Since my knee injury from the Mount Marcy climb, healing had been slow. Both knees were drained twice of Synovial fluid by one doctor, but then I got a second opinion doc and I’m so happy I did. My first guy didn’t seem to know what was going on and just gave me an “overuse” diagnosis. The second guy told me that while it was “overuse”, it was not the tiny meniscus tear in one knee that was causing swelling and pain in both (because what sense does that make). Based on the inclined activity I was doing over a long period of time, the under side of my knee caps were worn away a bit. He recommended that I go to a physical therapist. After x-rays, an MRI, 2 fluid drains for both knees, and and my slew of physical therapy exercises, I finally started to feel better. Had I been doing the exercises from the start, the healing time would have been much shorter than 6+ months. The incompetent first doctor and the long time between appointments was frustrating and the process took longer than it needed to be. This was the first time I’ve experienced any pain in my knees. I just didn’t know if doing certain things would hurt it more or if I just needed to sit around and rest. I was in limbo for awhile not knowing what I could and could not do safely. I had lots of questions that doctors couldn’t answer, until I went to the physical therapist.
I had no idea that I had injured myself so bad until I did Tennessee’s High Point a week after Marcy. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back… or in this case, my knee caps. According to my PT doc, this is an injury that is more common in women because of being curvy with hips and how that makes the knees bow inward a bit. That along with doing 17 miles in one day and then another inclined hike a week later, it was inevitable. So after A couple of months of physical therapy exercises and stretches, I knew that I would be ready to do four high peaks on the easy side. I even got the green-light from my physical therapist doctor!
During my healing, in early December I started dating a man that came to a group walking event I was hosting for my EverWalk group. It was an ugly Christmas sweater walk. At this point, I was already tentatively planning this trip knowing that I would be vigilant about my exercises and get back out there sooner or later. Early on, I was discussing the trip with him and randomly asked if he’d be interested in joining since he loves road trips as well. To my surprise, he said yes! This was on our second date. Ha ha. I had hoped he would still like me in the next four months to do the trip, but as always I was mentally prepared to go solo…just in case.
By the time April 8th arrived, I’m happy to say that Patrick was still willing and able to take the road trip with me! I woke up really early at 7:40am on the day of the trip excited to go. I hadn’t been sleeping well at all the weeks leading up to the trip because the excitement of it made my insomnia worse…as usual. So, I took some good sleep aids and passed out early. Patrick still had to go to his office that morning and tie up loose ends with his work, but he was up late finishing his packing, so he didn’t get to the office til about 10. I knew that I had time to leisurely finish last minute stuff and love on my kitty before leaving him. When he got to my house, we added his stuff to my car and rolled out about 1pm.
I took the first leg of driving because he was sleepy. After a couple of hours of music, singing, and Patrick playing his hand drum a bit, we stopped to eat lunch at McAllister’s Deli in Northern Columbus because I hadn’t eaten any breakfast before we left. The sky was just a perfect sky for the entire drive during the day. I couldn’t stop admiring it and enjoyed the drive completely.
Then when the sun was setting, we stopped at Culver’s for dinner. That’s also when he took over driving. The last couple of years, my eyes have gotten worst at the night driving. It truly sucks because I used to love driving at night, but now, for safety, I try to limit it.
We were trying to get to see the World’s Largest Pitchfork before dark, but we ended up getting there around 9:15. Oops. I was happy they had some lights on the roadside attraction, I was not so happy that it was a windy, drizzling, 28° night. Burrrr!
I saw a glimpse of the St. Louis Arch on the drive while Patrick got us the rest of the way to our hotel for the night. We got to the Economy Inn at St. James finally around 2am. We had planned on camping the entire trip, but the forecast was a bit too cold for that, still being so far North.
I took a pill and tried to sleep shortly after stopping…Epic.Fail.
April 9th:
Once we checked out, I fulfilled my Cracker Barrel hankering for breakfast. I was not very coherent because I didn’t sleep one minute! Literally not ONE minute. My childlike excitement, anxiety about getting enough sleep to enjoy the day, and Patrick snoring loudly kept me alert the entire night. That’s bad even for me. Yep. Insomnia is great.
On the drive to Missouri’s high point, Patrick saw some little stores that he wanted to check out. We had plenty of daylight, so we popped around antique stores and a large candy store called Old Village Mercantile. They have 600 varieties of old fashioned candy, fudge, coffee house and smoothie bar, antique gallery, gifts, handmade Artisan ice cream Located in the Historic Village of Caledonia. The smell was amazing! I got a chai tea and he got a yummy mocha. During our window shopping, I ended up finding an old butterfly wall hanging at Reed’s Relics that looked just like the ones that I had hanging in my bedroom as a child. Patrick found an old photo of what appeared to be a bluegrass band playing. He wanted to get it, but they were sold as a big box of photos and not individually. That sucked. Selling someone’s old family photos is so sad to me. These were real people. Will my high peaking photos someday end up in an antique store? Probably not since they are all digital. They will just fade away into oblivion… now that’s sad.
Close to 4, we made it to the highest point of Missouri, Taum Sauk Mountain! Burr! Yep, still cold. We spent an hour there including the easy .6 of a mile round trip hike, relaxing on the bench and taking photos. It was a sunny day with a still perfect sky, but also still chilly. The path to the high point was paved and very easy. On the way out of the area we stopped to see a lookout that is before the parking lot to Taum Sauk. I guess that was the “view” since there was not much of one at the actual high point. There is another trail that one can take to go see Mina Sauk Falls in the same area. It’s a 3 mile loop that a I had planned on taking, but a family passing us told us that it was muddy and wet and more difficult than the trail to the high point. I think anything is more difficult than that! The waterfall trail is rated as “moderate” on my All Tails app. Considering the very rough trails that I have done, this probably would have still been on the “easy” side for me, but I have seen many beautiful waterfalls already and was running on empty. I was already chilled and the thought of having wet feet when I was cold and tired already sounded awful. However, I was still ready to attempt it, or at least go until it got annoying, like the family did, but Patrick seemed to want to get moving, so that’s what we did.
