Casita Trip day 2 - Wednesday 10/27/2010

As morning approached, we awakened to a slightly frigid camper. We plugged in the heater and got the coffee perking. Soon it was toasty warm. With the forecast calling for colder temperatures the next night, we might get ahead of the cold by leaving the heater on.

My vintage wool army blanket from cousin Mindy made for warm sleeping. (After all she lives in Hawaii and doesn't need wool blankets there)

We made breakfast sandwiches of sausage, eggs, and toasted whole wheat english muffins. We waited for the frost to melt before we headed out.

This is one of the views from what is known as the phone booth. Many valleys have no cell signal. As the blacksmith hunts every fall in this area, they know they can call home from this mountain top.

This is a view from the Current River. It had been about 23 years since I had camped here. The river channel has changed drastically since then.

The blacksmith and his buddies camp on what they call the high bank here every August. It's a week long muzzle loading squirrel hunt.

Another place to try out his fly rod. Once again I grabbed a lawn chair and enjoyed the view.

After no luck fishing we drove to the other side of the river. Here we walked to Blue Spring. The sign going in said the walk was 1 mile. Funny thing the sign walking out said 1.3 miles. We felt both were completely wrong. It had to be more like 3 miles.

As we were going into the park, we met two guys who were launching their kayaks. Both claimed any day on the river was the best day. They were from Rolla, Missouri.

This is the view from the lookout deck, high above Blue Spring.

Eye level view of the spring!

We hiked back to the car, took out our picnic lunch, found a near by table, and enjoyed the scenery.

A few short miles away we found Rocky Falls. We would have this entire area to ourselves. Here's a little information I copied on the falls.

A shut-in is formed when a stream encounters tough igneous rock. While water can easily wear down limestone or other sedimentary rocks, it meets its match in the highly resistant brown, pink and purple porphyry that are remnants of ancient volcanic activity. The result is a dramatic and musical water show, which in this case is as much a waterfall as a shut-in.

Rocky Creek cascades 40 feet down the rock, finally finding freedom in a wide pool of cold, clear water that is an excellent if little-known swimming hole.

It was close to 4:00 before we drove way. It was just such a beautiful day in the Ozarks.

Back at the camper, hamburgers were grilled outside, as I made fried potatoes with onions inside and heated some home canned green beans.

After dinner it was time to enjoy another free DVD from the office.

I can't believe we still have two more days to go!

Casita Trip Day 1 tuesday October 26 2010

We took off on our maiden voyage with the Casita last Tuesday morning. A hundred and thirty miles and three hours later we arrived in Eminence, Missouri. There we found Arrowhead camp ground and pulled in. We had almost the entire campground to ourselves. 3 cabins were rented to construction workers. Another cabin had lights at night but we never saw anyone there except for a lady having an occasional smoke on the porch.


We paid $50 plus tax for 2 nights. Little did we know it would come with all the free DVD's we could watch. The owners were gone on a cruise. The stand in gal really didn't know a thing about the camp ground. She told us that up front, as she is really a school teacher.

After we set up camp we went road tripping. First it was to Alley Springs. Even the parking lot was beautiful.

This would be the first of several places that we would have all to ourselves. The tall three story red mill was so majestic looking. Unfortunately, it was closed for the season.

The spring behind the mill was so calming and peaceful. The water was the most unbelievable shade of blue.

After walking the trails we returned to our campsite. There we checked out the Jack's Fork river. I took my magazine and a lawn chair. The blacksmith took his fly rod. The wind was a hindrance to both of us, but nothing could spoil our peaceful fun!

The bridge over the Jack's Fork made shade for a few ducks splashing in the water.

At dusk we retired to the camper and made dinner. As we were cooking the host came and offered us videos. We turned her down saying we didn't have a TV or DVD player with us (after all we were camping). After dinner we remembered that we had the laptop so we walked to the office. The blacksmith picked out three movies. Avatar, Da Vinci Code, and a Bruce Willis Die Hard movie.

And then we settled in for the night.