Hiking, Biking & Swimming

Johnson Shut-Ins State Park, MO

One of the best things about camping with my big bro is that he's a master chef. Smoking meat, grilling or making a batch of fresh blueberry pancakes, he's the man.

We woke up this morning, moseyed on over to the his campsite and were greeted with blueberry pancakes. Okay. I'll bite...

 

 

 

 

 

We're about 20 minutes away from Elephant Rock State Park. We spent the morning hiking around the place. Loved the cool trails, squeezing between rocks, climbing over boulders and great views.

Elephant Rocks is actually an abandoned quarry. Some of the granite mined here was used to build the Governor's Mansion in Jefferson City and the Budweiser building in St. Louis. We also read that some of it was used for building as far away as San Francisco.

 

 

 

The kids really enjoyed looking at little holes in the rocks. Cool things were swimming around in there!

The last picture is an old ruins of an engine house. This is where a train engine was stored that hauled all the granite.

 

 

 

We spent the afternoon swimming and floating in the river.

 

 

 

 

Marc, grilling up burgers on his tripod grill.

Oh yeah...

 

 

 

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Summer Time Family Fun

Johnson Shut-Ins State Park, MO

 

Some of us jumped on bikes this morning and went in search of the shut-ins.

The shut-ins are a series of waterfalls and whirlpools that flow into several larger swimming holes.

It took us a bike ride and a short hike to reach them.

It sure was great fun riding bikes with my big bro. Just like when we were kids.

 

 

 

Here's just a couple of the falls. We had a blast walking or swimming from fall to fall.

 

 

 

 

It's hard to capture a wide shot of all the shut-ins. They span at least several football fields. When we first arrived this morning there were just a few people. By late this afternoon there were hundreds.

Fortunately, the river absorbed the crowd pretty well. This is the second best river next to our own South Yuba River.

 

 

 

We spent the entire day playing in the water. I loved playing with Shelby, a darling 5 year old. She was my little buddy for most of the day.

Marc, Sheila, Matt, Kerry and Owen hanging in the water.

 

 

 

Tonight was s'mores, campfires and glow sticks. Summer time indeed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Meeting Up in Missouri

Johnson Shut-Ins State Park, MO

 

 

We're in Tupelo, Mississippi, birthplace of Elvis! How could we not stop and visit his boyhood home? We wandered around the grounds, saw the outside of his house, a statue of Elvis at 13, a car like the one his family drove to Memphis (although there's some discussion as to whether it was a 1937 or 1939 Plymouth), and a chapel that was closed for repairs. We opted out of visiting the gift shop and museum.

Elvis lives --- in all our hearts.

Tupelo is also famous for a car museum. It did not disappoint! There were over 100 cars and had everything from a 19th century steam-powered Benz to cars owned by Elvis and Liberace.

Ned looking at the steam-powered car.

Ned's favorite, a swanky tool chest built into the trunk of a 1948 Jaguar

A replica gas station

A 1946 milk truck, electric powered!

A 1929 Cord L-29

A Ford Woody

A 1921 Wasp, only 14 made

 

 

We're meeting up with family today in Missouri. On the way we're driving thru Memphis. Better stop and get us some "cue". We picked this rather modest little place. Pretty unassuming on the outside and very smoky inside. Think we found our spot.

We both had the chopped pork plate that came with very mustardy cole slaw, spicy beans and instead of the ubiquitous 2 pieces of white bread we got a hamburger bun. The beans were my fave! (Not so much the cole slaw).

Turns out Payne's is pretty famous and listed as one of the best BBQ places in Memphis.

 

We finally reached Johnson Shut-Ins State Park and met up with family and friends. We have 3 campsites with 6 kids, 8 adults and a dog. The kids played hopscotch, four square, skirt guns and we all rode bikes. And of course, lots of stories around the campfire.

Earlier this year while camping with Josh we had fun playing with the slow shutter speed on the camera while writing in the air with flashlights. We had fun doing it tonight with the kids. They were all given glow sticks and Ned filmed them going crazy with the light. We got psychedelic effects. Good times. And tonight is only Day 1. We have the whole weekend ahead of us. Goodness only knows what shenanigans we'll get into.

 

 

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Timberrrrrrrr

kTombigbee State Park, Tupelo, MS

 

One of the bright sides of pulling into a campground late at night is discovering what it really looks like in the morning. We did a bike ride around and just loved this little gem. Lots of campsites right on the water! We saw several rafts and floaties so assumed this was a good swimming lake too. (You never know which lakes the gators are in!). As we checked out of the site we asked the park host, so is it okay to swim. "Sure" she said. We followed up with, "and there are no gators?" She waited a second too long before answering, then laughed and said, "Well...". Ya, just sayin'.

 

We had a long haul across Georgia, Alabama and then into Mississippi today. Our big outing was going to visit Natural Bridge. It's touted as the longest arch rock east of the Rockies. Who could pass that up?