In Annapolis, we saw a bald eagle high up in the trees and 2 vultures happily devouring a dead coyote corpse across the street. The eagle, no doubt, wanted in on that action. A couple of hours later we enjoyed our own late yummy dinner at Tequila’s Mexican Restaurant in the very small town of Piedmont, Missouri. I had a tequila night cap there in the hopes that it might help me sleep more than a couple of hours.
I don’t know how I did it, but I somehow made it through the day and really without too much struggle…meaning I didn’t die or get sick. Winning! Patrick did all the driving because I was not in any shape to do any, but at least it was a low driving day. I was happy to hear that Beaver Springs campground did not have a check out for us. They said that we could hang around until 2 the next day because it was a slow time of the year and it was Sunday the next day. Ha…cool.
April 10th:
I really tried going to sleep early, but it was after 2:30am before my brain let me sleep. Then I woke up freezing and had to force myself to slink out of my hammock to pee when it was much colder outside. The brisk morning air jolted me awake too much to go back to sleep. I only slept about 3.5 hours. Ugh! For those doing the math, that’s 3.5 hours of sleep in 2 days combined. I just sunk deep into my sleeping bag and rested my eyes until it got to the point that we needed to get going…then I got Patrick up. I had been making sure to take a slew of daily vitamins to keep me from getting sick as I galavanted around the midwest in a sleep deprived haze. This. Is. My. Life.
An hour into our route, we found a place called, Taco Taco in Poplar Bluff. At first I thought it was going to be a chipotle copy cat, but they had more options like cilantro and green onions and five different hot sauces choices. I went with the habanero hot sauce on my burrito bowl and it was amazing! Much better than Chipotle for sure!
Once we were food coma-fied (that’s food coma + satisfied for those of you don’t speak RED), we still had another 4 hours until Woodall Mountain, the highest peak in Mississippi.
The moment we got there, all I could think about was how I was going to jump out the instant the car stopped rolling and pee! I had been holding it for an hour or so and it was getting bad. But, as soon as we got up there, we saw a big white serial killer van chilling by the sign. Crap! A friendly older man waved at us with a big smile on his face. He was definitely excited to see someone else up there and talked to us for a very long time. That’s fine, but I was ready to unleash the Kraken still and eagerly looking for my chance.
While Patrick was listening to him talk about the high points he has done (which was not very many) and looking at his notebook of notes and information about them I started wandering away casually. I was so ninja about it that Patrick told me that he didn’t even notice I was gone for a several minutes. When he did notice that I had gone over the hill, Patrick told me that he started coming to find me to see what I was doing. Ha! Patrick knew what I was doing and had to distract him while I peed my brains out in private.
When I came back up, Patrick was still listening to his stories. In order to get out of view, I had to walk a good distance down the incline. I was patient for awhile, but I noticed the sun was starting to set behind the trees and I wanted to take photos at the sign still. After awhile, I just had to interrupt and tell him that I wanted to get photos of us before the sun went down completely. He understood and said his goodbyes and gave me his card to send him my blog…which honestly I can’t find where I put it as I write this. I hope I find it! I should have given him one of mine as well knowing I’d probably loose his in all the stuff we had thrown all over my car.
After the nice man drove away, Patrick made a joke about “my people” being weird. Aww! He was joking. I told him that not all of us are weird, but coming from me that was probably not very convincing.
So, while taking photos at the sign, I saw a tick crawling up my thigh, but was able to flick him off before he imbedded his dirty little gross parasitic head into me. This was moments after Patrick saw a little caterpillar crawling with intention fast up my body while I was sitting on the rock at the high point. I guess he wanted to reach the highest point too.
We watched the sunset and then left to make our way 3 hours further south to find our campsite and set-up after dark again. We kept trying to make it to camp before the sun set, but it wasn’t happening. Just too much to see and do in the day. It makes it very hard to find the sites when campgrounds are notoriously very dark.
Once set-up, we chatted a bit before trying to get some sleep…
April 11th:
I got a little more sleep than the day before, but not much to speak about. Still a bit chilly, but not terrible. We left by noon from Vaiden Campground. I loved the name and kept repeating it just because it was fun to say with a German accent. I’m easily amused.
An hour further south, we were searching for food. We went into a couple of stores and then it was recommend that we drive down the street further for Mexican. So, we did… Santa Fe, a modern Mexican bar and grill. Yes, Mexican again. Ha! I just know I can always find something to eat there being a vegetarian and all. It was so good! I loved that they had the traditional Mexican dishes, but also had things I’ve never ever seen on a menu in a Mexican restaurant like potato soup! That’s what I had for “breakfast” with NO regrets.
A little later into the drive someone mentioned ice cream and that sounded yummy, so as I drove, Patrick found us an ice cream joint a couple hours away. He ended up actually getting ice cream, but we noticed they had blackberry cobbler on the menu!!! Days earlier, I was a little bummed that Cracker Barrel stopped offering blackberry cobbler in lieu of their Peach (bleh), so that was totally amazing and unusual to find at an ice cream stand!
Then an hour later, complete with a sugar high, we changed in the car into pirates! We got ready right there in the parking lot at Driskill Mountain, Louisiana’s highest peak. We were like the pirate version of Batman and Robin! Haha!
In the middle of getting ready, a car pulled up right on my side. It was another fellow high pointer! He immediately asked me if we were getting ready to go on the trail or were we just leaving. When we told him we were getting ready to hike, he asked if he could join us. We said that he could, but we were still getting ready. We thought he was going to wait, but he could clearly see it was taking us some time to get our shit together and I was putting some make up on, so he then said, “I’ll just see you all on the trail. I just wanted to know that someone else was going to be on the trail with me.” He then hurried along on a mission. In all fairness, the sun was getting ready to set soon-ish, so I get it.
