Missouri Ozarks - September 2010

On a tip from someone we met at a party back in the summer, we hitched up the camper and hauled it to Big Spring in the Mark Twain National Forest, near Van Buren, Missouri.  It turned out to be a fun and relaxing trip.

Big Spring is one of the largest springs in the country. It pumps out over 280 MILLION gallons of water a day!

Our campsite was a few yards from the bank of the Current River, which is fed by Big Spring and several other springs in the area.  As soon as we had set up camp, we grabbed our hiking sticks and went for a walk on a trail along the river bank.  The river was so clear that we could see fish swimming near the bank.  The trail followed the river for a while, then turned back toward the park.  On our hike, we saw deer, lots of birds, and a variety of wildflowers.  After the hike, we drove into town for a few necessary supplies, such as ice...and gin.  ;)

On Tuesday, we went "tubing" on the Current River.  (Graham, FYI, "tubing" is a sport in which people float on rubber donuts, much like automobile tire inner-tubes.)  Since I'm not much for water sports, we chose to do the short float, which was supposed to take 2 - 3 hours.  However, the wind was blowing straight up the river, and our progress was slow.  We reached the end point of the float and waded out of the water, sunburned and exhausted, almost 6 hours after we started.

Wednesday morning, the sky was overcast, and we decided we'd better schedule some indoor activities.  I'd seen on a brochure that the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Little House on the Prairie (and several other books), was about 90 miles away.  When I was a child, I loved Wilder's books, so we packed a lunch and headed west. 

First, though, we made a short detour to try our first geocache hunt.  "Geocaching" is like treasure hunting, done with a GPS unit.  People hide things - trinkets, flower seeds, pencils, etc. - in waterproof containers and then post the GPS coordinates of the location on a web site.  Other people punch those coordinates into their GPS units and try to find the containers.  The rule is, "If you take something [from the container], leave something."  The containers often include log sheets for the treasure hunters to sign as proof of their finds. 

We found our first cache in a hollow stump in a wooded area near the parking lot of a public lake.  Our second find happened a couple of days later.  It was tucked under the foundation of a log cabin on the grounds of a logging museum. 

The Wilder home was a typical small farm house, built around the turn of the 20th century.  There was a museum and a bookstore on the grounds.  In the museum, we learned that Mrs. Wilder published her first book at age 65, and that she wrote them all at her home, by hand, in pencil, on lined tablet paper.  She said she had "lived everything in [her] books." 

Since it was raining when we returned to Van Buren, we opted to eat dinner at a restaurant rather than cook on the grill at the campsite.  Van Buren is a very small town (population about 850), with only a few restaurants.  We settled on one called "Stray Dog BBQ and Pizza."  They had an item on the menu called "The Dog Pile" (no kidding) - a concoction of barbeque, beans, and slaw, heaped atop a piece of bread.  We skipped this delicious-sounding dish in favor of BBQ plates.  The food was actually quite good!

We awoke to light rain again on Thursday and decided to do some sight-seeing in the area. The first place we visited was Alley Spring, where there was an old grain mill. It was such a beautiful, peaceful place.  In fact, the whole area was beautiful.

We drove around a bit more, made our second geocache find, then returned to Van Buren.  I'd spotted a quilt shop I wanted to investigate, and Joel wanted to check out some of the other campgrounds in the area, so he dropped me off at the quilt shop and went about his business.  He should not have let me out of the car.  You see, I've been wanting a quilting machine, since my carpal tunnel syndrome has made it next to impossible for me to quilt by hand.  The shop owner, Carol, had a quilting machine in her shop, and she had just put a quilt in the frame and was starting to quilt when I walked in.  Her quilting machine was a fancy, computerized model that would set me back almost a year's salary.  I would not even dream of buying one of those, but I have been looking for a reasonably-priced used machine, and Carol knew where there was one for sale.  Better still, she had previously owned the machine, knew that it was in great condition, and was willing to introduce me to the current owner.  To make a long story short (if it's not already too late for that), I came home with the quilting machine.  I can't wait to use it!

We packed up Friday morning, made a detour to pick up the quilting machine, and started for home.  Despite the hot, humid weather and drizzling rain, it was a great trip, and we hope to go back soon!