Walkabout on Wheels

So we made it alright to Bourbon, Missouri on Route C. I remembered that there were campgrounds in Bourbon, and we ended up staying in one of them, Blue Springs Ranch. It is situated on the Upper Meramec River. Even the road leading to this place was beautiful, so it looked like the right place to be. I mean, look at it! We checked in, and as we drove to our site, we realized that we were the only people staying there. I guess it’s more of a weekend thing. Or maybe being in the middle of Missouri there were not a lot of people staying here. Just north a few miles is Meramec Caverns, which (of course) we didn’t visit, but maybe other people stay at the campgrounds closer to that landmark. Anyway, it was a bit like the Twilight Zone. The place had horseback riding, about which I was excited, but Zorah was too little, so we didn’t go. Not only did this place have horses, and a lot of them, they had cattle who crossed the river near our beach. It is a ranch, after all. We did sign up for rafting, however, for 10 am the next morning.

Then we went to eat a little place called the Circle Inn in town. It's logo is like a Circle K logo. They had good diner food, and these really nice oil paintings done by someone locally as decorations. I was almost tempted to buy one, but I didn't. Various Bourbon landmarks like the train station and the Circle Inn were depicted with really delicate brushwork and attention to detail. Hmmm. I'm going to stop writing about them now, or I'll want to head back to Bourbon.

We also took Z for a swim in what we considered to be our pool, since there was no one else there.

I think I forgot to mention that Missouri has a very strange road labeling system. It uses the alphabet for its route names. Here is a picture of one of my favorites. I missed the photo-op for PP Junction. Heh heh.

We woke up early and tried to think of everything we should bring. Of course, we forgot things. Like sun block. Oh, well. Brian and Ian said I didn’t bring enough food, but even so, it was a great trip. I think just being on the raft made it pretty easy to forget those things. We floated down the river at a very leisurely pace. No whitewater here, and the water was low. It seems like there is a bit of a drought in Missouri. In Danville, where we are now (leaving tomorrow, of course) the corn fields are golden with dried up stalks.

Anyway, floating down the river was great. Zorah would jump out and swim every once in a while, or wade when the water was too shallow even for her to float. I didn’t feel like swimming, so I put on a life vest and floated with her a few times. This ended when she tried to climb onto me and submerged us both. I was singing one of her silly songs and not really paying attention to the fact that she was climbing me. Duh. Most of the time I paddled and steered, sitting in the back of the boat and enjoying watching the rest of the family relaxing in less physical ways.

The trip was five miles down the river, with some really nice scenery. There were holes and tunnels in the cliffs on either side of us. Intriguing. It took us about 4 hours to travel the length of river allotted us, but it seemed much shorter. We had no mishaps or spills, and were sorry to see our trip end.

When we got back to our campsite, Brian suggested that we should move on out. So we packed up in a hurry and left this place for Danville, Missouri, about 60 miles northwest. I drove the trailer again, and Brian took his bike. He went ahead, which was actually bad because he would slow down to take a longer look at some of the countryside as we were driving. Now this would be fine if I were driving just the truck, but a motorcycle slows down much faster than a truck with a trailer. Or a truck for that matter.

So the first time he did that, I could feel the trailer squirreling behind me, and it didn’t seem that I was slowing down enough. I looked down at the brake indicator for the trailer. Where was the power light? So I had to pull over. The brakes and signals weren't plugged in all the way. Aaaah! Overall, though, it was nice driving the big trailer around. It helped me to somewhat fulfill my periodic dreams of becoming a truck driver. And, no, I'm really not joking about that.

We stopped at a local gas station and restaurant. I ordered the ham and beans special, primarily because it came with cornbread. Of course, two minutes before we ordered, the cook had thrown out the cornbread. Oh, well. Still, the ham and beans was a nice stew. Zorah, having been in the car for a while, ran circles around our table. Literally. She would stop to fill her mouth with food, then run around the table until she had swallowed her food. Chew, swallow, run, repeat. It was pretty funny.

I managed to get a picture in the parking lot of that big Missouri sky. And our traveling home.

# posted by Rissa and Zorah @ 2:55 AM