But man, do I feel all of what he said! I can’t say how many times that I’ve been high peaking alone and pull into a barren parking lot just wishing I’d see another non-creepy sole pull up. Or just hoping that someone will come later especially if you are pushing getting to the summit before dark which is something I strive for in order to get a good photo at the summits. It’s fairly intimidating to be close to sunset, totally and utterly alone, in an often remote area knowing wildlife is more active at dusk. Every little scurry and branch breaking is amplified. Your mind sees things that aren’t there in the shadows of the setting sun. But it’s a terrific feeling to be able to dig deep and find that you have a whole bunch of courage that you didn’t know you had in you. You need to find this courage to keep going deeper into the woods…alone. Just you, the woods, and a whole mess of wildlife. I am much tougher and aware of the country that I live in because my my travels.
So, we didn’t see the man who we later found out was named “Gregg Gregg”, until he was flying down the high point sweaty as we were booking it up. He stopped briefly to chat a bit. He asked if we were apart of the 50 States Highpointing Facebook Group. When I told him that I was, he mentioned his FB name, so that I could look him up later! He told us that he was in a hurry because he was headed to Arkansas that night to meet up with a friend and get that high peak in still! He told me that he would be posting his LA high point photo in a few minutes and that I could find him that way if I forgot his name. As we parted ways, I turned to Patrick and said, “See, not all of us are weird.” Bahahahahaha! I was redeemed. Thanks Gregg!
Sure enough, Gregg posted about his LA experience, but I was so busy with my own adventure that I almost forgot to look him up until later that night at camp. I saw that the girl, Carla, that I climbed New York’s high peak with tagged me in a post saying, “RED you’re famous!” Haha! When I clicked to look at the post it was Gregg Gregg saying, “Got here before dark and no snakes. Met RED on the trail. Super cool to meet fellow high pointers! Thanks to all that wrote me.”
Of course, the part of that post that stood out to Patrick was the “snakes” part. Yeeeah, he’s happy we did not see any snakes too. Me, not so much. So, once we got to the summit, we knew time was of the essence. We pulled my 2 pirate flags out of the bag and attached them to the sign right away! I put my scarf on my head, took a few photos of Patrick by a rock pile because it looked sweet and then focused on getting a good shot of the pirate scene we had quickly set-up.
I suppose I should take this time to explain why I wanted to do a pirate theme for this high point. Well, when I started high peaking, as a photographer, my focus was to get a great photo of me at the summit doing a different pose each time, even if just slightly different. This is how I make the small “high peaks” really fun for me. I’ve always loved dressing up, I’ve always loved taking photos (I have a BFA in Photography, but I got into it as a kid), and obviously I love hiking and climbing. So, when the high point is easy, I make it fun by sometimes adding more elements than just me standing normal by a sign. That’s boring to me.
The pirate thing is a bit more than me just “having fun” at a high peak though. My dad’s side of the family has been passing stories down for generations about our pirate ancestor that was one of John Laffitte’s men on his pirate ship. Laffitte was a French pirate and privateer (yes both at different times) and he and his brother, Pierre, had a front for his piracy in New Orleans doing blacksmithing. To this day, that ancient building still stands and is being used for a bar. The Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Pub Holds the title for being the oldest building to operate as a bar within the United States, to be exact. I was there years ago on an epic 32 day road trip with a friend. I’m slowly trying to finish an ebook about that one.
After taking a bunch of fun photos, we booked down the mountain, about half of our decent being in complete darkness. It was dusk when we started heading down. We saw no one else on the trail. It was pretty, rocky and not very strenuous at all. Being just a 1.8 mile loop, the small incline made it still an easy high point, but at least more work than the others so far. There was no view; only trees.
Fun fact: this is the second time I’ve used a pirate flag at a high point. The previous one was at Florida’s high point. I dressed as a beached mermaid with my pirate flag flying behind me. I’ve also dressed as a mermaid twice. Along with FL, I debuted my full “Mountain Mermaid” outfit on West Virginia’s highest peak. I’m proud to say the top that I made has help up so far. I think it may end up on another mountain at some point.
We were only 6 minutes away from our campsite at Creekwood Gardens RV Park. When we got there, the guy had us call so he could meet us and direct us to our site. He was a really friendly older man and showed off the nice bathroom, his new shower, and space that he uses for weddings right next to us. He said that the since the weather might turn bad, that we could move into the beautiful wedding venue, if needed. We had been watching the weather since we knew storms went though before we were there and were predicted for the following night. Welcome to “Tornado Alley”. We thought about the possibility of staying at this gorgeous area another night, if it meant that we would avoid more storms where we were headed in Arkansas. The nice man even offered us one of his cabins for a much cheaper rate because he seemed concerned about the weather. I think he quoted us $65 if we wanted to stay another night in one of the amazing cabins. However, it looked like one night would be sufficient. Even though there were strong winds, it was not serious enough to move into the shelter.
Patrick took the cover off of the ceiling of the tent because it was a bit stuffy and humid. We laid there and looked up at the stars and the wind blowing the trees until we got sleepy. Once in my hammock, I contuined to enjoy the loud squeaks and creaks of the trees dancing together overhead…
April 12th:
I didn’t sleep as horribly as I had been and woke up early. As I was finishing getting ready after my shower, Patrick knocked on the door. He wanted to show me a photo he took of a bug to ask if it was a tick. It was. Turns out, he found 2 ticks in his BEDDING in the morning when he was packing his stuff up. One was trying to bury his head into the foam he was partly using for his bed. He was using my very thick work out mat as well. We made sure everything was shaken out really well before going back in the car.
The night before, we briefly talked about going up Driskill Mountain again just to do it earlier in the day for better lighting. The place we were staying at was only 6 minutes away, so it was totally doable. However, when I woke up, I told him that I was cool with not doing it again because I was happy with the photos we took there and didn’t “need” to do it again unless he wanted too. Would it have been slightly better to get there a tiny bit earlier than we did? Sure, but that’s how it worked out. I guess, if we didn’t stop at the ice cream place, then it would have been better timing, but then we wouldn’t have met Gregg. Perhaps, we should have just set-up camp and then did the mountain the next morning, but I was not thinking clearly with my insomnia brain.
