Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Vacation in Missouri

Why Missouri? Why not!

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We have friends that have purchased a cabin in the Ozark Mountains near a town called Brixey population 5. They are constantly talking about how great it is in the Mountains. They also told us about a house and acreage that was for sale for the right buyer. So we went to take a look.

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This trip was an adventure to say the least. I thought I was never going to find a decent place to stay. I finally found a cabin in a place called Dawt Mills. It was a thriving little town many years ago. Now it is a jumping point for canoing, rafting and trout fishing. They have a campground, hotel and two cabins. We stayed in the Dinnell Cabin. It was originally a one roomed structure that has been added onto over the years. It was very rustic but very comfortable.

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They have a small store, restaurant and the old mill and sits right on the water. Very cold water I might add.

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Once we were settled; we started exploring the area. We ate at the Tecumseh Grill our first night in town. I wish I took a picture of the restaurant; it was very unique. We had a decent meal of Cornish Hen and the owner's special was fried fruit pies. Elizabeth fell in love with the peach fried pie.

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We went into Gainesville the next morning population 632 which is the county seat of Ozark County. This is a very small town. We left there after eating breakfast at Skeeter's and went to see if we could find Brixey. We wanted to take a look at the house. We did not find it or should I say we could not find the trail that took us up to the house. We went back to Dawt Mill and grilled out that night and hung out in the cabin. Erin kept trying to catch fireflies.

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Then next morning we went to Rockbridge so Fred could fish for Trout. We had to ride through Brixey and this time we found the hidden driveway and drove our brand new Chrysler 300 touring edition rental car up a heavily overgrown driveway .6 miles until not one but two trees in the driveway made us stop.

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We were able to move the first obstacle among many we encountered but the large oak put a stop to our car and we walked the last 100 or so feet to the house.

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We were pleasantly surprised at how well maintained the house is. It is only a 2 bedroom 1 bath but it is nice. It needs some work but not much.

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It has a huge garage and several other out buildings that I was too afraid to look at. There were spiders every where and I pulled 2-3 ticks off me. Yukky.

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We have decided we can not pass up this opportunity.

The going back down the driveway after the difficulty drive up was easy once the trail was blazed but the poor car needed some TLC.

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Fred did try to go fishing. After going through all the trouble of registering and finding a spot then unpacking his gear he climbed into the water and went almost immediately into hypothermia. We found a spot where he could stand on the bank and fish. He had no luck. It was too hot for the fish to bite we were told.

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That's okay we still had fun and I took a lot of pictures.

Our time in Missouri flew by and after the little disaster with Cujo running off made the rest of our time in Missouri good at best. We packed up Saturday morning and spent the night in Springfield. We shopped all afternoon then ate dinner downtown at a trendy steak joint called the flame.

The Flame was expensive but awesome. Erin my very picky steak eater ordered the 8oz fillet. It was awesome to watch her face light up with delight at the first taste of her steak. I ordered the 14oz Kansas strip and was not disappointed. We had an appetizer of fried portabello mushrooms that were also awesome. Everything seemed to be freshly prepared and the service was great. We will definitely eat here again next time we are in Springfield.

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The flight was almost uneventful. It was fun the crew as very funny and spent the majority of the flight selling raffle tickets and handing out souvenirs as the prices. We won a Florida towel Yeah! The only bad part was the young couple I sat next to. Thank God it was only a 2 hour flight is all I am going to say.

We had a good time overall and I can't wait to go back again.

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