In The Midst of History

We pulled out the bikes today and did some exploring only to find out we are in a historically significant location here in mid-Missouri. The small town we are camped next to (and part of the State Park), is called Arrow Rock. It sits on the west bank of the Missouri River. This was a very important river town in the early eighteen hiundreds. Many thousands of pioneers crossed here to move from the crowded eastern states to the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase and to points west. Steamboats used this port to deliver supplies to the west. Louis and Clark also travelled through this area after beginning their explorations in nearby St. Louis. They travelled up the Missouri River and eventually into Montana, Idaho, and into Oregon to the west coast. St Louis, MO. is where the Missouri, Mississippi, and Illinois rivers converge and that city was an important fur trading and agricultural port for the midwest.
The area we are in was the home of the Osage, Fox and Sac Indians. The early settlers traded with the Indians and learned about the territory from them. Daniel Boone also moved here after raising his family in Kentucky. Daniel Boone's sons ran a successful salt producing business here and the area is known as Boone's Lick. The Boone's Lick settlement is across the river from where we are camped. This area was also important during the Civil War and was a hotbed of disention between the Union and Confederate beleifs.
The visitor's center was like a museum with artifacts from the Indians, the early settlers, the civil war, and medical supplies used by the famous doctor Dr. John Sappington who developed and mass marketed quinine pills nationwide to successfully treat malarial fevers. This was also the home of famous artist George Caleb Bingham who painted scenes of river life and politics.
So much for the history lessons. Pull up Arrow Rock on the internet and you will be surprised at all the rich history here. We were!

We made Missouri

We are in central Missouri between Kansas City and St. Louis. As we drove through Kansas City I couldn't help but think about all those great Barbecue Restaurants you see on TV. It has been interesting watching the landscape change. Driving through Kansas it was very flat and open in the west and hilly and treed in the east. The farmland in Eastern Kansas was fabulous. The fields were either green and lush with grass or if plowed the soil looked dark and rich. Missouri looks a lot like Michigan farm country, although it is a bit more rolling. Everything is green and it looks like May in Michigan. The leaves are mostly developed and the grass is vibrant.
We had a good change in the weather today. It was finally warm and sunny and the wind died down this evening. Nancy and I celebrated our 38th anniversary with a great grilled steak, baked potatoes, a good bottle of wine and later we had a nice campfire and were able to sit outside with no bugs and warm temperatures. We are spending three nights here and then will continue our journey east.

My internet signal is too weak here so pictures will have to wait.

I hope all is well with you as you are reading this post. May God bless!

Moved Today

We moved a bit further east today and are now just north of Dorrance, Kansas. We are in an Army Corp of Engineers campground on Wilson Reservoir. This is a modern campground with about 150 sites and most have electric hook-ups for $8 a night! The campground has a lot of sites right on the lake and the views are really nice. We are perched high above the lake on a bluff. This lake is well known for fishing and there were a half dozen boats on the water today.

I am surprised at the wildlife here in Kansas. The campground we were at last night was over run with deer and pheasants and the park we moved to today has the same. We saw turkeys on our way to the freeway this morning. On a walk after dinner this evening we saw three pheasants and heard others crowing. We also saw five deer in the fields across from the park.

We plan on staying here for two nights to be sure the severe weather that is ripping Arkansas has a chance to move east.

We are camped above the lake. Look close at the top of the hill.

This is a view of the Wilson Reservoir. The Army Corp of Engineers built the dam in 1964 to control flood waters. 

On the MOVE!

Hey Dorothy, we made it to Kansas!

We are on the back side of the southern plains storm that is causing flooding and tornadoes through the Midwest. We made it about half way across Kansas with no problem except cloudy skies. We are in Cedar Bluff State Park for the night, then will move a little further east to spend two nights at an Army Corp campground for two more days. That will give the storm time to move east and will give us some good weather.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Dave and Trevor at dinner time last week. I stayed with them Tuesday night before Becky took me to the airport on Wednesday.

Becky and Trevor on Wednesday morning.

Ben and Kate getting ready for their busy day.

This is one of the last critters we saw in Colorado. A cow with ear rings!!

Our Last Day in Colorado

We spent Easter Sunday at the Cheyenne Mountain Campground and had a relaxing day catching up on our paperwork and making plans for our return trip to Michigan. We plan on getting back on May 6th. We "Skyped" with the kids today and wished each other a Happy Easter. This is the first time we used the Internet to have a conversation where we could see everyone on the other end of the computer line. All of the kids were there and Natalie sang us a couple of songs!

Our weather was kind of dreary today with snow in the morning that was gone by one o'clock. It was nice for a few hours and then started raining again late in the afternoon. We hope it will be nice tomorrow so we can hook up the camper and start heading east. We plan on going to eastern Colorado or Western Kansas the first day. We don't want to get too far east just yet because they are calling for storms and bad weather for a couple of days. We are hoping to stay behind the front in order to avoid any severe storms or threat of tornadoes. Wish us luck!

Happy Easter to all!

Easter Saturday

We met with David today at Buena Vista and said goodbye. He is planning on spending the day in Vail tomorrow to ski and join in the festivities for the closing of the ski season. We met at Buena Vista in the snow and walked around town and then had a great Mexican lunch at the Coyote Cantina! The food was great and we had a good time with him and his (girl) friend Robin. The town is a historic old west town and is 8,000 feet above sea level. The area is well known for mountain biking, hiking, rafting and kayaking and fly fishing on the Arkansas River.

It was a beautiful drive up the mountain and we saw deer, antelope and we even saw four elk on the way back down. It was snowing pretty hard when we came off of the mountain and we are glad we don't have to go back into the snow country anymore. It was wonderful spending the past few weeks in Colorado and enjoying the spectacular scenery and gorgeous mountains. We are amazed at the beauty of this state each time we come here and we understand why David loves it so much. Now it's time for us to head back to Michigan and concentrate on getting our new home built.

We wish everyone a blessed Easter and hope everyone is doing well.

Here are some pictures from the day....

David showed us around Buena Vista and we enjoyed a great lunch and said our goodbyes.

The drive down started off pretty ugly, but the further we drove the drier it got.

We stopped and took a few pictures of a herd of pronghorn antelope along the highway. There were about twenty in this group.

Further down we stopped along a river by Eleven Mile Canyon and I didn't catch any trout again! Look how nice the weather got. It changes in the mountains all the time.

We came upon four elk grazing in a meadow west of Woodland Park.

The weather is holding up.

Friday was nice and warm again at 67 degrees here at Cheyenne Mountain State Park. We took a ride up into the mountains behind Pike's Peak to Lake George and visited Eleven Mile Lake and Park. The wind at the lake was howling at thirty to forty miles an hour with gusts even higher! The lake was all whitecaps but I found a sheltered cove and did some casting for the elusive Colorado trout. I managed to get one on for about two minutes, but the constant head shaking worked for him and he eventually shook free. Bummer! I tried and tried but couldn't get another taker.

The temperature fell to 43 degrees at the higher elevation, but when we got back down to our camp later in the day it was back up to 67. Ah, the mountains!

Looking eastward to Pike's Peak. It's snow capped peak blends in with the clouds.

Eleven Mile Lake. This is a very large lake fed by the Platte River and is rated as one of Colorado's premier fishing destinations.\

Nancy took this great picture of a group of deer on the way back to Lake George.