederate Losers.

It manages the difficult feat of being completely tacky without even offering visitors an opportunity to be ironically amused by kitsch. It's a cheese shop that can't even be engagingly cheesy.

Blogger Appreciation: The Agonist

The Agonist is an internationally-focused news blog that I first happened upon for its superior war coverage. Since then, I've found it to have great analysis, up-to-date news, fresh perspective and top-notch writing.

But that's not why I mention it today.

This is a post from yesterday, and I hope we all can feel the pang of jealousy and spark of hope that it sent through me.

The Adventure Of A Lifetime Begins

Tomorrow morning when I awake, walk out of my flat and head to the bus station I will begin the adventure of a lifetime. I will get on a bus and head off towards Malaysia and the famed spice trading city of Malacca. After that I do not know where I will go, nor do I care. And neither do I know how long I will be gone. Six months? A year? Longer? Does it matter? The world awaits.

All I know is that the road is before me and it calls. It calls me from a deep place in my soul, a place I thought I could control, a place I thought I had pushed it down into where it would never come out again.

There's much more, and I encourage you to read every word.