By Shelby
Monday we worked from the library in Ballwin, Missouri. It was recently renovated and was very nice. In the morning, however, as the brick exterior of the building heated up, it made loud cracking noises. It sounded like people were just clapping randomly every few minutes. It was weird. After work, we went to Castlewood State Park to relax. It was very busy. Luckily we got a nice parking spot in the shade. We ate dinner and played some video games.
Tuesday we worked from the same library and went to the same park afterward. This time, we went for a 3.5-mile hike through the woods. The trail followed along the Meramec River for a long segment of the trail. There was also a train sitting on the tracks on the other side of the trail. Then there were a bunch of stairs leading up the bluff to a few lookouts over the river and trees. There used to be a resort there in the ‘20s and ‘30s. Now, only a few of the foundations remain. When we reached the first lookout, the train that was sitting on the tracks actually started up. It was really loud and pretty cool to hear and see. By the time we made it back to the car, it was pretty dark out. On the way to Planet Fitness, we stopped to get ice cream at a local shop. I got raspberry lemon and Spencer got mint chocolate chip.
After work Wednesday, we got Chick-fil-A for a quick dinner before heading toward the city of Rolla, about an hour and a half from Ballwin. This was the last city with a Planet Fitness before the Ozarks, where we decided to go camping for a few days. Along the way, we passed a city named Bourbon. We got a kick out of the water tower with “Bourbon” written across it. We stopped at a grocery store to get some food for the next few days. We wanted to eat something healthy after the macaroni and cheese with hot dogs we had for dinner the past two nights. We decided on salad. After getting groceries, we went to Planet Fitness. We went in to use the bathroom and get more water. After that, we hung out in the parking lot for a bit. We awkwardly went back in again later to get ready for bed, checking in with the same attendant as before. It was kind of funny. We hid in the locker rooms until she went to go clean something so we could sneak out without having to walk past her. We were only in there for a few minutes, so it would have felt weird walking by her again.
Thursday morning, we got up early and headed to Devil’s Well. This park had an underground lake with a few openings where you can look down and see the lake. One of the openings was called Devil’s Well. Unfortunately, to get to the park, we had to drive a really rough mile and a half gravel road. It was probably the worst road we’d driven on so far. Also, a really large fly-like bug flew into the car and we had to stop to get it out.
When we got to the park, we got ready for the 5-mile hike to Cave Spring, a small cave on the Current River. Before the trail started, we were able to walk down a few flights of stairs to see part of the lake. It was really neat. The temperature was much cooler and there was water pouring into it from a small stream. After checking that out, we got started on our hike. We must have been the first people on the trail for a while because we walked through a lot of cobwebs. I started noticing lots of spiders all around us. I decided to give up on the trail when a large black spider started crawling down Spencer’s backpack. It was crazy how many spiders and cobwebs there were. It was a bummer because we were looking forward to the hike, but we weren’t going to hike through cobwebs for 5 miles. We went back to the car to head toward the campground.
We stayed at Pulltite Campground, located on the Current River. This area claimed to be the first national scenic riverway. The campground was run by the National Park Service. We picked out a first come first serve site right next to the river. We relaxed for a bit before setting up the tent and collecting some sticks for firewood. We then walked over to the camp store to confirm our canoe rental reservation for Friday. We also bought some firewood. After that, we walked down to the river to check it out. The water was cool and refreshing to walk in. We returned to the campsite and played card games for a bit. After that, I hard boiled some eggs to eat with our salads for dinner.
When the temperature started cooling off, we got the campfire started. We had four hot dogs left over from our previous dinner, so we roasted them on skewers over the fire and ate them right off the sticks. It was getting pretty dark by the time we got our salads ready. It was pretty difficult to eat them in the dark. We felt like we looked kind of goofy eating salads while camping. They’re not exactly standard camping foods. For dessert, we toasted some marshmallows and had s’mores.
Sleeping in the tent was different. It was nice to have more room to sit up, but the ground was much harder than our memory foam mattress in the car. On our walk over to the bathrooms, we got a good view of the stars. The area was so dark that we were able to see the Milky Way. I don’t think I’d ever seen that with my naked eyes before, so that was pretty cool. The bugs in the area were very loud. We couldn’t even hear the river over them they were so loud.
