On to the Ozarks

I checked the weather app when I got up this morning.  We got early two and a half inches of rain yesterday.  I think most of it ended up in my shoes.  The rest was in Deb’s shoes.

So now my supposedly waterproof hiking shoes were soaked inside and out.  This is the kind of soaking that takes several days to dry.  In good weather.  I cast about for some way to dry the shoes faster and finally hit on the idea of zip-tying them to the bicycles on the back of the RV.  Since the rain appears to have ended, maybe this would force dry them a little faster.

It worked. 200 miles later, the shoes are dry.  Now Deb’s shoes are zip-tied to the bicycles.

We finally took the kayaks down and did a little paddling this morning, exploring the area just off our campsite and paddling out into Lake Barkley.  We saw lots of large birds this morning.  Herons, egrets, hawks, eagles, osprey, and probably a few others.  Really cool watching the wildlife from a kayak.

Land Between the Lakes has lots of other areas to explore, especially if you are a fisherman or a mountain biker.  There’s even some off-road trails for off-highway vehicles.  Definitely worth coming back to for those activities, however, we now have our sights set on the Ozark National Scenic Riverway in Missouri, about 200 miles west.  So we packed up the kayaks and took off.  Since we wanted to get there before dark, we took the Interstate.

I really don’t like the Interstate, but it does get you there faster.

Other than a couple stops in Paduca for fuel and groceries, we drove straight there.  We arrived at Big Spring right around supper time and ate in the parking lot next to Big Spring. We were close enough to hear the roar of 296 million gallons of water per day squirting out of the ground.

And, to add to our Worlds Greatest collection, this park is home to more first-magnitude springs (springs with daily flows over 65 million gallons of water) in one area than anywhere else on earth.

A still picture just doesn’t do it justice.  I took some video to capture it a little better:

We are looking to do some kayaking here and to set ourselves up for tomorrow, we drove to Alley Spring, which took almost an hour.  This riverway covers a LOT of distance.

We arrived at Alley Spring after dark.  Driving these roads after dark is a challenge as they are steep, winding, and narrow.  I guess we are in the mountains now.