Goodbye Alabama, hello Missouri!

We finally got all our warranty work done on Wednesday last week. We headed out fairly early on Thursday for Missouri. We had reservations at Echo Bluff State Park in the Ozarks, and we made it in good time. The campground at Echo Bluff, known as Timbuktu for some unknown reason, is just a big meadow with good interior roads, concrete patios, and lots of space between sites. They have planted trees and shrubs, but it will be another 10 years before the place looks good. Until then it is a very inexpensive and convenient place stop for a night or two – full hookups were $30. We got all the laundry done, and drove down in the car to Pulltite campground, the NPS campground we wanted to stay at for the next week. No hookups, narrow gravel interior roads, grass sites that aren’t very level, but only $6 a night without senior pass. I was worried about overhanging trees making it impossible to get the coach down the steep hill, but we decided it would be fine if I drove slowly and used both lanes a small needed.

Friday morning we left Echo Bluff and drove the 8 miles to Pulltite. Yes, that is how it is spelled. It was misspelled years ago from the expected “Pulltight” meaning the horses had to be carefully driven down the steep hill to the river. And the river is still,why we come. The Current River is a lovely gem, part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. Clear, cold, spring fed rivers are a joy to see any time of year, even in the cold and rain we got moving in. We will stay until Sunday, a total of 10 days.

It was overcast when I took it, but we are in a lovely riverbottom of deciduous trees.

We just drove around sight seeing until Tuesday when we made a purposeful trip into Springfield to see the World Of Wildlife museum at the Bass Pro Shop headquarters. Very, very nice, and well worth the price.

I did take some pictures of the Ozarks, but I haven’t downloaded them from the camera. I will do that tomorrow and post more.

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.