Friday morning, we got up early to get ready for our float down the river. Around 8:30, we were picked up by the canoe rental company and driven to Akers, a small town upriver from our campground. We were given our canoe and we set off on our 10-mile journey back to our campground. Another group of people actually brought a very large boombox with them, so we gave them a head start. Once we got started, most of the people from our group were ahead of us, so we had the river to ourselves. The area was very pretty. There were tall hills and cliffs lining the river. The area wasn’t built up with houses or hotels. It was very nice.
The river had a pretty good current. We didn’t have to paddle much unless we wanted to turn. It also had a few small rapids, which were exciting. The first third of the river float was pretty calm. After a while, a massive group of people started coming up behind us in kayaks. They were very loud and had large water guns they were squirting each other with. It seemed like fun. They took up nearly the whole width of the river. We decided to hang around the river bank and let them pass. Neither of us had realized how popular this river was. There were people everywhere, even on a weekday.
One of the most interesting parts of this segment of the river was the large cave we could paddle into. We got lucky and had the cave to ourselves for a few minutes. We paddled into the large cave opening. The temperature was much cooler and slowly dripped from the roof of the cave. The water was very blue. Inside the cave was very narrow. I could imagine it could get very crowded on weekends when the river was even busier.
After leaving the cave, we stopped to eat a few snacks and stretch our legs on an island in the middle of the river. Then we continued on our journey. I think going through the multiple areas of rapids were my favorite parts. They were fast and wavy enough to be exciting, but not enough to be scary. There was one area where we were going around a bend and the rapids slammed us into a dead tree in the river, but that wasn’t too bad. The depth of the river varied a lot. In some areas, the water was only a few inches deep. It was really surprising we didn’t bottom out more often. In other areas the water was deep and murky green. The water seemed very clean.
We were hoping to see a river otter since we read otters did live in the area. We were very happy when we did see one. It was a lot rounder and plump than we expected, but we think it was an otter. We also saw two small turtles sitting on logs. Eventually, we arrived back at our campsite. We decided that 10 miles was a perfect distance to float. We had been considering longer floats, but we were satisfied with 10 miles. Some people do multiple-day trips and camp out along the side of the river. I think I would get bored of it after a while.
After relaxing for a while at our campsite, we decided to pack up the tent and sleep in the car that night instead. It would save us time in the morning. As we did that, a large group of people started setting up camp across the road from us. They pretty much made a tent city. When the tent was put away, we played some video games for a while. Lately, we’ve been playing Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, a fun little game that lets players control various aspects of a spaceship. It requires good communication and teamwork. We had dinner a little earlier that night, so we didn’t have to eat salads in the dark. We spent the rest of the evening enjoying another fire. This time we used a couple of magic color packet things to make the flames appear green and blue.
We had a long drive ahead of us Saturday. Our plan was to drive all the way to the suburbs of Chicago, about a 7 hour drive. As we drove through Illinois, we noted that it was very flat and outside the larger cities there was mostly farmland. We stopped in Springfield to visit Abraham Lincoln’s home, which is a national historic site. We were able to get on a free guided tour through the house. I thought the house was surprisingly modern. I really thought houses from that time period were more rustic.
After visiting Lincoln’s house, we walked around the neighborhood, which was closed off to traffic and well preserved. It was cool to see how Lincoln’s neighborhood looked from that time period. We then walked to the Old State Capitol building, where both Lincoln and Obama announced their run for presidency. Unfortunately the dome on top was undergoing restoration and was covered in scaffolding. Our final stop in Springfield was Lincoln’s tomb. It was very grand and well tended. The cemetery was beautiful. After paying our respects, we moved on to Chicago.
The rest of the drive was mostly uneventful. We drove past several farms and saw lots of corn again. We also passed a lot of windmills. We spotted some hot air balloons going up to watch the sunset. We stopped in Bloomington for dinner at Taco Bell. After sunset, we noticed we could see the blinking lights of several windmills in the distance. With the land so flat the lights dotted the horizon all around us, that was cool to see. It was late by the time we arrived in Naperville, a suburb outside Chicago. Our plan for Sunday is to do laundry, finish up work on the website, and relax. Next week, we plan on going into Chicago to try deep dish pizza and see the “Bean”.
Fun Facts from Week 18:
- The Current River gets its deep green color from minerals dissolved in the water.
- Abraham Lincoln’s son sold the Springfield house for a dollar to the city with the condition that tours of the house must always be free.
2 responses to “Week 18”
I love the pic of you in the cave. And thought it was cool about the admission price to Lincoln’s house.
The cave was very cool! I’m glad we were able to see it when it wasn’t too busy.