It has been a long, long break from blogging for me. Several reasons – of course, the most obvious – no prizes for guessing this one – the Covid pandemic! Personally, too, for reasons not as obvious – this last year and a half has been debilitating – I literally had no words left at all (but we’re not getting into that today). When I did feel ready to write again, I thought I would come back with a deep and meaningful post about this year, and the profound impact it has had – but I found myself not quite ready for that either. Then I decided – I’m going to shelve that deep and meaningful post until I’m ready for it, and just move on. No explanation for the long silence, just a simple return to blogging. So here we go – cranking up those rusty writing gears!

To travel or not to travel has been the question in our household for the past few weeks. We were all vaccinated, the number of cases seem to be dropping everywhere, and as long as we found a place with outdoor activities, we should be fine, right? Oh, and no flights please! So what’s within driving distance, outdoors, and still fun? Voila – Lake of the Ozarks!!There was still a lot of back and forth, and it wasn’t until the Monday before Memorial Day that I even called Sunny’s boarding place to see if they could take him. Once they confirmed they had a deluxe cat-suite available for him – it really is quite fancy, almost like a 3 room apartment for the well-traveled cat! – we started looking for our own accommodation. Didn’t really fancy most of the listings – luckily stumbled upon an Air BnB which was actually a Wyndham timeshare!! 2 bedroom condo, lakefront views – sold!!

The plan was to leave bright and early on Friday morning – although, it was mid-morning by the time we had the car loaded and ready to go. An unexpected storm was moving in, dropping temperatures to the fifties – and a mixup about a track meet gave us our own personal thunderstorm in the car! A damp, dreary and gray start to our weekend getaway! We had asked Google to give us the fastest route – and, fastest or not, it certainly was the loneliest set of back roads that I have ever seen. Literally felt like we were driving through the middle of nowhere – no little towns, no gas stations, certainly no fast food places! By the time we reached Quincy (and civilization) – we were all starving and a McDonalds chicken sandwich had never sounded more appealing!! We rolled into Osage Beach by 5pm, and the condo was delightful!!

We still had a bit of daylight left – so headed to Bagnell Dam. The Lake of the Ozarks is actually the reservoir created by this dam on the Osage river. The shape of the lake is not what you would expect – with all it’s little bays and coves, it resembles nothing more than a dragon. And as we were to soon discover, to get to a place just across the shore, often meant a long detour by road! We drove to the Bagnell Dam lookout point – and it’s a nice little area, with boards explaining the history of the dam and the area. So Osage comes from the name of the Osage tribe who lived in this area at the time of the Louisiana purchase, but couldn’t find the root for ‘Ozarks’. And while the lookout point was rich in historical detail, the view was quite obscured by the vegetation. We had to go a little further down to get a good picture. There’s also a little road that branches off the route to the lookout point, and this actually took us to the base of the dam – now that’s a great view! The dam is in the most perfect spot – total credit to the engineer who scouted the location!! Continue past the lookout point, and you’re driving on the dam itself! The road from the dam leads to the Bagnell Dam Boulevard – plenty of bars and restaurants – but the crowds and the complete absence of masks was a little scary. It was like we had entered a time capsule to pre-Covid days!! We headed back to our condo – quick stop at a grocery store to pick up water – and the first of the frozen meals I had packed.

There’s nothing quite like waking up in a hotel room, and then lolling in bed watching TV – especially if there’s a Harry Potter marathon playing!! It was a miracle that we dragged ourselves out of the hotel room – with no real itinerary, or places to tick off, this was going to be quite a relaxed vacation. We had some idea of renting a boat, get onto the water – after all, that’s the number one activity in the Ozarks. But the aftermath from the storm still lingered, and the morning was still too cool to consider being drenched – so we moved that to next day’s agenda. What would get the chill off – nothing but a brisk walk along the many trails of Ha Ha Tonka State Park! We first did an easy trail – up to an old ‘castle’ – and then a longer walk around the base of the hill. The first part was fairly easy – even for strollers and little children – and although the castle isn’t really very castle-y, the views from the top are fairly good! The second trail we did was a little harder, a lot of climbing up and down, and a narrow trail along the edge of the cliff. The ‘Natural Bridge’ was a wonder to see, but we never did find the ‘Colosseum’ – probably the dense woods to blame!

Although we had set off with a hearty breakfast – all that walking worked up quite the appetite. This is the part of the day when everyone is hungry, but just cannot agree on what/where to eat. Which leads to a lot of driving around, with increasingly frayed tempers and then we usually end up at a Jimmy John’s or Subway because it’s the easiest. Not this time! We were headed to the Redhead Lakeside Grill and Yacht Club – fine lakeside dining! It certainly was an amazing place – again, no masks, huge crowds – and we were dismayed to find that even at 3pm in the afternoon, there was an hour wait for a table!! Luckily, we found a quieter place – and although we didn’t get the lakeside views, the food was certainly top notch – Pappo’s pizzeria!! Great decor, especially this unique map of the Lake of the Ozarks! Topped off the meal with a stop at Andy’s Frozen Custard – best Strawberry Shortcake Sundae ever!! Back to the condo, and an odd time to nap – but nap we did, waking up in time for what ended up being a wild goose chase to view fireworks. We drove around quite a bit – even stumbling upon an amazing place for dinner – but no fireworks!!

