September 14, 2011 - Bella and Big Spring

Meet Bella:

Yes, we finally did name her – Bella – short for Grizabella (from the play “Cats”).  

Our family:

  

Aren’t they cute?  This morning we had a thunderstorm.  Well, both cats ended up in bed with me.  When Bella started to cry, Dusty started to bath her – as if to reassure her that it was okay.   It is going to be an adventure .

 

Today we started our tour by heading into Van Buren to check out that area.

First stop was the Ozark National Scenic Riverways Visitor Center – the CCC was also active here.

  

The Current River which runs thru Van Buren:

 

   

Seats in the water – interesting:

I just love this picture – picture yourself sitting here in the AM with a cup of coffee just watching the river go by:

 

Information on Van Buren and Big Spring:

  

Notice what it says about the Spring?  The largest single orifice fresh water spring in the U.S.  It has a maximum flow of 840 million gallons every 24 hours and a daily average of 250 million gallons – WOW!

More info:

 

The Carter County Court House:

Notice the stone – it is actually some stone and some coral.  We could not find out the story on the building – sorry.

From town we went to find the Big Spring (turns out, it was right near the campground – LOL).  Here it is:

  

Here it is bubbling up from the ground:

This spring is one of the largest of the world.  Dye tracing has determined the source of all this water to be a recharge area extending as much as 40 miles to the west.  The spring remains between 55 and 58 degrees year round and the color is attributed to the minerals dissolved in the water.  The bright green plants are watercress.

The spring flowing downstream:

What a beautiful color:

More info on the spring:

 

A small trail around the spring:

  

We then drove around the park.  We found this interesting building:

 

The Lodge:

View from the lodge – this is the water from the spring that feeds into the Current River in the distance:

Notice the clarity of the water and the bright green watercress:

One of the cabins – we were able to do a little tour – very nice:

 

Back at our sites we just hung out for the rest of the day: 

Another really nice area and deserving of a return trip!

September 13, 2011 – Travel to Missouri

We left our little spot today and traveled thru part of Kentucky:

 

Over the Ohio River:

Into Illinois:

 

The town of Cairo (above) was located between the Ohio and the Mississippi River and had some grand churches and houses.  It must have been a bustling town at one time but like a lot of our other towns, it is going down hill – so sad.

We crossed the mighty Mississippi:

 

Into Missouri:

 

We are staying at the Big Spring Campground which is part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.   It was very hot and “buggy” as we set up so the AC was turned on and up – WOW!  

And another Cat Update:

Dusty and the new little kitty are now playing with each other – Yea!!  So she is a keeper – :-).    How did she travel, well, she slept on my lap most of the time.  At least she was not hiding.

We all went to eat at the Stray Dog BBQ in Van Buren and then took a little ride around town.  Tomorrow we will do a little more exploring so stay tuned.

Stats for today:

Miles Traveled: 185 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Kentucky: Canal Campground Road; SR-952; SR-452; US-62; I-24; I-60; US-51

Illinois: Us-51; US-60

Missouri:  US-60; SR-103