High Speed Internet? Check. Connection good? Check. At last! The long awaited day one:
Of course...as is usually the case with us...we didn't get on the road this morning quite as early as we had hoped. In fact, we ended up leaving just shortly before noon - about six hours after I crawled out of bed. That's okay though...I'm on vacation so it isn't like we HAD to be any where at any particular time.
We head on down the highway and decided we to stop and find a Geocache in Marshall, MO so we could add another square to our Missouri Delorme's Challenge (it's a story for another post when we complete the challenge). Quick stop - and thank goodness too because I REALLY had to go. Marshall's a cute little town. You should check it out some time. However, since we were on a mission to get to the lake before dark and we had a stop we most definitely wanted to make, we head on down the road.
The stop we had planned on making on the way was at the Bothwell Lodge just North of Sedalia, Missouri. This huge lodge is built out of the limestone from the area into the side of a very large cliff. The owner built it back in the 1800's originally as a get-away from the busy city life in Sedalia (he started the Missouri State Fair in Sedalia and was the president of one of the banks). The home originally started as a 7 room cottage but grew over time to be 31 rooms (13000 square feet). What was cool about it was that it was lavish like most of the mansions you visit. This guy was cool! We really enjoyed our visit and when I'm not sitting in the campsite with a weak signal, I'll posts some photos we took.
We then continued on the journey and stopped in Warsaw, Missouri at a swinging bridge that crosses Truman Lake. Mike was telling me how when his mother lived closed to there, they use to drive across that bridge all the time. When it was windy, they would find a way to avoid the bridge! Of course now, it is part of a walking trail. I couldn't imagine driving across it at all!
By this time, it was starting to get to be time to get to the lake and pitch the tent. When we arrived, we stopped at the first campground only to discover they were full for the weekend. So we went to another one and discovered much the same. Turns out, this lake has a national reservation company that holds your site if you reserve it. Afraid we were going to miss out on a great weekend at a beautiful lake, I called the 800 number from one of the maps to see if any sites were available. The lady I got on the phone was downright rude. Turns out, you have to make reservations three days in advance. There was no way she could look up to see if any spots were even available. We decided we would go try one final campground to see...luck would have it they had about 10 spots that were NOT reservable...and they were open! YEAH!! So we pitched the tent and made a little dinner and hung out working on Mike's homework.
Now for the part we aren't so excited about. The site we picked is directly below a street light! Boy...we sure do have a way of picking them don't we! It's alright...we will survive. We are just happy we found a site!
I must say now I am really ready for bed. No campfire tonight and it is actually a bit chilly so I think I will go climb into our 40 below sleeping bags and hunker down for the night.
C'ya!
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Vacation Fun - Day Five
I have to go back to work this morning but I wanted to get yesterday's blog posted...
Today was the last day of the vacation; yes…I’m totally bummed. I sure wish I would have taken another day! Of course, that is always the way it works with vacation. We met this really sweet couple who said we needed to start saving our pennies now so we could do like them when we retire; find a spot and camp as long as you want. Trust me – that ranks HIGH on my list of things to do when I retire!
Last night – the fire was fabulous! Mike and I sat around talking about all sorts of things. Most of them were memories of camp fires past. I aked him where he learned to build a camp fire. He said he must have watched and learned. I was trying to remember watching my dad build campfires when I was growing up and honestly, I couldn’t. I’m sure we had them…we always had S’mores! Any way – it was a perfect ending to a wonderful day!
This morning involved packing up the mess we had made called our campsite. It was 85 degrees by 11 AM so you can imagine what the task was like. We also had decided to do some caching on the way home so I fired up the computer to see what we could see. Of course, the signal was horrible but we managed to pull up a couple we thought looked interesting. So shortly after noon, we hit the road. Both of us were ready for lunch by the time we hit the road so we stopped at a nice little spot right on the river to enjoy our sandwiches. Of course, that close to the river, Mike had to throw a line in and see what he could get. Within seconds, he had a small fish. He ended up catching a couple but threw them back; not big enough to keep.
With lunch gone, we headed on our merry way to Warsaw to go to the Truman Lake Overlook cache (which we found with no trouble). If you ever have the opportunity to spend some time on this lake, I highly recommend it; very beautiful. While you are there, check out the visitor’s center; very informative. With that out of the way and the dogs roasting from all of the running around, we got back on the road and headed on.
The next stop was in Clinton, Missouri. Not that exciting in my opinion; but it was a holiday. We left Clinton to go to our next cache; located in a conservation area. We pulled in and as we were driving by all of these little ponds, Mike was commenting on all of the large fish he was seeing. We found the cache quickly and then threw a couple of lines out in the water to see what we could get. Within just a few minutes, he pulls a nice-size bass out. Well that of course kept us going. We ended up fishing until after dark! Unfortunately, we could SEE all of the large fish but not get them to bite on anything we were offering. It certainly wore the dogs out (and me as well). We are now on our way home. The only thing I can think about right now is a shower and to sleep in our sleep-number bed…
C’ya!