Sunday dawned bright and sunny – perfect day to be out on the lake with a picnic – or so we thought!! We hadn’t counted on the busiest day of the busiest weekend of the season – so, no boats available!! As a last resort, we decided to go to a beach in the Lake of the Ozarks State Park – I had seen an ad for boat rental, maybe we would get lucky? At Public Beach #1 – seriously, that’s it? They couldn’t come up with a better name than that?! – there were plenty of boats being launched – even a couple of spectacular JetSkis – but nothing available to rent. So that’s that – we were now faced with an afternoon with nothing planned. Didn’t really fancy another walk in the woods, and to just think about driving around looking for another boat rental place was depressing. We did run into our friends from Peoria, the P family, and made dinner plans with them – something to look forward to!! The other option I had in my back pocket – go to the Stark Caverns. Central Missouri is literally riddled with these limestone caves, and I had planned on visiting the Stark Caverns on our drive home – so that got bumped up a day. Manasi wasn’t too happy with the change – but short of her dad actually buying a boat, it didn’t look like we were getting on the water today – so Stark Caverns it was!! Moral of the story, if you want to rent a boat in the Ozarks, plan ahead!!

These caves are all big tourist attractions. The paths inside are well laid out, and the insides are quite well-lit – and there are always options to sit out the more difficult portions of the tour. It is still a cave, though – there’s water dripping, slippery spots, and you have to stick to the path, and not wander off. If you’re brave enough to proceed (I’m kidding, there’s no bravery needed – it’s as easy as a walk in the mall!) – you will be rewarded with an incredible wonderland! The stalactites and stalagmites and columns – drop by drop, the amazing power of water has carved out these incredible formations! Can you imagine the wonder the first humans to lay eyes on this marvel must have felt? Of course, now the hand of man can be seen everywhere – and the strategic lighting beautifully enhances the natural glory! In the deepest part of the cave, they will turn the lights off to show you how dark it really is – and believe me, you don’t know dark until you’ve been in a dark cave! Also fun – the different shadows cast by the formations – we identified a couple of US presidents and also a few Avengers! Our tour guide was very entertaining and that really made the whole experience awesome – enough to turn Manasi’s mood around! And a pleasant surprise awaited her when we got out of the cave – our friends had somehow, magically, managed to rent a boat – and we could have it for an hour or so. Back to PB #1, and Manasi was able to get her checkmark – a boat on the Lake of the Ozarks!! Doesn’t get any better than this – oh wait, it actually does!

We had just enough time for a dip in the pool before the Ps arrived – well, a dip for Manasi, Ajey and I were happy to soak in the hot tub! After several rounds of drinks and Ozarks Monopoly, we headed out to dinner. Taking no chances with the fireworks today, I had called ahead to the restaurant to confirm the time for the fireworks – didn’t want this evening to be a damp squib like the last!! The restaurant we were headed to – LandShark Bar and Grill – is located in the Margaritaville Resort – and it looked incredible, enough to say that we would definitely stay here next time in the Ozarks! Since there are so many places to visit – and we rarely repeat a destination – a favorite family inside joke is to say “When we’re here next, which is never…..” – I’m ready to break that rule for a stay at the Margaritaville Resort, for sure!! We arrived just as the fireworks were starting – a good 15 minutes before the time on the website – so thank you restaurant guy for the correct information!! And this is the one thing that never gets old – every single time, fireworks are just as majestic – feeling the boom right in your very heartbeat, and then seeing that sky explode in an incandescent burst of colors – always chokes me up! And after that magnificent show, a fabulous dinner with close friends! And yes, it can be said now – it truly doesn’t get any better than this!!

Next morning, after a mandatory stop at the Ozarks Outlet Mall – we started the drive back. Stark Caverns had been such a big hit, that we were going to a slight detour and visit the Meramec Caverns close to St. Louis. The drive that followed seemed like the DoT had accidentally asked a roller-coaster designer to design a state highway and then an Interstate. Up and down, curvy and at times, even a strange sideways motion – it was torture, pure and simple! Plan was to stop in Rolla for lunch, but by the time we could agree on a place, Rolla was a memory in the rearview mirror. We took the exit for the next Subway into a little town called Cuba – interesting world tour we had here, we had already driven through Vienna and Mexico – where the best Mexican food ever was waiting for us!! Gorgeous outdoor patio, great food! Well-fortified, we were at Meramec Caverns in no time! This place is much bigger, much more commercialized than the Stark Caverns – the caves themselves are gorgeous, but I feel we had a better time at Stark. 2 reasons. One, the tour guide – we could barely understand the guide here – it was really hard to even hear what he was saying. Two, the size of the group was huge – and there were many conversations going on – which made it harder to hear the guide. The highlight of the tour was a light and sound show in the ‘Theatre’ – a special patriotic show for Memorial Day.

We had a last stop before our final stretch to Peoria – Manasi wanted to take look at the campus of Washington University in St. Louis. Wait, that can’t be right – we’re looking at colleges already??!! This breaks my heart a little, I’m so not ready to let go – so no pictures to document our very first college campus tour. It really is a beautiful campus, though – and not so far from Peoria. 2 more years – 2 more years to go!! We picked up Sunny from the boarding place, and that’s it – our first vacation in almost 18 months. It did feel good to get out, eat in restaurants, stay in hotels – although to be honest, it’s going to be a while before we’re completely comfortable in a public setting. As for the blog, I do hope to post a little more frequently – even though we don’t travel as much, I’m sure I’ll find plenty to write about!!

Until next time!!

Lake of the Ozarks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_of_the_Ozarks

Stark Caverns: https://www.starkcaverns.com

Meramec Caverns: https://www.americascave.com