What I HATE about MO or AR

[LeatherneckPA]

Relax. I don't know enough about MO or AR to hate anything about it. What I am hoping for is input from you folks who do live there about what you most dislike about your state of MO or AR.

[tomato204]

But I hate all those seams in the highway, you know I-40 from Little Rock to Memphis. That clunking drone will put you to sleep. thu-thump, thu-thump........

[reedb66]

I dont hate anything about mo but there are improvements to be made (hunting and fishing)I just had better quality of both in wis,and we have a river here in town (cainsville)that is always sooo dirty and is cutting out the banks so bad (3ft plus per year) and no one seems to do anything about all the silt and lost farm land washed down stream each year

[LeatherneckPA]

But I hate all those seams in the highway, you know I-40 from Little Rock to Memphis. That clunking drone will put you to sleep. thu-thump, thu-thump........
=-( You should try riding over them on a motorcycle!! they are spaced far enough apart that you bike goes thump-thuimp,,,thump-thump,,,,thump-thump,,,,ad infitum, or so it seems.

I dont hate anything about mo but there are improvements to be made (hunting and fishing)I just had better quality of both in wis,and we have a river here in town (cainsville)that is always sooo dirty and is cutting out the banks so bad (3ft plus per year) and no one seems to do anything about all the silt and lost farm land washed down stream each year
I like hunting and fishing, although I'm not very good at either one. Here in PA they have been making concerted efforts to improve both since the late 70's and the payoff is beginning to be seen. Hope MO learns what a great resource it is before it's really damaged.

[MissouriFree]

=-( You should try riding over them on a motorcycle!! they are spaced far enough apart that you bike goes thump-thuimp,,,thump-thump,,,,thump-thump,,,,ad infitum, or so it seems.


I like hunting and fishing, although I'm not very good at either one. Here in PA they have been making concerted efforts to improve both since the late 70's and the payoff is beginning to be seen. Hope MO learns what a great resource it is before it's really damaged.

reed,
I would take issue with that.Missouri has one of the very best hunting and fishing programs in the entire country and is continually noted as such- especially fishing . Managing a river las small as the Thompson has no connection with hunting and fishing. Non sequitor.

here is a good link to the state programs.
http://mdcgis.mdc.mo.gov/

[CarolAnn]

I had to give this one some serious thought. I lived in AR for about 16 years and left one winter to move north where there was admittedly better pay. I hate that.

I hate the Buffalo River - where the water is so clear and clean that you can't tell how deep it is. You think it's ankle deep and go in up to your hip. Now Wisconsin - you step in ankle deep water and can't see your toes, but then you might think twice about stepping in that stuff anyway because of the PCB's and mercury in it.

I hate the way the locals used to laugh at us for doing something really stupid before they rolled up their sleeves to help us fix it. I have found that in Wisconsin the neighbors rarely notice you're there, or what you might have done and don't care as long as it doesn't affect their property values.

I hate the low taxes. Year after year I paid for 89 cents worth of road work and I never got more than $200-300 worth done, and sometimes I had to go out and fill in a rut myself. In Wisconsin I pay $3,000 taxes each year and I get the $200-$300 worth of road work done, but I never fill in the potholes myself (they just stay there.)

Sorry - that's all I can think of.

[reedb66]

oooohhh 1 clean river in mo woow now I admit the fox river in wis is dirty but that pales in comparison to most of the mo rivers I have seen.Just pure runoff here, maybe its cleaner by where you live???I lived on or near several lakes in wisconsin in my life and all were way cleaner than any I have seen here.Now as for farm ponds ,farmers do a good jobs on those and I was impressed.As for hunting ,rabbit ,squrill, small game mo is great.As for deer hunting so-so ,not very many deer and not much size,and no bears,that sucks I love bear hunting!!And heres a big one ,fall colors ha got ya there,fall in northern wis cant be beat ,fall here (yawn).Now as for taxes you are right ,cant complain and mo roads are pretty good for the most part.And the best part is the PEOPLE in mo are awsome,friendly out going here to help,that I will give ya.

[CarolAnn]

Reedb66 - as you can tell, most of my post was tongue in cheek. I thought it odd to ask what we hate about two relatively clean, low cost states. Of course there are down-sides, but there are down sides to anywhere. As for MO rivers being dirty, they're downhill from Iowa and that is a lot of Iowa topsoil you will see flowing anywhere south - just like the Illinois rivers are full of Wisconsin dirt. Anywhere there's farming, the dirt is just going to go south.

