Weston, for those who have never visited this little slice of heaven on the Missouri River, is less than a half hour from Kansas City. But, it seems a world away.

The Main Street is lined with antique and specialty shops, though there is oddly not one pure T-shirt place in town.

Sunday morning, the merchants and exhibitors were in no hurry to open up. They waited until church services ended sometime between 10 and 11 a.m.

Our favorite downtown store specialized in all sorts of interior design products for arts-and-crafts-style homes. We happen to own just such a house, so we were quite interested in what the shop had to offer.

Most of the merchandise was high-end stuff, like ceramic street address numbers for about $30 each and lamps and furniture. I saw a comfortable easy chair that sold for nearly $1,800. Stuff was so expensive, I didn't bother to remember the name of the store. I think it was "The Acorn."

Most of the stores had a decidedly feminine feel to them, and they all seemed alike to me, so I headed down the street in search of a more manly store.

What I found was a hardware store like none other I had ever seen. When I walked in the door of Sebus Brothers, the owner or manager immediately met me and asked whether he could help me find something. I thought I should have asked him the same thing.

I looked around and saw that the aisles of the emporium were stuffed so full of items that a shopper couldn't just browse, which was what I had intended when I walked in the door. I mean, stuff was piled everywhere, and there was no way to get to it.

It had everything from toilet paper to PVC pipe to wheel barrows and everything in between. I even saw some groceries in there.

Picture piling the merchandise from The Lumberyard, Hillsboro Hardware and Alco into one pile, then blowing it up.

It kind of reminded me of Marion's HRK store, only totally out of control. I like shopping at places like HRK. I never know what I will find there. I kind of had a feeling the Sebus boys would have the same experience every day in their own store.

Down the street was an upscale antique shop that was the opposite of the Sebus' place. There was plenty of room to walk and browse.

The store was owned by a retired barber, and a guy could get a haircut in the fully outfitted barber shop in the front of the store.

Of course, a customer should plan to have plenty of spectators because the "instruments" used are antiques as well.

Another store, "Old Geezers," advertised the sale of "mantiques," old metal stuff for guys to look at while their women were hitting the boutiques downtown.

The place smelled of cigar smoke and rust from the outside. I couldn't get in, however, because a sign gave a one-word message, "Vacation."

We stayed in the rustic St. George Hotel downtown. Built in 1845, the inn has been overhauled from top to bottom. The rooms are small, but each has its own bathroom. We had a corner room with a view of part of Main Street.

Interestingly, back before the Civil War, the now tiny town of Weston was a huge port on the Missouri River, surpassing both Kansas City and St. Joseph, Mo., in population with 5,000 residents. Then, a flood in 1858 crippled the Steamboat trade for months and destroyed part of downtown.

By 1870, the population had dropped to 900, and in 1881, the town was dealt another blow when the river flooded again and shifted to an old channel two miles west of Weston. No more steamboats.

But, somehow the town survived, likely on the back of the tourist trade it now enjoys.

We had slipped into town just in time for the parade, which mainly consisted of groups of people in the backs of pickups hollering out where their food booths were located.

When the parade ended, the crowds, expected to number 20,000 to 30,000 for the two days, lined up for the famous apple dumplings, some 8,000 of which were created for visitors to enjoy.

By late afternoon Saturday, we had had our fill of apples and apple fans, so we drove a few miles out of town to Weston Bend State Park. We walked a couple of trails through quietly falling leaves.

We were a bit early for the intense colors, but some of the hardwood trees were already turning shades of red and yellow. The air certainly smelled of fall.

All this can be found about three hours from Marion County. And, just to make it a perfect weekend, we drove home Sunday on gas purchased for $1.93 per gallon.