June 2-4, 2018 Columbia, Kentucky To Van Buren, Missouri

Another too hot and humid day. Checked out town, One kind of deli eating place, a general store/pizza joint and two churches. We went to the Civil War museum at the campground. Then read and worked on my basket.

Spanish bayonets, a type of yucca. Beards and Rose's General store in Columbia. We went in and he had a beard and she looked like Rose.  The sun behind the clouds at sunset looked kind of cartoony. The host gave me a big box of pecans from her brothers yard. He has 7 trees in his yard in Tennesse, she has way too many. I cracked 150 of them and got about 3/4 of a quart ziplock of nuts. Only 350 more to go. They go pretty fast with this fancy pecan cracker. 

Sunset tonight was behind lots of clouds over the Mississippi River. A strip sunset. We drove across the Ohio River into Illinois/ across the narrow tip near Cairo,  then over the Mississippi River into Missouri. On the Great River Road in Illinois, Southern Branch of the Lincoln Heritage Trail. Past the ad for Lambert's Cafe, Home of the Throwed Roll. They roll out carts of fresh rolls and throw them to who ever wants one. We had lunch there years ago.

Down John's street to the RV park. It was advertised at $25 for the site. Well it was $25 for the site, then another $12.50 person making it $50 so we went down the road to the Big Spring RV park for $32 a night. Here were are in our nice shaded spot on the river. We visited Big Spring in the Ozark National Riverway which had facilities built by the CCC

Big Spring in the Ozarks in Missouri is huge, one of the largest in the world. Around 286 billion gallons of water a day bubble up from under a dolomite cliff.  It is turquoise  from the dissolved minerals kind of like glacier melt. Really beautiful.

So beautiful I took too many photos of it. These two are where it bubbles up. 

John walking the trail along the run off from the spring. We had planned to kayak on the Current river, it usually crystal clear water fed from many springs like this but the big rain storm this last weekend turned it muddy brown. So we decided to pass. 

The CCC built most of the buildings in the park. Here are the dining hall and the visitors center. Last year there was a huge flood in this valley so the building are under repair still. 

The step on the front door broke and does not come out. I put a step stool under the door. I forgot and  tumbled out the door and beat myself up. Bangs and bruises and just a couple road rashes from the cement. My foot hurt the most so I elevated and wrapped medicinal meat from the freezer around it, since we don't have room for ice or frozen peas in the freezer. It feels better now 24 hours later. I will have to repair the nail polish!

Here is where I fell, it is about 3 1/2 feet from the bottom of the door to the ragged cement below. We had thought about kayaking the Current River. Usually it is crystal clear beautiful water, this is what it looks like today with the floods from upstream. We passed. 

Sunset tonight.