We were ready to stretch our legs and take in this natural wonder, along with the artesian well, Indian head and mile nature walk.

There's a sweet little garden in front of the gift shop. It all looked very promising, but what really caught our eye was the HUGE tree that was ready to be felled.

There was a 100 ft pine tree that the owner wanted taken down for safety reasons. Well, forget about the Natural Bridge, this was so much more interesting. We hung out for a good hour or so watching them try to figure it out. At one point there were three trucks hooked up to ropes pulling on it!

The owner, David, has quite the personality. He was so concerned about everyone's safety and terrified that his gift shop was going to be taken out. He hung out with us and we learned a lot about the local history, his family and Southern accents. If all this drama wasn't enough, the skies opened up and just POURED just as the tree was getting ready to fall.

 

 

 

The picture on the left is one of the workers scaling the tree to readjust a rope. This was AFTER all the cuts had been made.

The picture on the right is the tree falling...timber!!!

It was quite the scene.

 

In the pouring rain we decided, what the heck, let's go check out this natural bridge. We took umbrellas and I did the 100 yard walk in my flip flops. It was very wet. So wet that we decided to forego the mystery carved Indian head, didn't take the nature trail and never drank from the artesian well. We paid $3.50 to see the natural bridge, but the real bargain was watching that tree being felled. And that was free!

 

 

Thanks David and Natural Bridge for a very entertaining afternoon and a much needed break.

We enjoyed your hospitality.

 

We were appreciating the rain and the cooling effect on the temperature. Winnie's A/C went out earlier today just when the temperature hit 90 degrees with 63% humidity. Ugh. We were expecting it, but nevertheless...As we pulled into Hamilton, we asked around and were pointed in the direction of Brock's repair job. A very humble establishment, but a super nice guy. He gave Winnie a freon charge and $26 and half an hour later we were on our way. I also had a good time playing with the little kid in the auto shop. His name was CJ and he kept "shooting" at me with a 1980's circuit board with knobs on it. Good times.

Tonight we are camped at a small campground, only about 20 sites. The weather had cleared by the time we arrived. In talking with our fellow campers we found out the electricity was out most of the day due to the thunderstorm. Lucky us, dry weather and everything works.

Looking forward to getting caught up on some sleep. We have another long day tomorrow, but never fear I got some fun activities planned!

 

 

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Back in the USA...Just in the knick of time

Allatoona Lake, Sweetwater Campground, GA

 

We had an early afternoon flight so thought it would be good to stretch our legs while we had the chance. We stumbled upon a great indoor mercado that had just about everything you could imagine in it. All kinds of foods from meat, fish, cheese, produce, dried herbs, baked goods and cooked meals. There was also fashion items, shoes, watches, jewelery, electronics, etc. So fun to see all the colors and everything beautifully displayed. Sure beats our indoor shopping malls. Kudos to Costa Rica for doing it right.

 

We also enjoyed walking around the town square and doing some people watching. I especially loved the sweet old ladies eating ice cream at 9 o'clock in the morning. They're my role model. Is it too early to start this ritual at almost 60??

 

 

A delicious breakfast was offered at our little hotel. We sat in the courtyard and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Breakfast was yogurt with granola and some of the best flavored pineapple, banana, papaya and watermelon we ever tasted. Dang, sure makes a difference when it's harvested ripe! We also got made to order omelettes. Spinach and cheese for me, tomato and cheese for Ned. We enjoyed talking with the other hotel guests. Great way to spend our last day here.

Thanks Costa Rica for great memories, great hospitality and wonderful food. We are definitely coming back and spending more time!

 

 

 

The airport was literally 5 minutes away. We had plenty of time to shop and get rid of our last colones. We naturally migrated to the great big fake cocoa tree knowing that there would be lots of Costa Rican chocolate nearby.

That Ned, always smiling, especially when there's chocolate around.

 

Our plane was delayed, but we sailed thru customs in record time. And here's Winnie waiting so patiently for us. So good to be back in the saddle again! Bikes were good, air conditioning works and she fired right up and was raring to go. (Notice how light it is at 9 pm? How different from the 6 pm night sky we got used to).

Our biggest challenge was getting to this evening's campsite before 10:30 when the gates are locked. Why this campground? It has a washer and dryer available. All our clothes are a bit damp from all the humidity in Costa Rica. There isn't a dry item in our bag and everything kinda reeks. We are meeting up with family on Friday and have two six hour driving days to get there and not much time to fit in doing laundry. Yeah, a bit of a push, but well worth the extra days we stayed in Costa Rica. We made into the campground with 10 minutes to spare! Whew. Doing laundry now, close to midnight, as I type up my blog. Long day indeed...