Once we were all packed up, we wandered around the beautiful grounds in the daytime. It was gorgeous! It looks like he could have several weddings at once there and everything was set-up to make a wedding photographer’s life so easy! I don’t think you can take a bad photo there! Little bridges over a pond, a swing with an archway of ivy over it, beautiful flowers and plants EVERYWHERE, several archways to get married under, cafe lights, and the beautiful wedding reception area. Hell, I want to get married there! I can imagine that the stagnate water may make the area very buggy during the warmer months unless treated, but WOW! When Patrick saw the cabins, he was impressed enough to consider staying in one, but we had already decided it was best to move on from that area because it was supposed to get stormy that night. I would definitely like to stay there again, if I ever happen to be in northern Louisiana in the future.
Hunger pulled us away from paradise and we found brunch at Sharron’s Cafe only 8 minutes away. It was defiantly a place for locals in the small town. Our waitress asked us where we were from immediately. I answered, “Ohio”, but Patrick quickly corrected me and said, “Florida”. After she left, I asked him why he had to lie to a stranger about that. He said that she could relate better to me if I said FL and not OH. She did mention that she loved Florida, but I just didn’t see the need to have to fakely relate to people with something that was not entirely true. Sure, I lived in Florida for many years, but I currently was from Ohio.
Everyone was very friendly. I got a yummy baked potato and a salad. When we were done eating, she brought us a slice each of freshly made chocolate cake! Apparently that’s a thing they do because she went around and gave everyone cake. Mmm! She overheard Patrick and I talking about how good it was and how nice that gesture was that she brought us each an additional piece. We were too full to eat it there, so she gave us a to go box to nibble at it on the road. Before we left, I went to the bathroom and was not surprised to come back to Patrick already deep in a conversation with an older lady eating alone behind us. Ha! He is compelled to talk to everyone! That’s fine, but I was ready to get a move on to the Bonnie and Clyde Ambush Museum in Gibsland, LA.
It was only a short 10 minute drive from the cafe and we pulled in a bit after 1:30, but Patrick wanted to pop into a thrift store that we passed on the way to eat. He did a quick run through while I waited in the car on the way to the museum. The moment we walked in, I noticed a sweet older looking gray and white kitty lounging across the desk. EEE! I didn’t even see the weathered man coming from the back room right away because I made a beeline the pet the kitty.
We spent a little more than an hour looking at things. There was actually more than I thought there would be there. I loved that they had a shot up Ford Model 40B Fordor Deluxe on display inside the building, but upon looking up if that was the real one, found out that it was a fake! The real one is in Nevada at a casino. Patrick was the one that noticed that the bullet holes in the death scene photo did not match up with the car on display. We compared it to the photo for some time before looking up where the real car was. Ha! Regardless, it was an interesting museum and I’m glad I went! I just wish there was a quicker way to distinguish between what was a real artifact and what was just a replica on display. Before leaving I got 2 smooshed pennies to add to my penny passport. lol One was of their portrait and one was of guns crossed and both with the name of the museum on them. Patrick got one of their portraits too because I kept messing it up. I wanted the gun one from the beginning, but happy that I got the other one as well. They had 2 other options, but I got the best 2 even though you can’t make them out in the portrait very well.
I told Patrick that when I had a job interview at Houston Police Department for a forensic photographer that I actually saw all of the crime scene photos from their spree in their negative room. For some reason, they were all stored there, including their death scene. They had a great photo department and the job was perfect for me, however I had to turn it down because the thought of living in Houston made me nauseous. I also struggled with the fact that even the high end of the salary scale would not pay for an apartment anywhere but the crack zone outside of downtown Houston. I looked and looked and crunched numbers, but my friend (that lives there) vetoed all the places I could afford. And don’t get me started on the traffic and the amount of life I would waste in traffic just getting to to work and home daily. I sadly turned down the best job offer I’ve ever received. I would have had the highest security clearance to photograph the president when he was in town. At the time, that was Bush. Sadly, It would have looked great on my resume, and they said I fit perfectly, but I digress…
The place where they were gunned down was only 7 miles from the museum, but it took us about a half hour to find it. Even though the guy at the museum gave us printed out instructions that he had already at hand. We went straight a bit when we should have turned right. Once we got there and were taking photos, Patrick went to the car and grabbed his cigar that he bought on the trip. That was perfect since one of the famous photos of Bonnie is of her with a cigar clinched in her teeth and a gun in her hand. I can’t believe we spent an hour and half there! Haha! After we visualized how the FBI ambush scene must have played out, we piled back into my car and headed north towards Arkansas. Driskill Mountain was the furthest south we ventured on the trip.
A little over 2 and a half hours later, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel again for food. These guys and Mexican places are EVERYWHERE, and I know I like their food, so it’s an easy go to when everything else seems to be BBQ. After eating, we sat in the rocking chairs out front and started a game of checkers even though they were missing a piece. Patrick just used a twig in its place. We hardly even got into our game by the time the sky started filling up with scary lightning very close by. I said screw the game and ran to the car, cowering and screaming, “We need to go now!”
Driving through Bismarck, AR was all through an intimidating thunderstorm that kept making me gasp and hunker down in my seat with all the close strikes. Patrick was concerned about driving in that, but I said that being in a car with the rubber tires was safer than sitting on Cracker Barrel’s porch! They have been having active tornados in the area, So we just ran. On our travels in previous days, we saw evidence of lots of downed trees and damage in some areas.
Once the storm was moving further away, Patrick drove up high to find a good lookout so I could see the lightning over a lake, but we could not find a good view. I thought that was nice of him to try though. Once we drove by Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs, the storm was over, but it was after 9 and the sun had set. That was fine because the big, old buildings looked cool lit up at night, but not cool enough for me to want to stop. It was just nice seeing them as we drove past slowly. On the way there, we heard the loudest toads / frogs along a dark road in Arkansas. We heard the echoing noise outside and at first we didn’t know what it was until we turned down the music and rolled down the windows. That’s how loud they were! We heard them over music and shut windows! We enjoyed their song for a while as we drove down the dark road. That moment lead to me playing The Toadies song, “I Come From the Water” which lead me to playing Toad the Wet Sprocket…and little did we know that the next night we would be staying in Toad Suck Campground. Bahahahaha! More on that later.
