More about the Ozarks

I am sitting in a parking lot that actually has internet, so I can post some more about the Ozarks.

First, just the general beauty of the area. The trees went really turning colors yet, but you can see just the promise of future color.

Love the fog that shows in the valleys.

Then there are the “wild” horses that roam the area. They are wild in the sense they aren’t owned by anyone, but they definitely are habituated to people. We saw these three, two mares and a foal, at Echo Bluff State Park parking lot. The foal got about 3 foot from me, and one of the mares grazed about 5 foot away. Definitely used to people!

That is the front of the car hood showing red. They moved even closer after I took this.

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day, so I mostly just sat outside and read. It is the kind of day that makes me really, really regret I can’t get on the river, but I just don’t feel well enough. Today is a wet and cold day, so we are just hanging out at the state park campground using their WiFi. When I get back I intend on sewing for a while and then just generally cleaning up. With all the cloud cover we will definitely have to run the generator, and that means I can vacuum. After vacuuming, I will mop, and the floor is in desperate need of it!

The Current River and follow on activities

We left Mark Twain Lake and headed south to the Ozark National Scenic Riverways and the Current River. I just love this area of the Ozarks! We camped at Pulltite campground, a NPS site along the Current River. We had reserved our favorite site (#28) months ago, and it was plenty big for the travel trailer and truck. We even had some decent sun for the solar system, a luxury in these deeply forested hills. The weather was all over the place: rain on Tuesday, cool on Wednesday, warm on Thursday, warmer on Friday, and damned hot on Saturday. It just isn’t right to have temperatures of 90 degrees in mid October in south central Missouri!

On Tuesday we did boring housekeeping tasks like laundry. On Wednesday we did the Cedar Grove to Akers run on the Current. Thursday we did Pulltite to Round Spring, and on Friday we did Akers Ferry to Pulltite. Lots of nice paddling with a really fun crew. By Saturday we were really tired and a little sore so we went to The Haunting of the Hills put on by the OSNR at Alley Mill. There were lots of historic activities demonstrated by costumed interpreters, plus the mill itself is really lovely. It was so hot we were really worried about keeping the trailer comfortable enough for the cats, but the vent fans on all day plus leaving the windows open on the north side of the trailer kept is under 85 inside. Love the solar! We would have been challenged to run all the fans without turning on the generator before Kevin installed the system.

Forecasts showed rain on Saturday night, so we packed up a lot of outdoor gear before going to bed. We also decided to start our gradual trek back to Iowa by heading to Mark Twain Lake again for a couple of nights. This time I remembered to take pictures!

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At Mark Twain Lake
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Pulltite Campsite
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Canoeing on the Current? Note the gorgeous color of the water.