The clean rivers are anywhere you have miles of forrest land as a buffer between the water and crop fields. There are lots of crystal clean rivers in both MO and AR - and lots of filthy dirty ones, too. Farther north, they're mostly all dirty, even the small creeks. Down from the papermills and big city factories, you get some really noxious chemicals in there as well.

Ironically, you really have less privacy (if you want a real negative) in the country. Because there are less people, the ones that live there are more likely to notice you and take an interest in you. This can be both good and bad. (Small town bored folks tend to gossip - and that's a hideous habit!) There's not as much of that in a city because people just don't know enough about each other to do it.

[reedb66]

Yes you are right I thought about changing my post then I posted it .What I should have said was no huntable populations of bears ,they are a common sight in wis and are fun to hunt and just to watch.I live in the north west part of the state and there arent many if any bears here so I miss my bears.

[MrOzarks]

I am a life-long Missouri resident. I love many things about Missouri. Mostly the southern one-third of the state. What I hate most about Missouri is St. Louis. There are some decent folks in the western and southern suburbs of St. Louis County, but St. Louis sucks. It is practically the A.C.O.R.N. capitol of the nation. There are thousands upon thousands of welfare collecting liberals that upset the political balance of our state. Without all the crack whores etc. voting in St. Louis, we would not have a corrupt Governor, or a nasty hawg as our junior U.S. Senator. If we are lucky, St. Louis will wash away into the Mississippi River, and be carried off to the Gulf of Mexico to join Louisiana's hell hole, New Orleans.

[jlmissouri]

I would say Missouri has excellent hunting and fishing, and has one of the earliest conservation departments that has been a model for other states. What I don't like is vehicle inspections, personal property tax, St. Louis and Kansas City. Missouri would improe a lot if those two cities could just be moved to California where they belong. Southern Missouri is hard to compare to in beauty.

[Gwynyvyr]

FORMER Missouri resident here.
Worst thing about Missouri...
Joplin and that area.
Besides the meth, it is an EPA clean up site.
There are some animal pharmaceutical companies that have the nasty habit of dumping their expired medications and such into the river that supplies Joplin with a lot of it's water supply, sometimes it migrates into local wells, too.
It is cheaper for them to pay the fines than to dispose of it properly.

Every 4 or 5 years, the EPA and the Mo dept of natural resources come through Joplin and test yards and school yards for lead content. They always find unacceptable levels, so they tote off a lot of the dirt, dump down *clean* dirt, put a green plastic *grid* over the new dirt to stabilize it and plant grass. Drive through Joplin sometime and you can spot it in every neighborhood.
Joplin is where lead paint was invented...a by-product of the lead smelting. The fumes were captured--so to speak--and mixed into paint, causing the paint to have greater *wearability*, i.e., you could go longer between painting.
ALL houses in Joplin built before lead paint was outlawed (1970s maybe?) were painted with lead paint.
Joplin also is the child abuse and child sexual abuse capital of the state of Missouri. The corridor from Joplin up to the northern line of Missouri is the *child abduction corridor*--more kids are kidnapped by strangers there than any other place in the US.
Joplins school system has a few other 1st place notable things going on.
6 of every 10 boys in the Joplin school system will spend at least one year in *Special Ed* classes between grades 1 thru 9. For girls, the number is 3 out of 10.
On paper, their graduation rate looks good. That is because they only count drop out rates AFTER 10th grade. Less than stellar students are encouraged to drop out in 9th grade if they are 15-16 years old. About one fifth of the kids that start in 8th grade will drop out before they start 10th.
The city of Joplins economy runs on meth and trucking companies. There are 50 trucking companys within 15 miles of Joplin. From the very big (CFI), to Mom and Pop operations. Several large truck stops, including Petro (that one run by Iowa 80, Inc) out on Rt 43 and Flying J on 32nd Street (FF Highway). The meth heads, female and male, run the parking lots at night prostituting themselves, their spouse/gf/children and selling *road juice* to the drivers.

I used to live in Joplin...now in Texas.

[MOGal]

Meth production is a problem in most rural areas, why, because there are many old ramshackle houses either empty or for rent cheap. MO doesn't have a monopoly on Meth.
I have traveled to Europe four times, and every time the good old USA and MO looked mighty good when I got home. Missouri has culture, entertainment, recreational lakes and areas, Branson, big cities, farmland and lots of good down-to-earth hard working people. We are independent and don't want Uncle Sam or anyone else sticking their noses into our lives.