So, here is where the night gets even more nuts. After Bathhouse Row, we still had 2 hours until we got to our campground which was going to be Mount Magazine State Park where our last high point was. We were already going to get there late and long after dark, but on the drive up the tall mountain, the fog got really thick. It was hard to find our way up the mountain let alone find a campsite, but we finally did.
However, once we got everything set up, Patrick looked at the weather up and the weather had changed drastically from the last time we checked. We were still trying to navigate and miss any really bad storms. It wasn’t raining at that point, but a big storm was brewing and the wind was picking up fast. That’s not exactly an ideal situation for tent camping on top of a mountain. What really worried us was the tornado warning that was coming in a couple of hours. We thought about trying to get a couple of hours of sleep until about 6 AM when the weather advisory warning started, but it didn’t seem smart to try to go down a big mountain during the start of a tornado warning in the dark and possibly still foggy. I played there in my comfy hammock just getting more and more worried. We were discussing what we should do when he told me to give him a minute to look at the radar and think. I don’t think he was thinking very long at all before I started getting a really bad feeling and wanted off of that mountain immediately. It truly sucked because my sleeping pill was fully kicking in at that point and I wanted NOTHING more than to sleep! I could hardly keep my eyes open, but I couldn’t shake the ominous feeling. By 2am, I texted him and said, “I’m getting really scared” because the wind was shaking my car and felt like it was packing up. He called me instantly and said to get my stuff together and that we were leaving!
So not long after getting all set up, cozy comfortable in my hammock and him in the tent, at 2 AM, we made the spontaneous decision to break everything back down again. UGH! Not ideal. All we wanted to do was pass out. With him knowing my sleeping pill was at its peak, he told me to just gather up my hammock and move to the front seat while he broke his set-up back down. Although, once I did that, I looked out and saw him struggling to get things situated with the intense wind. I somehow mustered the will power to fight every desire to close my eyes and went out to help him and i’m glad I did cause he needed it. We tore down the tent and got all his stuff back in the car with fierce gusts threatening to blow everything off of the mountaintop. We headed down the mountain for safety and Patrick found a Ozark rest stop neirly an hour or so away in a small pocket of calm between the storm bands. ALL the wildlife and a calico cat were trying to die by my car, but he dodged them like a champ. Two possums, 1 million little deer, a rabbit, and a cat are still alive, magically. Perhaps the wildlife was more active because of the impending storm?
Apparently, according to Patrick, I fell asleep in the car on the way down a bit. Once he told me to stop gasping with worry at the wildlife in road and try to rest, I tried my best to put the drive out of my mind and not look anymore. I guess that worked. Once at the rest stop, he pointed out the bathrooms to me and I passed back out. I actually slept fairly well with my pillow and blanket and my legs strewn about the dash, door arm rest and drivers seat at one point. I was in the front seat and he laid all over a pile of blankets, pillows and my hammock stacked sloppily in the back. Patrick said that he woke up a bunch of times in the night and I was sleeping soundly in my weird positions, every time! He was careful not to move and disturb the sleeping bear because I was finally getting sleep. Ahhh...
April 13th:
We woke up around 9:30am. This was the most sleep I had gotten on the trip and I felt great finally! Even though Patrick’s “bed” looked comfortable to me, he said it was not so great. I sleep better in a ball than my bed most of the time which is why I love my hammock set-up. It feels cozy and secure to me.
We did a quick clean-up in the bathroom and headed further into the little town called Ozark. We had a couple hours to kill before the storm left the mountain that we were going to go back up to hike. We got a gross drink that was supposed to be smoothies, but was gross and not even worth mentioning beyond that. FAIL! Patrick really wanted to walk around the town and do his window shopping that he likes doing and I just sat in the car and jotted some notes down for my blog later. It started raining shortly after he left the car, so he went into a barbershop and got his hair trimmed because he wanted to do that anyway.
Once he came back to the car, I just wanted to find food because I was starving. I didn’t know why we weren’t just waiting out the storm in a restaurant anyway. Food is my favorite. We went down the street a bit to Roma for an Italian breakfast at 12:45pm finally.
Right after eating, we headed back up to Mount Magazine, but this time it was much less intimidating. It wasn’t until 4:15 that we actually got on the Signal Hill Trail because it was still very foggy and the drive was slow going. Once parked, we hit the bathroom at the resort and put on all of our warm clothes plus rain jackets because of the humid, cold and fog. I put my hair in braids for the way up because the wind was driving me nuts! I had to wrangle the hair stat!
It was a little spooky heading into the woods with the fog still so thick and I was happy to have Patrick with me. With our normal fast pace, it only took us 14 minutes to reach the summit, but we spent a good hour and 15 minutes at the summit mostly because it took a full hour for the fog to finally clear and the sun to emerge from behind a soupy cloudy sky!
Once we had good lighting finally, we were exhausting ourselves by trying to get a fun and unique high point photo. All the photos we took before the sun came out and the fog cleared were too dark. So we got a great work out up there! We were climbing that sign over and over. Ha! The left side was much harder to scale up and that’s the side I started on. Once I learned how easy the right side was, I switched with him. At one point he said that I looked both like a special-needs ninja or a trash panda scaling a chicken house when I was climbing up and down the sign repeatedly. That’s nice…
I’m pretty proud of the photo we ended up with because that was done entirely with my self-timer and mini trip-pod that got blown over with the wind a few times. Damn that wind. That was not an easy photo to get without help! Other than a couple of guys very briefly at the summit, we didn’t see anyone else on the mountain. They were there when I was signing the guestbook and not even taking photos yet or I might have elicited them for help.
The hikes where I get to experience very different weather all in one place is the best! We had creepy thick fog on the ascent that made everything feel ethereal like another planet with a bit of apprehension perhaps because of the limited sight. In stark contrast, on the descent, we got the “perfect” sunny, blue sky, perky, happy, spring day. Very different feels, but I love them both!
