Big Adventures at Big Spring!

Wow! I know it seems, my lovely friends and family, that I left you high and dry (or low and muggy, as the case may be), but it's not true. Ron and I have been capturing photos and videos during our last days on the road, and as you will see, it has been fabulous.

To recap: After we left Cages Bend on Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee, we drove to the Memphis home of our friends Kara and Dave. We spent a day and half mostly resting . . . and of course doing errands. But we also brought out our music gear and played songs in their living room on our final evening! It was quite the concert, with Kara and Dave, their five dogs Henry, Jenna, Callie, Ari, and Logan, their cat Izzy, and possibly some outside birds, squirrels, and possums as our audience. Ron warmed up the crowd with "Name That Tune," and then we selected songs from our repertoire to bring in high energy, frequency, and vibration. We were a hit . . . all of us!

On Friday morning, the four of us began packing our rigs to spend the weekend at Big Spring, on the edge of the Mark Twain National Forest in the Missouri Ozarks. This was another "first visit" for Ron and me that was highly recommended by Kara and Dave — and we were not let down.

Ron and I got lost trying to find the campground (signage is only on one way in even though there is a second way in, ugh), and we had to call the National Parks Service for [unclear] directions. We finally arrived at our site and got settled in. Kara and Dave arrived after surviving a flash thunderstorm and highway flood (yikes!) and later we grilled dinner together at our campsite.

The next morning, we traveled a few miles down from the campground to the Current River, where we rented a raft for floating along the river for about 3 hours. This is a photo that Ron took of the massive operation to get hundreds upon hundreds of people onto that river:

Current River in Missouri Ozarks: rafting and tubing business

It was a sweltering day, but there was a bit of cloud cover to reduce the heat. Dave did most of the paddling in the early part of the river trip, but Ron helped out in the second half. I gave this image a distinct retro vibe:

Confident River Rafter with Paddle in Hand

Unlike most of the rafters, we did not drink alcohol. It was too hot to risk dehydration, and the river actually has several "rafting moments" that require keen senses and some skill to steer away from treacherous rocks, branches, and other rafters!

Back at the campground as we were cleaning up and prepping for dinner with Kara and Dave, Ron and I saw a kerfuffle turning to fisticuffs a few sites down. Park rangers and the po-po arrived with lights flashing. They apprehended a rather sodden sod who insisted that he liked to drink whiskey and what's the problem with that. Hmmm. Sorry, no photos.

We had a nice dinner and plenty of "current" topics to discuss.

The next morning, we met at Big Spring to take more photos and say our good-byes. Here is a photo of the cerulean blue spring water and underlying boulders (dark spots) about 200 feet or so beyond the massive outpouring of the spring from the mountain base:

Big Spring, Missouri Ozarks

And here is my slow-shutter shot of the spring as it gushes powerfully from the base of the mountain. When the water is moving, it takes on many colors, like purple, as you can see in the photo below. By the way, the water is always 57 degrees Fahrenheit, and having dipped my toe in, I can say that it's pretty damn cold! The photo below also shows a flat-faced boulder in the upper left-ish corner, covered with turquoise, green, yellow, and orange bacteria. Just as there are heat-loving bacteria as in the Yellowstone geysers, here we see COLD-loving bacteria thriving in an environment that also seems incomprehensible to us!

Big Spring, Missour Ozarks, Slow Shutter Image

After much more exploration at Big Spring, it was time for Kara and Dave, and Ron and I, to depart in our particular directions. We all meandered on the grass along the flowage, and Dave even spotted a snake resting in the sun/shade on top of a patch of watercress and debris. We took a formal photo at that spot, but I prefer the more spontaneous shot that Ron set up with the selfie stick earlier that morning:

Friends Gathering at Big Spring in the Missouri Ozarks

Well, that's a bit of Big Spring! I've been saving some photos and videos for my photo-journal project, but hopefully you are enjoying what I am sharing with you in this blog.

Now that Ron and Nilla and I are home, I'm retroactively posting our road trip adventures! As always, we're wishing you wonderful magical adventures of your own! Stay wild and free!