The road to Doniphan Missouri

Friday morning I tipped toed out of the house and headed to work while BT snoozed away. I would only work a half day and when I came home he was ready to hit the road. After a quick PB sandwich and a green tea we were on our way.

There's not a good way to go to Doniphan, it's either very twisty and curvy roads or straight and hilly, really it's a combination of all of those.

We stopped in the National Ozark's Scenic Riverway at Round Spring for a potty break and to stretch our legs. I quickly snapped this picture.

Round Spring is located approximately 13 miles north of Eminence on Highway 19. The spring flows into an almost perfectly circular cavern that has collapsed, and from there it travels through a natural tunnel before it emerges into the spring branch. The average flow of the spring during a 16-year record is 40 cfs and 26 mgd (Vineyard and Feder 1974). The recharge area of the spring encompasses roughly 45 square miles (Aley and Aley 1987). A portion of the spring's recharge area is situated to the southwest under Spring Valley. It is also possible that part of the recharge area is situated to the northeast, which means that the groundwater would have to flow under the Current River to reach the spring.Round Spring was also one of the first parks in the Missouri state park system (1932).

Not too far down the road as we were traveling we did a bat turn to snap this picture of a dilapidated old Mill. There were signs posted every where for "No Trespassing" As we drove away the little old lady across the road was peaking out from under her blinds at us. She probably had her shot gun loaded had we stepped out of bounds.

Four hours and 200 miles later we arrived at Doniphan. We did a quick drive through the town and found the Heritage Homestead where the BAM (Blacksmith Association of Missouri) meeting will be held on Saturday. (The reason for our trip) Chris was just locking up, but offered to give us a quick tour. We asked him for a dinner recommendation and he suggested The Annex.

We checked in at the Days Inn and dropped off our luggage and went back the 2 to 3 miles to the town square where we found "The Annex". A very nice quaint little restaurant. After seeing the dessert case(s) I almost skipped the main course. BT chose the all your could eat Catfish Fillets with 6 jumbo fried shrimp. I went for the dozen skewed shrimp. While we waited for our dinner they brought us hot homemade clover wheat rolls and honey butter. They were to die for. I held back, knowing if I ate too much bread, I wouldn't have room for my shrimp.

After finishing our meal BT told the young waiter they should rename the "all you can eat" meal to "more then you can eat". There was no room for dessert. When we went to the counter to pay, we saw the dessert case which had, Key Lime pie, Apple pie, Pecan pie, Cherry pie, and homemade cookies. Darn the luck!

We drove just two block to see the Current River, at the public river access, we talked to A E Nichols, who had several poles going. While there he pulled in a nice 5-6 lbs small mouth bass, and said "oh shoot, just a small mouth" and threw it back in. He was fishing for Walleye. From his coat pocket he pulled out pictures to show us of fish he had caught on a previous trip, he also had beautiful scenic pictures of the area and even some of his wood working projects. While talking to him, he and BT discover they both knew Jake McCormick from Eminence Mo. Small world.

As the sun set across the river I took some beautiful pictures. It was then getting cool, we bid a farewell to A E and headed for our hotel.