Surprise!!

During the planning of this trip we saw that the forecast for Tuesday was rain all day - it never wavered so we knew what to expect.  Branson, MO is only a short 30 minute drive from where we were staying so we planned on going to check it out.  We got up early, as is our norm, and headed across the state line.  The first thing we noticed was the further north we drove the more color we saw in the trees!  

I didn't really know what to expect in Branson - I must have seen something a long time ago that showed a "strip" ... that is what I had in my head anyway - I thought it would be like Vegas!  With a strip that you could walk along and touristy things to do.  It isn't like that.  We got there at about 8:00 AM and nothing opens until 10:00!  Not being what I had expected, and not wanting to wait around 2 hours to try to find something to do we decided to go on out to Table Rock Lake.  

I had been to Table Rock several times when I was MUCH younger and wanted to see if it was like I remembered.  We went to the state park entrance and drove through.  It is a beautiful place and we put it on our bucket list of places to stay at later!

We continued on down the road and saw a sign for Dogwood Canyon Nature Park.  We didn't have anything else to do so we decided to go check it out.  Boy were we ever glad we did!

It was still raining while we were there, but we checked out the visitor center and looked around a little and decided we would certainly come back again.

That is just what we did!  Wednesday we slept in, but headed toward Dogwood Canyon about 8:00 AM.  This is a GREAT area for hiking.  There is a paved trail, it is fairly flat.  This park has a TON of activities available - horseback riding, bicycles, fishing as well as hiking through the canyon.  Right around the first bend we saw our first waterfall.

We continued down the trail and came to this beautiful handmade covered bridge.

I loved the way the look changed as I got closer...

and closer!

 Finally a view of the inside.

One of the main attractions in Dogwood Canyon is the Hope Wilderness Chapel.  They do weddings here and I told Pepaw we need to renew our vows here for our 50th wedding anniversary!

At the far end of the chapel, behind where the bride and groom would stand you look through two HUGE glass doors and floor to ceiling windows and see this!

We walked around that area and we found this interesting leaf on a bench - couldn't resist the contrasting patterns.

About 1/2 mile further down the trail we came across Thunder Falls.  This is another highlight of the hike, I think you can see why!

We continued past the Chuck-wagon and Three Shoots Pine to the Glory Hole.  I loved this look at a small waterfall through the bridge.

As well as the intricacies of the metalwork on the fencing.

Look at the trout in the pool!

By this time we were worn out and still had to hike back.  There is a lot more trail, so we'll certainly have to go back again!

 Again, I have a lot more pictures to go through - but these were some of my favorites.  

Monday - NOT what we planned!

We heard so much about Hawksbill Crag that it was certainly on our "go to" list.  We decided Sunday night that we would get up early on Monday and see if we could catch the sunrise there.  We were up at 4:00 A.M. and ready to go.  We got in the car and cranked it up and what do we see??? Low tire pressure light flashing!  NOOOOOOOO!  Pepaw checked the pressure and we were about as low as you can be and still drive safely.  We found Walmart's website and it said they opened for auto service at 7:00 so we headed that way.  Walmart's service department doesn't open until 8:00!  Oh well, no one else does either, and we were already there, so there we stayed!  Our tire was repaired and we were done by 8:45 and BONUS - they didn't charge us because we had to wait so long!!!  Not their fault, but it sure made us happy customers!  

Now we had to make a new plan!  We decided it was a good day to go caving.  We took off for Mystic Cave and Crystal Dome.

 We got to go into Mystic Cave first - and we were the only visitors so we got a private tour!

This is "The Bell" the biggest formation in this cave and the one you will see on most of their advertising.

Loved these "frozen waves".

A stalagmite and a column with many stalactites on the ceiling around them.

There were some beautiful draperies.

And at the end of the tour they show how it was done in the "old days"...very "theatrical" with colored lights...Loved the Red, White, and Blue together!

