Road Trip Part One

Fran and I have arrived in Minneapolis after a few days of camping at Lost Valley in the Buffalo National River in Arkansas. The weather was beautiful save for a 2 a.m. cold front this morning that shook me awake and left me half frozen when the sun came up.

Now for the photos. I just sent a few, but I thought I would give you all a taste...

First is Fran hiking on the Lost Valley Trail. It was a great 3.5 miles with lots of elevation change and a ton of cool rock features. Natural bridges, caves, fallen boulders, etc.Next is a shot from inside the natural bridge looking out over a spring fed pond. My not-yet weary feet are in the foreground.

Since it was early in the morning, there were deer scattered along the trail and most of them had a bit of interest in what we were doing in their forest.After finishing that trail, we packed lunch and headed to the ridge to hike the 3 mile trail to Hawksbill Crag where we had lunch. That's Fran standing on the crag... and yes... it is just as amazing as you would imagine. The view is well worth the big elevation changes to get there and back. We finished the entire trial and had lunch and shot photos in under two hours.
This morning we headed out of town. Watch out for the Ozark Road Blocks. ;)The final photo attached is the only interesting photo ever made of Iowa and sums up most of what I remember of the last 12 hours (AR, MO, IA, MN) with the exception of the stop at the huge Bass Pro Shops in Springfield, MO.
Now we are in Minneapolis at Fran's grandfather's house where it is a balmy 18 degrees outside. And after a good scrubbing are ready to hit the road again. Tomorrow we are headed to Grand Rapids,MN where the temperature is supposed to be 4 degrees with a wind chill of -13 degrees. On top of that, they are predicting a foot of snow........... Oh Boy. ;)

Wish us luck...more later.