Where liberty dwells, there is my country.
~Benjamin Franklin
This one is a new concept for me: the two-day post. It is Saturday morning but I will not publish until sometime tomorrow evening. It's 4th of July weekend and as the weekend unfolds, I anticipate I will have much to share. Once again I awoke before anyone else in the house. That is not a habit I'm known for, but actually, I kind of like it. And naturally, I'm in a patriotic mood (so much so, in fact, that the sight of my red piggies makes me smile...and I am not overly fond of toes). I am, however, quite fond of the Red, White and Blue. It is sweet to serve one's country by deeds, and it is not absurd to serve her by words. ~Sallust * And so it is in this manner that I pay homage to you, Sweet Land of Liberty. * I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him. ~Abraham Lincoln * 
The afternoon was spent on a few old and narrow highways on a journey to nowhere specific. First, we headed to Bonnot's Mill for fireworks and food. We then traveled via Highway 100 to Hermann. When we arrived I discovered that some of my favorite haunts weren't open. It didn't matter. It was the drive that I enjoyed the most. It seemed so appropriate this holiday weekend to wander amid fields of soybeans to my left, miles and miles of cornstalks to my right, and a backdrop of Missouri River bluffs looming large behind. And for a bit of time, we traveled parallel to a freight train. It was Americana at its best. It was more than that. The setting was evidence of the American dream. There are those, I know, who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is the American dream. ~Archibald MacLeish
When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect. ~Adlai Stevenson
We dare not forget that we are the heirs of that first revolution. ~John F. Kennedy
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people He chose for His inheritance. Psalms 33:12
Hermann, Missouri
In the evening we returned to Bonnot's Mill, to a home filled with love...laughter...patriotism...and reverence. By day the back yard looks like this...
And so here it is...Independence Day. I began the day at church. My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy! ~Thomas Jefferson * Sunday evening dinner was at Jen and Rich's house and was, as always, a treat! Thank you for your hospitality. The view from your neighborhood is spectacular, whether by sun or moon:
We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all. ~Theodore Roosevelt
The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mounts, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic - have always blown on free men. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. ~Ronald Reagan
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