After this tour we went back in to the Crystal Dome cave.  Both are on the same property.  This is the older cave and one of the things we learned on our tour was that there was a time that folks just paid their money and went into the cave without a guide.  A lot of them broke some of the formations and took them down the road to a shop and sold them.  It really makes me sad to see this!

We were part of a group on this part of the tour, so it wasn't as easy to get pictures.  This is the view from the entrance.

And one of the rooms.

I did get some other pictures but I want to take some time going through those and find the best of the formations.

After we finished the tour the manager told us about The Cliffs.  It is a restaurant near the top of a mountain.  This would be their last week open until spring and they only serve breakfast and lunch so we decided today was the day we needed to go on up the mountain. This is the view from their porch!

After lunch we headed back to Harrison.  I had read in the book we got at the visitors center that there was a beautiful cemetery (open to tourists!) We went by the visitor's center and got directions and headed out to see what was so special.  The trees were amazing!

There are those beautiful burgundy/purple leaves again!

It really was beautiful and I'm grateful they allow photographers a chance to capture the beauty.  It was very calm, peaceful, and everyone there was very respectful.

We knew Tuesday was going to be rainy - so it was off to Branson, MO to see what we could see there.  It was quite interesting. More on that tomorrow!

Birthday Trip! Day 1

This year for my "Birthday Trip"  (in reality our quest for fall foliage) we picked the Buffalo River area of Arkansas.  We set out very early Saturday morning 11/1. We found the Shady Grove RV park and got all checked in and set up then drove to Harrison, AR to eat and get a few supplies.  We stopped by the visitor center but it wasn't open on Saturday...exhausted we decided to go back and try to get some rest and start looking for good spots on Sunday.

We were up early and chose Steel Creek for our first stop.  

We parked near the campground and walked on a short trail to the river.  I took a few shots, the one above is one of my favorites. Then we walked along the bank and I saw these beautiful purple leaves!

Purple leaves always tend to catch me by surprise!

I took another of the river - 

And then we walked back up to the campgrounds.  Just on the other side of the road we spotted a trail so we thought we would check it out!

It was a beautiful trail, a pretty even walk, shady and peaceful.  We did come across a little bit of color but it wasn't really what we were expecting from our reading and the pictures we'd seen on the internet.  

After walking the trail for a bit we decided to head on over to the Lost Valley Trail...ever hopeful for more color!  This is a pretty well known hike and is family friendly for the most part.

It has some really interesting features along the trail including Jig Saw Blocks that look as though they have fallen from the bluff above, Cob Cave with a natural pool area, and Eden Cave and Eden Falls.  The path is fairly level and smooth until you get ready to go up to the cave and falls.

Nice that they have steps to help you climb up there!

We made it as far as the falls, but chose to NOT climb on up to the cave - it was getting late and we decided to head on back to camp.  We knew there were more days and more hikes to come so we weren't going to rush anything!

We were in for a few unexpected turns during this trip, even without a set agenda.  We had talked about a few things we wanted to do or see and each evening we would set out a loose plan...we were almost ALWAYS surprised where we ended up! RARELY where we planned to be!

Texas State Fair Fun

On Friday Pepaw and I took a trip to the State Fair of Texas.  It had been a while since we had been and I was really looking forward to it.

Of course NO trip to the fair would be complete without a Big Tex sighting!  Of course MY perspective is quite different from most people's, HA!  I loved the boots in the cactus - and it kind of shows just how BIG Big Tex is!

As you walk through the grounds you can't help but notice the beautiful blossoms all around...I had to take a picture of my favorite purple flowers.

We walked through one of the buildings and I spotted this sign all aglow!

Then we decided to take a stroll down the midway. Some of the rides were a lot of fun to take some pictures of!

And there were plenty of Dallas Police Officers to make you feel quite safe.

It got quite crowded in the midway and we decided it was time for us to bid this trip to the fair adieu, so we headed toward the parking lot.  I stopped for one final shot of the setting sun behind the fair.

Until next time....