Today was the last day of the vacation; yes…I’m totally bummed. I sure wish I would have taken another day! Of course, that is always the way it works with vacation. We met this really sweet couple who said we needed to start saving our pennies now so we could do like them when we retire; find a spot and camp as long as you want. Trust me – that ranks HIGH on my list of things to do when I retire!
Last night – the fire was fabulous! Mike and I sat around talking about all sorts of things. Most of them were memories of camp fires past. I aked him where he learned to build a camp fire. He said he must have watched and learned. I was trying to remember watching my dad build campfires when I was growing up and honestly, I couldn’t. I’m sure we had them…we always had S’mores! Any way – it was a perfect ending to a wonderful day!
This morning involved packing up the mess we had made called our campsite. It was 85 degrees by 11 AM so you can imagine what the task was like. We also had decided to do some caching on the way home so I fired up the computer to see what we could see. Of course, the signal was horrible but we managed to pull up a couple we thought looked interesting. So shortly after noon, we hit the road. Both of us were ready for lunch by the time we hit the road so we stopped at a nice little spot right on the river to enjoy our sandwiches. Of course, that close to the river, Mike had to throw a line in and see what he could get. Within seconds, he had a small fish. He ended up catching a couple but threw them back; not big enough to keep.
With lunch gone, we headed on our merry way to Warsaw to go to the Truman Lake Overlook cache (which we found with no trouble). If you ever have the opportunity to spend some time on this lake, I highly recommend it; very beautiful. While you are there, check out the visitor’s center; very informative. With that out of the way and the dogs roasting from all of the running around, we got back on the road and headed on.
The next stop was in Clinton, Missouri. Not that exciting in my opinion; but it was a holiday. We left Clinton to go to our next cache; located in a conservation area. We pulled in and as we were driving by all of these little ponds, Mike was commenting on all of the large fish he was seeing. We found the cache quickly and then threw a couple of lines out in the water to see what we could get. Within just a few minutes, he pulls a nice-size bass out. Well that of course kept us going. We ended up fishing until after dark! Unfortunately, we could SEE all of the large fish but not get them to bite on anything we were offering. It certainly wore the dogs out (and me as well). We are now on our way home. The only thing I can think about right now is a shower and to sleep in our sleep-number bed…
C’ya!
Monday, September 03, 2007
Vacation Fun - Day Four
I know - I'm a day off. But you continue to read so I keep posting...
Mike didn’t make it out on the lake last night. See, the tick bites I was mentioning in one of the other posts. Yeah…well they suck! He only has about a dozen…but they still itch. I have counted over 30 on my left foot and I got tired of counting so I quit. Both of us took some benedryl last night to try and get some rest without itching! Since it put us both OUT…we didn’t get out of the campsite this morning until well after 9 AM.
Today we again wanted to do some fishing but instead of dealing with all of the lake traffic, we decided to hit the stream instead. It was fantastic! Very little traffic and the area is just beautiful! We didn’t catch any fish (nothing to keep any way) but just being able to spend the time together and not have to be going any where was nice.
We did have some fun getting the dogs into the water to cool off a bit. The first time I tried, it took Mike throwing them off the dock. The second time, I had to drag them in with me. The final time, Sedona almost ran out to where I was. She even came back a couple of times; I think the cool water felt good. Topos took a little coaxing the final time but once he was in there, he was loving it! I know it helps cool them off even if they don’t realize I am doing it for their own good!
We knocked off fishing early tonight so we could come back and actually cook dinner with some sunlight. We intend to build a nice fire and enjoy the rest of our evening. I doubt we get up very early in the morning but we do have to pack up and head home. Of course…there will be some geocaching involved before we get there!
I’m going to go ahead and get dinner started.
C’ya!
Mike didn’t make it out on the lake last night. See, the tick bites I was mentioning in one of the other posts. Yeah…well they suck! He only has about a dozen…but they still itch. I have counted over 30 on my left foot and I got tired of counting so I quit. Both of us took some benedryl last night to try and get some rest without itching! Since it put us both OUT…we didn’t get out of the campsite this morning until well after 9 AM.
Today we again wanted to do some fishing but instead of dealing with all of the lake traffic, we decided to hit the stream instead. It was fantastic! Very little traffic and the area is just beautiful! We didn’t catch any fish (nothing to keep any way) but just being able to spend the time together and not have to be going any where was nice.
We did have some fun getting the dogs into the water to cool off a bit. The first time I tried, it took Mike throwing them off the dock. The second time, I had to drag them in with me. The final time, Sedona almost ran out to where I was. She even came back a couple of times; I think the cool water felt good. Topos took a little coaxing the final time but once he was in there, he was loving it! I know it helps cool them off even if they don’t realize I am doing it for their own good!
We knocked off fishing early tonight so we could come back and actually cook dinner with some sunlight. We intend to build a nice fire and enjoy the rest of our evening. I doubt we get up very early in the morning but we do have to pack up and head home. Of course…there will be some geocaching involved before we get there!
I’m going to go ahead and get dinner started.
C’ya!
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