Signal Hill Trail is considered to be “moderate” in difficulty however, I would say it’s more on the easy side. It was a 1.8 mile loop with not much elevation gain to speak of. Not much of any view at the top because of the trees, but the trail was beautiful…short, but beautiful. It only took us 13 minutes to hike back down. Even though we just missed a big storm, a huge pool of water in front of the sign was the only evidence of that. The trail wasn’t muddy at all. Whatever dirt is there must have absorbed it all.
This was Patrick’s and my favorite high point of the four we did on this trip although I did like Driskill Mountain and it is a very close second. I was planning on taking a drive up Mount Nebo after this hike to enjoy the beautiful views I heard about, but Patrick looked it up and said that it was closed for some reason. It was only 45 minutes away and I would have loved to have experienced the white knuckle drive the the top! But, I trusted his word and did not look into it further. It’s a mountain scenic drive with 11 switchbacks and up to an 18% grade, and I thought maybe the storms made them close it temporarily. However, upon returning from the trip, I emailed the park and asked if it was in fact closed on the date we were to do it, and they said that it had not been closed at all.
An hour and 45 minutes later we arrived Toad Suck Campground. Curious how a town got that name? Yeah, so was I, so I looked it up. There is a bit of a dispute on the origins of the name. Some believe the name derived from river men on break in a tavern and sucking on a bottle until they swell up like toads. But also, apparently the term, “suck” comes from a French phrase meaning “a narrow channel in the river.” When the water in these narrow channels of the Arkansas River recedes, it leaves behind shallow water (or a “suck”) which is an attraction for frogs or toads. Interesting. Hence the term, “Toad Suck”. Not surprising that the Toad Suck has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names
So, we totally made it to camp before dark for the first time on the trip, however the four person welcoming committee upon arriving really wanted to chat and share about their town. It was really cute. We pulled up to the check-in station and 4 people came scurrying out to my car. I got out and greeted them while Patrick remained in the car. We really wanted to get set-up before dark for once and we were close to doing that, but the sun was setting as we chatted. Oh well. I asked them if they could recommend any pizza joints in the area that would deliver to the campgrounds. To my surprise, they handed me a full color sheet full of food, entertainment, etc in the area. They knew pizza had been delivered there before, but there was a debate amongst them as to which ones would still be open. Domino’s was the one they knew for sure that delivered there, so Domino’s it was.
The idea was too order food to our site as we set up before dark. Ha! But, what happened was, by the time we pulled into our site, we already needed lights to set-up and it got so, so dark there that I had to walk up the road and flash a light to flag in our pizza dude to the right spot. He was super nice and apologized for not being able to find us right away. I assured him that I understood how hard that task was and that he rocked it! He was tipped well. It was nice to eat by the pretty Arkansas river with a bridge lit up with lights reflecting into the water. Patrick brought 2 coke cans on the trip for an energy boost for him (more so for the sugar), if needed, while driving, but he ended up using one to mix with the Honey Whiskey I brought. I kinda remember soda being good with pizza, but I haven’t drank that crap in years and I care too much about my health to start again! No regrets.
It was a bit chilly still, so after eating we relaxed and chatted in the car with the heat on. When I’m car camping on chilly nights, I like to heat up the car really hot before I go to bed and some nights turn it on in the middle of the night as well. It was in the 30’s-40’s most nights on this trip, but I feel like it’s not so bad when I can throw the heat on in the car if needed. My tent that Patrick was using is small enough to hold in his body heat, so that worked. I think the only night that I had a window slightly cracked open for air was in Louisiana. Other than that it was heat on and windows up tight. This was one of those nights…
April 14th:
I woke up around 6:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep much like I have been sleeping all week. 3.5 to 5.5 hours of sleep is not enough at all, but I have been managing, somehow.
We left the tent set up and went to a local restaurant called Stoby’s that was recommended by the Toad Suck Campground peeps. They raved about the breakfast there, but our slow moving butts managed to miss the breakfast hours somehow. Which truly sucked because the breakfast menu did look so amazing! They had everything! The lunch menu…not so much for a vegetarian. It was all meat stuff. ALL. meat. stuff. So, I just asked if they could make me a grilled cheese sandwich. Lame. Thats my go-to request if a place I stumble into does not have anything without something dead in it because it’s so easy to make. And this is why I eat Mexican and Cracker Barrel a ton on my road trips! At least the Mexican joints are not chains mostly and offer different things than the norm at times. The best thing about the place was that we got to sit on the patio and watch all the big trucks roll by. Yee-Haw baby! They do like their big trucks there! while eating, Patrick took a phone call from his friend Bryan. I was shocked to find out that he didn’t even tell his best friend that he was going on a road trip with me even though we had been planning it since our second date. Odd. Then we walked next door to a yummy bakery called Patti Cakes. With our restaurant receipt, we were able to pick out a cupcake or 3 cookies for just $1 per entrée! Patrick chose a s’mores cupcake. I had a powdery, flakey white thing, chocolate chip, and a brownie batter cookie. Oh my god! So good!
When we came back to our little spot by the river, we showered and broke the tent down. We left Toad Suck around 3 because that’s when their awesome check out time is. As we were driving out, we said, “Bye!” to the nice lady that came to my car to greet us again. Such friendly people there!
An hour into the drive, I was craving a smoothie. Mostly because I always love a good smoothie, but also because I was not totally satisfied with my “breakfast”. Smoothin’ and Groovin’ was cute. Patrick got the “Beach Babe” and I got “The Artist”. Yeah that fits. Ha!
