Cody Across America: Uncle Max's Hospitality

Grandma's house. That statement probably makes you think of apple pie, right? Sure, apple pies are good, but that's not all my grandma makes! We stayed at my Grami and Grandpa Tom's for seven weeks this summer at their house south of Springfield, MO. I joked that she probably made me gain 5 pounds while we were there. She made us all kinds of big breakfasts, lunches, and dinners all the time. One of my favorite breakfasts that is a classic at her house now, is homemade monkey bread.

I almost forgot to mention my Uncle Max. He still lives with my grandma and grandpa, and doesn't like to do anything but eat and sleep. He's kind of plump, and has a little bald spot. Oh, did I mention he's a dog! Yeah, maybe I should've mentioned that first. Well, anyways, we decided that Max was our uncle a few years ago when we noticed that my grandma was treating him like a son. (ha ha) He was sleeping on the end of their bed, eating left-over pancakes and sausage, and going to Wal-Mart with her. So, my Mom said he was being treated like a son, thus her brother, and our uncle.

I had a few knife orders that I needed to complete while we were there, and I had all the tools that I'd gotten in Arizona at Christmas. Tom was nice enough to let me use one of his three work benches to set my tools up on and make the knives. He does stone work, and makes fire places, fountains, benches, arches, entrances, etc. out of marble or limestone. After getting the blades softened by my knifemaking teacher, Tom McGinnis, I was able to get all the orders completed in time.

We went kayaking on Flat Creek a few times with Tom and his fishing buddies, while we were there, too. We cooked out and stopped at some awesome swimming holes. It was a lot of fun every time and we saw a lot of really cool stuff and had a great time. We also went kayaking and swimming on Table Rock Lake a few times with my cousins Cole and Ella. It was so hot while we were there that it was nice having the lake and river close by.

My other cousins Juli and Sean came down a couple times while we were there. Sean, my uncle, Cole, Dad, and me threw tomahawks for a few hours one day. Sean ended up being pretty good, even though he'd never done it before. He tried throwing under handed, then double, then under handed double, and he got them all.

My grandma has a golf cart that she got for hauling stuff around the garden and house. It's got flame stickers painted on it and a little bed on the back of it for carrying bags, boxes, or plants. She lets us ride it all around their property. We even made some trails back in the woods for it, so she could get to the big blackberry bushes. My cousin, Cole, and I made a kind of "rally" race course that we'd ride around over and over again 'til we had it down to every bump and curve.