B~Family Adventures

We spent Wednesday through Sunday last week 4 wheeling near Chadwick Missouri. It was a long awaited trip, as we have been invited every 6 months for about the past 10 years. Everything finally came together this year so we could go. It was everything we had hoped it would be.

Our trip started out a little slow, but all ended well. We had wanted to leave town around 9am Wed morning so we could stop by the big RV Salvage in Joplin, but didn?t get headed out until a little after noon. We went to shut the slide outs, and they wouldn?t budge! We think our battery just doesn?t have enough juice to run them?.we are hoping. With a couple of jacks, tugging and a lot of strong words, we got them closed. The winds were really whipping Wed, and with the extra weight, it was slow moving. We averaged between 45 & 55mph until we got east of Joplin. Once we got in behind more trees we were able to get up to around 60. Cameron, Amy and Breanna were in front of us most of the way, so they showed us the way, thank goodness, because we wouldn?t ever have found it in the dark.

We got to camp (Cobb Ridge, Mark Twain Natl. Forrest, Chadwick Missouri) around 10:30pm. Kyle & Alondra left town at 5:30, and they pulled in behind us about 5 min after we got here, must be nice to drive that fast. ? Between all of us, we got the camper backed perfectly in the dark. We waited up for Bob & Lori to help them park and set up camp. They got there about 1:30, so it was a short night, but with all the excitement, we had extra energy.

The whole place is beautiful, with wonderful trees, awesome trails for all riding levels and pretty darn good camping spots.

I didn?t get to take as many pictures as I would like to have as most of my riding was done at night. Since we have Cyler, we have to take turns going out, and somehow I ended up with the night shift every time! I learned one valuable lesson. It?s not always in your best interest to follow your leader, sometimes they like to try the more difficult trails. I mistakenly followed Shane up one such trail. It was a pretty nasty one, but I figured he knew best, so I followed blindly along! I got over half way up before I got stuck, and I was stuck good. There was a jump directly in front of me, a cliff on one side, and trees on the other. I gave it my best go, but I couldn?t get up the large rocks and ended up letting Shane take my 4 wheeler the rest of the way up.

I did get to start out one trip in the daylight, but it got dark before we reached our destination, Rattlesnake Cave. I promise to get pictures of this place the next time we visit; it looks like a scene out of an Indiana Jones movie. The trail down to it is stone ?puzzle pieces? laid into a very narrow trail on the side of a cliff. Alia was on in front of me, so it was one of the more scary moments of my trip.

The cave was awesome, I wish we had made it in time to have looked around a bit more. We did go back into it quite a ways before turning around.

*Note to self*  Next time we go on a cave adventure, make sure we have more than one working flashlight among us!

By the way, I'm loving my new camera. It?s thanks to it I got some great pictures of us in the dark cave.

Once we got packed up Sunday, we headed to Lambert?s, home of the throwed rolls (http://www.throwedrolls.com/ we went to the one in Ozark). They always stop here on the way home from Chadwick, and I?m sure glad we got to go this time! It was great. The portions of food were HUGE, and the atmosphere was so much fun. They offer ?pass arounds? which are people coming around with pots of different foods, fried okra, fried potatoes, black eyed peas, and macaroni & tomatoes that they just keep scooping up. Of course, they also throw the rolls (big ol? delicious ones) to you and they bring around molasses. They also have very large cups of ice cold sweet tea, as my legs found out. Dear sweet Cyler pulled my cup over almost as soon as I got it. It was very refreshing!

The trip home went much quicker, we got to drive about 65mph the whole way and made it back in about half the time.

Here are a few pictures of the camper in use. We still have a lot to do, but it?s sure improving!

One last mystery picture.  Can anyone (who hasn't been told) please tell us what this is a picture of?