[OzarkMtnDaredevil]

In this part of AR, meth is dirt cheap or even free.
BUT, we do have a bear season!
In this part of AR, bears are small.
BUT, we do grow some nice-sized fish!
In this part of AR, the length limit on fish keeps increasing.
BUT, wait a minute... I don't want to argue.
In this part of AR, we have awesome High School football teams.
BUT, they get distracted during hunting season.
In this part of AR, gravel roads are well-maintained
In case you need to outrun the devil.
In this part of AR, you can still find an operational Still
In case you need a bit of Hair of the Dog come Sunday morning.

Woops, I'm s'posed to be saying why I DON'T like AR. huh? We can't seem to find those funny little emoticons that some of you use in your posts. :-)

I guess what I like least about AR is that it is so close to MO. Sometimes I'm not sure that I have crossed a State Line. (I love MO folks!)

[OzarkMtnDaredevil]

Hi Guest - no, I don't hunt bear, not yet anyway. I do fish Bull Shoals and Lake Norfork. Is that the lake you were thinking of?
MO and AR have an agreement on the border lakes in that an AR resident, for an additional $10, you can get a WRL license to fish the MO portions of the White River Border Lakes. My AR license was only $10.50 so what am I saving? Fifty cents? If I want to fish MO, I'll stop at a marina on the MO side and get a MO license. Thier G&F needs money, too.

Where the heck are the smileys and stuff hidden? :-) :)

[firefightermom]

Ok folks, I just finished reading about the pros and cons of MO. I have lived here for the last 9 years. just outside of Lebanon. We moved here from around Durango, CO. (loved it there, but couldn't afford any more land). We purchased our land and brought in a mobile home. We have greatly made improvements, like an orchard, pole barn,put in a lg. fishing pond, huge garden, on and on.....
A few of the things I dislike is: the meth. It is prevelant. There are so many abandoned "homes" in the woods, that meth is cooked everywhere.I'm a vol. firefighter and one of the bigest things we have to worry about is coming up upon a meth lab to put out a fire/and or a medical call.Because of the meth (and other drugs) child negelet and abuse is big...however there are a lot of us that are/or are becoming foster parents to these kids. But we can't "save everyone".Our teachers are under paid (what teacher is every paid enough), they do there best. Teen pregnacy is up there in numbers. WHat do we have for the kids to do?? They closed the roller skating rink, the bowling alley is open for families at certain times only and we only have 1 movie theater, and a public swiming pool that is open only when school is out. In the country where we live, my neighbors are there to help if help is needed but most of us are self relient. Everyone has a weapon to protect their livestock from two and four legged "critters" Neighbors had cattle rustled this spring. The thieves field gut the cows(like a deer) and then throw the meat in the back of the pickup. All this done in less then 15 mins. and they cut all the fence.
Taxes are resonable, fishing good, hunting in my back 40, growing my own food, and vol. in my community. Everyone knows you by name, and if they don't then there not from around these here woods LOL

[gws]

We moved here from eastern CO 14 years ago, mostly the price of land.

Hate:
Copperheads
Ticks
Chiggers
HUMIDITY
Deer - 4 insurance claims

Actually I love it here, a great move.

[firefightermom]

gws
You are so right about the ticks, chiggers and copperheads. In fact, we named one of our (abondoned, some one dropped off on the farm because they don't want to take responsibility) puppies: chigger. He used to constantly get under our skin and nibble on your legs.
The land prices was great (9 yrs. ago) We got 82 acres for around $55,000. 20 of it is hard woods,the rest pasture, ponds, and "farm" ( home, barns, animal raising area ect). We border the Nat. forest. Sounds great don't it? It is except when you come home early from work and the former property owners ex-son-in-law (Yes, probably his name is Billy Joe Jim Bob LOL), is walking out of your field with a 6lb. bass in his hand after he spent a day of drinking and fishing with his buddies. I had to explain (AGAIN) that since they don't live here anymore then they are not allowed to fish, deer hunt, coon hunt and bring his date to listen to the coyotes.We then put 5 strand barbed wire around all 82 acres (ouch..there went that income tax refund) I was told that he don't take kindly to me putting up fence because it gets in his way of riding his 4 wheeler on my property.He then told me he was going to cut all the fence down that kept him and his buddys out. I told him the fence was to keep my cows in and if he wanted to discuss the matter any more, then I was going to invite my two friends Smith and Wesson out of the house.
Haven't seen hide or hair of the man. Wonder why? LOL