Nearly 4 hours later, we stoped for the night at Little Opry Campground. It was dark again. We set up, we chatted, I ran the heat in the car, then I listened to the peepers while laying in my hammock by a pond…
April 15:
I got a little more sleep than the day before, but not much to speak about. I was outside walking (peeing) by the pond by 9:30 while Patrick was still snoring away in the tent. Still a bit chilly, but not terrible. I think I was just getting used to it, honestly. We hated the bathrooms at this campsite. The one shower they had in the women’s and men’s bathrooms was so tiny and dark. Like, small closet tiny! It didn’t seem possible to move around and shower in there. There was no light over the shower that was tucked in the corner and even in the daytime, it was extremely dreary. There is no way one could shower in there and not touch your body against the cold walls that were questionable with its cleanliness. If you are a larger person…forget about it! I’m 120-something lbs and I didn’t feel up to the struggle of showering in a dark coffin. So, instead of enjoying a hot shower on a cool morning, we wiped down with baby wipes, brushed our teeth, and got out of there.
At this point in the trip, we were far enough south that my hair was poofed up like a poodle licking an electric socket. So, I used all the products I had to try and tame it because of the thick humidity, but it didn’t work out so great. We couldn’t find the people to pay for the site, so Patrick just shoved the cash under the door of the main building and we finally got out of there by noon. We stopped to check out an old gas station on the way to find food.
40 minutes away, was Galati’s Italian Restaurant. This was breakfast. Yes, Italian for breakfast again. I had stuffed shells and a local St. Louis beer called Schlafly Pale Ale. Stuffed shells is one of my favorite dishes and this place did it right! The beer was really amazing too! Patrick was driving now, so I enjoyed 2. I always love to try some local beers while traveling.
The St. Louis Arch was only an hour and half away from the restaurant and it was on our path back home, but this time we stopped to really see it up close. It was nearly 4 by the time we parked and walked all the way there. On the way, my Virtual Walking Ladies video called and I showed them the arch from a distance while we chatted on the walk over. Normally, I’m not much into touristy stuff or big cities, but since we were going to be going right by it again, I wanted to check it out. Unfortunately, the tickets to ride to the top of it were sold out. It was a Friday. We didn’t even think about the possibility of it being sold out. Nevertheless, we wandered around the arch museum and bought tickets to see a half hour movie on the making of the arch, so that was cool. Also, I was able to get my 3rd smooshed penny of the trip here. Score!
By 6, we were looking for The Graffiti Wall that I learned about on my RoadTrippers App. The app calls the long flood wall that has been used as a canvas, a, “gem”. Hahaha!
FALSE!
Let me back up a bit. So, as we were walking fast towards the Graffiti Wall a couple of park rangers in a golf cart pulled up next to us. Patrick confirmed where he thought it was with the ranger dude. They told us that it was down the many wide concrete stairs next to us and that would lead to a riverwalk along the Mississippi River.
Patrick asked the rangers, ”Is it safe?”
“No” one of them replied as he shook his head with a nervous laugh, ”It’s St. louis!”
We all laughed, but then I gave Patrick a look of concern because up until that moment, he did not act bothered about the things I wanted to see in the area. He grabbed my hand and said that were going to take a quick look and then get out of that very urban, industrial seedy area. There was a storm brewing as well that we were trying to beat back to the car…all without dying. Ugh! I hate big cities! But RoadTrippers made the art sound extremely well done and professional looking, so I was curious, but it was disappointing.
I left the first review on the wall in the app in the last 4 years. According to the other reviews, the graffiti looked amazing like 7 years ago. I wished I would have read more reviews before going because several mentioned driving by it instead of walking from the arch like others did similar to us. My review says all that I need to say about this…“This is being covered up it looks like. I went there last month and walked from the arch which I don’t recommend because it does not seem safe! There was very little graffiti to see anymore because it’s being painted over. Don’t waste your time…and don’t risk your life.”
We didn’t get into a bad situation, but it was definitely shady down there. I wish we would have gone back to the car after the arch and just did a drive by. It would have saved lots of fast walking to get back to the car before the rain and the potential of getting jumped would have been reduced a bit. As it was, we had a few sprinkles, but nothing too serious and we both had our rain/wind breakers on because it was still chilly and windy as hell. When we were in a questionable area while looping back to the car, Patrick made sure that I kept up with his fast pace and he kept a look out. Once back to a main road, Patrick whisked me into a fancy hotel to get out of the rain a moment. We got popcorn and he said that he was going to get us some drinks, but I was ready to go. Patrick previously told me of his habit of acting like a guest to get free things in hotels while traveling, so I was not surprised by this. Sleeping in his car in the parking lot and then using their pool shower and getting breakfast seemed like his norm. Haha!
I was happy to get back to the car. We did almost 4 miles of very fast walking which was the most exercise that we had done in one day on the trip. Alas, my Urban Sherpa Patrick got me safely through the dirty city of St. Louis to see the arch and what was left of the Graffiti Wall. I was ready to get the hell out of there…
Patrick was dreading the long push towards home from St. Louis. He assumed we would have to drive the entire way from that point because we hadn’t secured a campsite for the night. We were both tired and not thinking clearly, but it was much after 5 already by the time we had this realization. Close to 7, with not much hope, I quickly grabbed my phone to start franticly finding something. We got super lucky that the very first campground I called gave me a real person on the other end and even luckier that we could book a site and they had showers! I booked it and we were heading there as the sun was starting to set.
Just before 8, in Vandalia, IL, slightly over hour away from St. Louis, we went to see a huge metal fire breathing dragon in a RV park across from a liquor store. We stocked up on water, got some lemonade and a bag of ice for the whiskey I had. We wanted to have drinks at our last campsite to celebrate a successful trip. We also got one token. If you want to make the dragon breathe fire, you get a token from the store for a dollar and that gives you about 12 seconds of fire to take a photo. Fun! One token was enough to make this big fire loving kid squeal. It’s worth a quick stop if you are in the area. After just seeing the St. Louis Arch and how it was constructed, It was fun to see the metal dragon put together in much the same way with metal paneling along it’s body. I thought it was a neat comparison that I kept to myself.
