Missouri & Illinois

We left Mount Magazine in Arkansas and headed North 150 miles to Branson Missouri where we stayed at Table Rock State Park on Table Rock lake.  The campground and State Park were very nice, and busy. We stayed here six nights, saw three shows and had a pretty good time just looking around the area.  Branson is full of shopping, food, and entertainment.  While in Branson we took a three-hour dinner cruise aboard the Showboat Branson Belle.  The dinner and entertainment were great!  We also did the Yakov Smirnoff Dinner show  - another really great evening.  And, we did an after noon Marty Robbins tribute - They did a nice job and we enjoyed the two hour show sitting three feet from the stage...

Showboat Branson Belle

On-board the Belle

This guy was amazing - you had to be there.

After Branson we drove up to Lake of the Ozarks State Park for a couple nights.

At Lake of the Ozarks - We're actually parked level - (Must be camera angle)

 

After ozarks we stopped one night at the Casino Queen across the river from the St. Louis Arch.  Of course we made our donation in the casino....

We're now at Wolf Creek State Park in Central Illinois for a couple days before heading to a Bluegrass Weekend in Remington, Indiana before completing our plans in Ft. Wayne, Indiana where we'll visit with sons and grandkids for a couple weeks. After that we'll head back to Florida for the winter.

This Owl was posing for us at Wolf Creek

Mt. Magazine - Arkansas

Mount Magazine is the highest point in Arkansas. We stayed in the State park for 6 nights just a few feet from the summit which is 2753 ft.  That doesn't seem very high compared to last years' Rockies, but it was high enough to escape the heat down below in the 90's and occasionally over 100 degrees.  We drove into Paris, AR a couple times for lunch at a great restaurant - The Grapevine.  Really great food and service. Seemed like everybody in the town was there.  The temps on the mountain while we were there was in the 80's and as low as 65 at night.  The State Park has a fairly new lodge, opened in 2004, and a visitors center that looks about the same age.  The hiking trails are fun because they follow the rocky cliffs where the view is great.  Hiking was our primary activity as well as attending  a few of the brief nature walks with Don, the State Park interpretive guide.

At the summit

One of the ridge trails - on the edge

A popular launch site for hang glider enthusiasts - One hang glider set a record from the Mount Magazine launch site -
A six hour flight North about 170 miles into Missouri.

Hummingbird at the visitors center

Two steps back?  Don't think so.....

Sunset on the mountain after a light rain....