As it turns out, about the time that we were ending our holiday at Table Rock Lake, Rochelle and Roy were headed to Lebanon to visit with Polly. So we both made a small detour and met up at Bennett Springs State Park for a couple of days. What a beautiful park!!
This is what our campsite looked like. There are actually 5 campgrounds around the state park. We ended up in what I think is the nicest one.... mostly because it has full hookups and I don't have to be so conservative with water usage. :)
We met there Sunday afternoon and spent some time setting up. Then the guys did some grilling for our dinner. It was warm and muggy, but still a nice evening outside.
Then on Monday morning, after a yummy guy-cooked breakfast, we headed out for some hiking. This really is a spring.... fed from something like 100 feet below ground. It is also a primo trout fishing site. As a matter of fact, they have a trout hatchery here!
Above and below are a couple of shots of the hatchery. The top one was from one of the pools where the really small trout are. The bottom one is a shot of some of the larger trout.
As we walked through the hatchery, some of the larger trout (who would normally be swimming towards the end of the hatchery) turned around and started following us. I looked back and saw the whole group swimming along, pacing us. It was very eerie as I've never been stalked by trout before! :) Apparently they are accustomed to people feeding them but none of us had any quarters for the food machine so we couldn't accomodate them.
They release trout into the springs every evening. We could tell when that was happening as they would sound a siren just like the ones we have for tornado sirens at home. The first night it had me reaching for my phone to check the weather!
And of course, up and down the springs were LOTS of trout fisherman! Max found out that you could fish for a daily fee of about $10. Most of the ones we saw were definitely catching fish, so it sounds like a good buy!
In addition to seeing all the fishermen, we saw quite a bit of beautiful things along the hike. Above is called, appropriately, Arches Bridge. :) And this was a little foot bridge that we passed on the trail. Seemed like a good opportunity for a photo opp!
We rewarded ourselves with some shopping......
Now THIS is a store! I've gotten so accustomed to the marina stores (which are small and limited in stuff) that this was a pleasant surprise!
After lunch, we adjourned to our respective couches for a well deserved rest. Altho' Roy was a bit of a masochist as he set out on a 8 or 9 mile bike ride. Later that evening, as we were going to dinner, we drove up the hill that he climbed on his bike. Sheesh! I would end up off my bike and pushing it up that darn hill.
Dinner was as the "dining hall" at the state park.
As you can see it was a lovely setting. The food was a bit "eh", but we managed to eat. :)
As we were preparing for bed last nite, Max happened to look at the weather and realized that we had a helluva storm headed our way. So we ended up taking down all of the outside stuff and stowing it --- doing that all about 11pm last nite. What fun right before bed!
The storm hit about 1am. We know this because we woke when we heard a loud thump against the roof of the trailer. Ack! Turns out it was a limb from the tree right next to the site. Fortunately no damage was done.
Unfortunately, the noise woke Gabi who, in turn, woke Ginger..... so they ended up getting to sleep in the "big bed" last nite. It thundered and stormed for quite a while during the night. So we are all a bit bleary today.
One thing the storm did is bring out all the worms. When I stepped out of the trailer this morning, I noticed 3 or 4 cardinals hopping around on the ground outside of our trailer. Didn't really think much about it at the time. There were quite a few twigs and limbs on the ground around the door. Again, didn't think much about it ..... that is, until one started moving!
My first thought was "SNAKE"! Gad, I hate snakes! But then I realized it was a huge worm. I wear a size 8 shoe, so that should give you an idea of how long that thing was. NOW I understand why all the cardinals were hanging around. That baby could have been breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
Sadly, we each packed up and headed out today. Rochelle and Roy had about a 30 minute drive. I wish ours was that short! We are on 54 right now, headed west. In about 5 hours or so we will be home and ready to unload.
Hopefully our next adventure is right around the corner!
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