We got to Spring Creek Campground just after 9pm. There was only one other spot occupied by a small trailer across the way. It was very dark like all the other campsites we have stayed at, but I noticed something different than all of my other trips. Every single campground we stayed at on this trip had highway noise. I’m used to camping at places that are very dark and very quiet. The noise was not enough to be disruptive, but it was defiantly noticeable and out of the norm. It made me miss the more remote high points that I’ve had the pleasure to explore previously. I think I’m used to the sounds of road noise close by my home and I just have learned to tune it out as white noise. But, I have often found that I sleep like the dead at certain campgrounds because of the intense quiet. I am not used to that lack of noise and it’s amazing when I can find it! Maybe that’s all I need to cure my insomnia…dark, quiet, and no cell towers nearby.
Patrick made us a night cap and we setup. It was another chilly night. I had the heat blasting in my car as I got my hammock perfectly comfy for the last time. I, then joined him in the tent to finish our drinks together. We chatted and hung out until my sleeping pill kicked in and then I went to crawl in my cozy hammock. I inchwormed my way deep into my warm sleeping bag and drifted off to sleep…
April 16:
I woke up early, as usual to pee and started the car for heat again. That had been my usual on this chilly trip. It worked fine. I think I went back to sleep for a bit and then got up and moving around 10:30 and out of the shower by 11:30. I helped Patrick take down the tent one last time and we were off.
A half hour away we arrived at the little town of Casey. Their adorable slogan is, Big Things in a Small Town. When we passed this area on the start of the road trip, we just saw the World’s Largest Pitchfork, but I didn’t realize that we missed many other “World’s Largest” things as well as just “Really Really Big” things! I guess the latter just didn’t quite make it to Guinness book status or maybe were passed by since being made. I was happy I looked for other little oddities to see on the way home while in my hammock the morning before last when I couldn’t go back to sleep. I found the dragon that moment as well and I’m happy I did.
Upon getting to the town, we saw that many of these large items were very close-by each other. What a cute, quirky little town that found their gimmick. The first oversized object we came across was the world’s largest wind chime. It was in the garden next to a cute cafe called the Whittling Whimsy. They proudly displayed the Guinness certificate on their wall. Next to it, in the corner, was a penny smooching machine! I got all four of the different ones they had: The World’s Largest Mailbox, the World’s Largest Wooden Shoes, the World’s Largest Wind Chime, and the World’s Largest Rocking Chair. That brought me to a total of 7 new pennies to add to my Penny Passport. I’m not a hoarder or much of a collector at all, but I love my little mementos from fun trips I’ve taken. Emphasis on “little” as I love that they don’t take up much space at all, but I love them.
I noticed right away that the large objects were outside of places that went with the feeling of the business. The World’s Largest Wine Chime was built to attract customers to the Whitling Whimsy Cafe. It was the reason behind Casey’s first World’s Largest item and in the cafe they have over 100 items that start with a W. Cute.
Then we went next door and walked on The World’s Largest longest teeter totter which Patrick tried to make it move. I’m glad the thing was chained and unmovable. Ha! Next was the World’s Largest Rocking Chair, a big Pokemon Ball, The World’s Largest Barber’s Pole, a large spinning top that actually spun, The World’s Largest Golf Club, a big mousetrap, a big pencil, big antlers, a big rocking horse, a big Minion, a big bird cage, The World’s Largest Mailbox, a big taco, The World’s Largest Key, and The World’s Largest Wooden Shoes.
I really loved swinging on the swing inside the birdcage. I totally want that in my backyard! That was my favorite by far because I could swing! I love swinging!!
I wanted to check off all the the world’s largest things and big attractions off of the list we had, but Patrick was getting impatient. Out of thirteen World’s Largest attractions, I only missed seeing 4: the golf tee, knitting needles, swizzle spoon, and gavel. Honestly, those were the ones I cared least about anyway. Of the 20 “really, really big” attractions, we only saw 9, but again I saw my favorites. Since, Casey is not very far from me, I imagine I’ll be back through this area on my way to other high peaks out west. I plan on it, for sure!
Other than the large features in the town, we also went into a few cafes and little shops. One of the places we checked out was Deborah’s Attic. It’s an antique store that features the big spinning top right out front. Upon entering the store, the nice lady made sure to tell us that we could spin the top and that “it actually moves!” It’s adorable how proud they are of their large features there. Her store had several different sections, but the one that held my attention was the “Architectural Salvage” section. I’m obsessed with abandoned buildings, cars, and pretty much anything old rusty and / or weathered. I ended up getting an awesome window frame with pealing white paint for $20. It’s fairly large and dirty but we found a place to put it on top of everything in the back of the car. Yay! I would love an entire wall of old windows someday or a fence of old shutters or doors!
It was around 4 before we finally left the cute town of Casey, IL. We had to get going because we still had nearly 6 and a half hours before we were back at my house then Patrick had an additional hour back to his place. He would have just crashed for the night at my house if he didn’t have to get up and meet his family for Easter church service at 7am! His family booked a pavilion at a park near him for an entire day of family time after church time.
We pulled into my driveway around 12:30am. I ran inside to greet my sweet kitty Gingi and then we unloaded the entire car. I don’t think Patrick left for home until 1:30 or so. It was Easter. Once I woke up, I came downstairs and found a basket that Patrick hid for me before the trip. I thought that was really, really thoughtful. His family still gives out Easter baskets for Easter and stockings for Christmas, so he extended the traditions with me. I ate some candy while I put things away from my trip.
We flew though 7 states and racked up 2,936 miles on my car. We did 4 state high peaks, stayed in one hotel, at one rest area, and 6 campgrounds.
Reading my blogs, was one of the things that Patrick told me made him want to meet me. Sadly he will only end up being featured in one. While traveling, I realized that Patrick is not the man for me. He and I found out that we travel differently from each other, converse very differently and have much different ideas of what makes a “healthy relationship”. He’s also a workaholic, but I could have understood that. What I couldn’t deal with was the fact that his insecurities compel him to talk himself up to everyone. His need to impress and network with everyone was exhausting and yet he couldn’t seem to connect with me on a deeper level.
10 days after this road trip, we said our last words to each other…
Very, very nice. Well written and exciting to read. I’ll be waiting for the book my dear!
🖤🫀
This was such a wonderful read! I love the way you write so clearly, That I was there with you ❤️