Greetings from Wichita

Well, this year’s road trip has gotten off to a bit of an auspicious start with a sliced finger and a cracked windshield, all in just the first two days. Sunday started out overcast, but we soon found some sunshine as we headed towards Mt. Mitchell, the highest point east of the Mississippi River. We had some great views on the Blue Ridge Parkway heading up the mountain, but once at the top found it to be mostly overcast, which is typical of the area. Only about 25% of the 360 degree vista was clear, but it was nice none-the-less. After that we continued on the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Craggy Gardens which offered a commanding view of the mountains. The sun was shining beautifully on the mountains. Around five we made it to the entrance of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and were greeted with a few drops on the windshield, but as we crossed the mountains and entered Tennessee the rain picked up some, just enough to be annoying. Around seven we made it to our campsite at Cade’s Cove and began to set up in the drizzle. We bought a pop-up shelter for this trip and had an opportunity to use it the first night. It worked like a champ keeping our tent dry throughout the night. Alicia is very paranoid about the tent with “rain seeping through” being her number one fear. She was able to sleep well knowing the tent would be dry when we got up.

Craggy Gardens on Blue Ridge Parkway

But before we went to sleep, just as we were about to sit down to eat Alicia’s delicious anniversary steak dinner, I decided to (stupidly) open the bottle of champagne with my pocket knife. I got myself pretty good on the top of my left pointer finger. Alicia bound it up tight and the bleeding stopped, but I’ll be wearing a bandage for a few days. Fortunately it doesn’t hurt and seems to be healing properly. I think a Great Smoky Mountains curse may have been put on me. Last year, Alicia, Nicolle and I went camping at Cataloochee and while splitting kindling with a hatchet, I hit my left thumb nail, which eventually led to half the nail falling off. I was lucky I got the nail…If I ever go to the Smokies again, I will not be using anything sharp. I’d like to keep my middle finger.

Day two started off a little better as we made our way across Tennessee on our way to the Land Between the Lakes, a National Recreation area between two lakes (go figure) on the Tennessee/Kentucky boarder. Less than hour out from LBL we were a car behind a logging truck. We were at an intersection and up ahead the road added another lane. About five seconds after Alicia commented that we could finally pass the track there was a loud pop and my windshield had a spider web crack about sick inches in diameter. Talks about the trip being cursed began but we headed on to LBL and made the best of the rest of the day.

The Land Between the Lakes is a beautiful piece of land with hard forests, its on planetarium, and a Bison and Elk reserve. So of course we got there at three in the afternoon, during Bison and Elk naptime. While driving through the 700 acre reserve we did manage to see four elk grazing in the distance, as well as some wild turkeys and a raccoon, but no bison (though we did see some off in the distance in a smaller reserve) but it was fun to be on the hunt. The trip began to feel like an adventure again. After that we left the area and made a change to our plans. The first and definitely not the last. We originally planned to camp near Van Buren, MO and tube down the Current River this morning, but decided that even though the crack in the windshield wasn’t spreading, it would probably be best to get it fixed, and it also might not be a good idea for me to submerge my finger in a river. So instead we set up an appointment in Springfield, MO to get the windshield replaced and drove until ten o’clock at night to get there.

At least we saw an Elk

Today we got the windshield fixed and it only took an hour. Since we were three hours closer to today’s destination we decided to visit the George Washington Carver National Monument in nearby Diamond, MO. The park is a beautiful chunk of forest and prairie on the site where Carver was born. It’s basically a giant field trip opportunity for southwestern Missouri schools but Alicia was impressed with how well the exhibits worked for both children and adults.

We left from there around two, heading to Fall River State Park in Kansas. The trip there was fortunately mishap free. Fall River State Park is set on a beautiful prairie with gorgeous hardwoods lining a lake. It was also incredibly windy. Incredibly, incredibly windy. But then again it is Kansas and now Alicia understands why Dorothy didn’t take the threat of tornados too seriously. So we set up the tent and thus began another episode of Alicia being paranoid about the tent. She’s convinced it would either unstake itself from the ground or simply rip apart in the wind. After getting the bedding situated and realizing we wouldn’t be able to get the stove lit and that we would nothing to do besides take a hike or sit in the wind we decided to take a hike (rim shot) and get a hotel in Wichita. So we did and there’s significantly less wind in the hotel room. Tomorrow, getting the Hell out of Dodge and Great Sand Dune National Park in Colorado.

Too windy?