A Thousand-Word Day

I try to keep a journal of the interesting events of life.  And not just travel, which I make public, but the stuff that goes on that I want to laugh about (or cry about) ten or twenty years from now.  The fun things get recorded, and some of the not-so-fun things get recorded.  I also include pictures where I can.  As the old saw says, ​A picture is worth a thousand words.  So a picture makes my journal effectively a thousand words longer.  That saves me a lot of typing.  I’m basically a lazy bum.

Every now and then, a particular journal entry will reach a thousand words, no pictures needed.  Those are the days that are full of stuff, good or bad, and I want to remember all that stuff, so the day’s entry becomes quite long

Today is a thousand-word day.

It was one of those days that just contained a lot, and it takes a while to describe it all.

First of all, our camp site.  The Shawnee Creek Campground is a small loop at the end of a two-mile dirt road.  Six marked sites and a vault toilet.  It’s on the map, but it’s a minor stop, not even deserving a highlight picture on the map.  It was conveniently close to the river, close enough to town to eke out a little bit of cell signal, but far enough away to be in the middle of nowhere.  A recipe for a deserted campground, right?  We initially thought so last night.  But just a few minutes after we arrived, a family in two cars parked two sites away from ours.  Two more cars came a little later.  One of those parked next to us, and a few people set up a cabin tent. They had a lot of kids.

Deb talked to one of the kids this morning.  This girl told Deb that her dad loves camping and they were here last week also.  More of their family were coming today.

A few more cars came and went.  I counted eleven people around the campfire a little later last night.

Meanwhile, across the loop, another group gathered.  Four or five cars and a boat accompanied this group.  The boat was out on the water until nearly 10pm, shining some insanely bright lights in all directions.  It was quite the party going on there.  Just as we were getting ready to go to bed, they all packed up and left and it was finally dark.  The first family, too, settled down and it was a rather peaceful night. 

We didn’t realize we had stumbled on a favorite hangout for the locals.

More on this later...

I spent some time this morning puzzling over the most efficient way to do some kayaking today.  Do I spot a bicycle first? How many trips back and forth are required?  Seven trips over the same stretch of road yesterday got to be a bit much.  So this presented itself as sort-of a math problem.  We are currently at Shawnee Creek, we wanted to launch from Two Rivers, and end at Powder Mill.  After thinking about the permutations for a bit, I finally hit on an idea: launch from here, Shawnee Springs, end at Powder Mill, and spot the RV rather than the bicycle.  It adds three miles to the paddle, but saves a round trip in the RV and puts us in the RV at Powder Mill, an area we wanted to explore a little more.  Turns out this worked extremely well.

So I left Deb and the two kayaks behind, drove the RV to Powder Mill, and biked the 12 miles back to the campground.  12 very hilly miles.  Even on an electric bike, this was quite a workout.

But we managed to be on the river by 9:30am, with everything else in place.

The morning mist was still visible in spots when we launched, enshrouding some of the scenery ahead of us.  Gives a very different and beautiful look to the river.

But it was soon gone and the sky was perfectly clear for the remainder of the day.  Like yesterday, this was a great paddle, with some fun rapids, beautiful scenery and some minor navigational challenges.  We started out on the Jack Fork River, which joined the Current River by our originally planned launch point, Two Rivers.  The Current River is considerably wider and there is not so much deadfall, so the challenges were fewer.  Great day for a paddle.  We did ten miles of river in about two and a half hours.  Pretty good clip in a kayak.

One thing that this area is known for is a small herd of wild horses, supposedly descended from horses released during the Great Depression.  We managed to spot them just after we got on the river, grazing right near the water’s edge.

Once we got everything tied back on to the RV, we drove to Blue Spring, one of Missouri’s deepest. The Statue of Liberty could be put completely into this spring, and the only thing showing would be the torch.  So it has a very blue color.  This spring is at the end of a three-mile dirt road with some very steep slopes.  The steepest one was rather scary and I was wondering if we would make it out.  Steep and bumpy.

After we came back from the hike to the spring, there was a rental RV parked next to ours.  I’m not sure if their rental contract allowed its use on these types of road, but I was especially wondering if he would make it out of this place.  When we drove up that hill, we almost came to a stop in granny gear.  I hope he made it.  I’m glad and relieved I did.

On the road back to our campsite, there was a turn off toward Rocky Falls.  Sounds interesting, let’s check it out.  We had no idea what we were getting in to.

The dirt road into this area was a cakewalk compared to what we had just been on, and when we arrived, we found the parking lot full.  We took the short walk to the falls and discovered why all the cars were there.  The falls was a series of cascades down a large rock formation, and there were a bunch of people scrambling about the falls, including lots of kids.  Our kids would have loved it when they were that age.

There were also several people swimming in the pool beneath the falls.  That explains the number of cars.  This is a local swimming hole.

This is one of the advantages of wearing your house on your back.  We looked at each other, each saying ​I’m in!* and walked back to the RV to change into swim gear.  The next half hour or so was unbelievably refreshing on a hot day.

What a treat!  The water was initially cold but felt great after getting used to it.  We frolicked and floated about, enjoying this unexpected oasis in the middle of the Ozarks.  We had no idea this was here but were glad we stumbled onto it.

Feeling so much refreshed, we drove back to the camp site.

What greeted our senses when we got there was no less than a back country convention.  The entire place was stuffed with cars, with a rather narrow alley way where we could park the RV.  Several cars were parked on our camp site.  There were canopies set up and people lounging around having a good time.  The smell of marijuana permeated the air.

It doesn’t matter what side of the marijuana debate you fall on, that stuff should be outlawed simply because it smells so nasty.

We pulled in forwards because there wasn’t space to turn the RV around and back in.  It was dinner time, so I set up our grill and grilled some salmon while Deb made wild rice pilaf.  It was a great meal, especially with the limited resources in the RV.

We ate to the sound of rather loud music from someone’s car and the entertainment value of watching this large group of people interact.  Most of the kids were in the creek behind the campsite, and the original family had brought in a small truckload of firewood.  It could be a long night.  All the while, vehicles were coming and going.  It's probably a good thing that we were forewarned by one of the girls this morning.

Finally, everyone who had set up on the campsite next to ours and had parked their cars on our campsite packed up and left.  Must be this place is a favorite for day gatherings.  So it has settled down a bit and they turned the music down, but I think they exceed the maximum number of people and vehicles that can occupy a campsite.  By a lot.

I got out my drone and flew it around a bit, eventually spotting the horses from the air.  I brought Deb out and we watched them for a bit.  Attracted by our attention probably a dozen people from the big group came out to check it out also.

Well that turned out to be over 1500 words.  Told you it was a full day!