 

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Zipping thru Costa Rica

Hotel Los Volcanes, Alajuela, Costa Rica

Agouti. Well, I finally cleared up that mystery. That rodent/rabbit size creature that keeps dodging in and out of the jungle and across my path has a name! At 5 this morning Ned and I hung out on our covered veranda and just listened to all the jungle activity. (Those howler monkeys! They sound like a fighter jet) Some other creature was gnawing and chomping hard on something. My guess - it's an agouti. I watched several of them scurrying back and forth along this path while I hung in the hammock. Still not able to get a picture, they are sooo quick! But I did steal one off the internet.

I just keep thinking how much Stella would love it down here. She wouldn't even have to move that far to have a field day with the myriad of colorful and interesting creatures. I can't wait to show her some of my pictures of insects.

 

 

 

I finally caught a picture of the agouti, but it's blurry. I just wanted visual documentation of these guys scurrying about!

 

 

 

Nearby is a zipride thru the jungle. There are two rides you can do - the 15 minute slow ride, kinda like riding a go-cart. You control your speed with a throttle and also have a brake. It's fun to kinda fly at a leisurely speed and ride in the tree canopy. It was a little scary at first, but I soon got used to it and just loved it. I stopped along the way several times to take video. Ned went first (cause I wasn't going to!). He saw monkeys running along the zip wires, but by the time I got there they were already gone.

Ned taking off and me getting suited up.

 

 

 

Okay, that wasn't so bad. Now for repelling..

That definitely got my attention!!

 

 

Okay, okay I'll try the zip line roller coaster, but Ned is definitely going first!

 

 

 

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!

And, yes, I did it barefoot.

 

We hired Fernando to take us back towards San Jose. I forgot about his death defying bus and car passes over the mountains. Oy...makes the roller coaster zip line seem like child's play. Actually, he's a really sweet guy and we so appreciated him driving us all over the country.

We're staying in the city of Alajuela tonight. It's adjescent to San Jose and very close to the airport. This city has a lot of colonial influence. I booked us in a hotel that is acutallly an old colonial house built in the 1930's. It's a mix between a bed and breakfast and hostel. We got the "upgraded" room with a private bath, comes with breakfast and a ride to the airport.

We arrived around 4:30 and decided to walk around the city and take it all in.

 

We decided on a late lunch/early dinner and had fun just wandering around taking in the sights and trying to pick a restaurant. While reading one of the menus, a gregarious fellow talked us into trying out his Colombian restaurant. I recognized his accent and it turns out he's from Queens. Norman was born in Columbia, raised in NY and moved to Costa Rica 20 years ago. His place, "Sr. Patacon and Dona Arepa" is amazing!! I got the Patacones, made with fried plantains and comes with chorizo, guacamole and pico de gallo. Ned got Arepas. Think of a thick tortilla stuffed with pork, diced onions, tomatoes and cheese.

We enjoyed chatting with Norman and talking about chocolate, politics and life in general. I just love traveling and meeting such interesting people. Anyway, if you're ever in Alajuela definitely check his place out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Beach day in Costa Rica

The Falls at Manual Antonio National Park, Costa Rica

 

Our biggest decision of the day was do we hit the beach or hang by the pool. Both won out.

The national park is closed on Mondays. When we reached the little town of Manual Antonio it felt deserted. Most of the little shops were closed and there were very few people at the beach. What a difference from yesterday. Not that a didn't love it!

We played in the surf for a couple of hours. We also met a nice guy from St. Louis on vacation with his sister (he just finished his physician's assistant program) and we spent too much time in the water yukking it up. The water is ridiculously warm so it's so easy to just hang out for a long time.

After realizing we probably had too much sun, salt and sand we went in search of Pipa fria (fresh coconut water).

 

 

Of course we had to stop and watch the monkeys playing in the mango trees that line the beach.

I could watch these guys for hours! I can't believe how many mangoes they consume. They have such personalities. They like throwing the mangoes down on us too. This has definitely been my favorite part of the trip.

 

 

Ah, finally scored that pipa fria! Delish!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After catching the local bus back to the hotel (walking that 1000 ft. climb yesterday in this heat was enough), we settled in to relax around the pool.

I brought my coconut to our bartender/waiter/everything guy (Luis) and asked him if he could give it a whack for me so I could eat the coconut. He did it one better and turned it into a smoothie for me. Ned scored on that one too...delish!

The pool here is so beautiful, set in a jungle garden.

 

At this little hotel the wildlife comes to you. There are lots of iguanas and other creatures (I have no idea what they are called) that are constantly skittering about. The iguanas will hang out, the smaller reptiles are more shy. Here's one of the iguanas stopping by our lounge chair near the pool.

There is one creature here that I've never seen before. It's the size of a jack rabbit, but looks like a large rodent with no tail. They have really long legs so they look out of proportion. I keep trying to get a picture of them, but they're too fast for me.

 

 

We tossed about a couple of plans for this evening, but then happy hour happened.

 

We finally decided on eating a pizza in our room and watch the Warriors Game. Go Warriors!!

 

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