5/22 - 5/25 Memorial Day Weekend...Family Camping Trip

Last week was a whirlwind and I think my heads just now beginning to stop spinning from all of the action. After getting home from my Driftless trip late Saturday night I spent the next three days trying to catch up ,both at home and work, before heading out of town with the wife for a few days of camping down in Southern Missouri. You know it's hectic when the pile from the last trip is still sitting in the garage untouched and it's already time to pack it back up again!
Wednesday morning (I use the term morning loosely , you know how most women are) the wife , Joe and I hopped in the truck and headed South for a few days of R&R at one of my favorite campgrounds. The plan was to kick back and relax for four days and three nights , hopefully beating the holiday crowds by arriving on Wednesday and leaving Saturday.
We spent some time hiking a few trails in the area and (of course) I made time for a few hours of wet wading in the local streams to play around with a few small wild trout.



When we weren't off traipsing through the hills or standing shin deep in cool flowing waters we simply enjoyed sitting around and taking it easy. Knowing that I'd be spending more time than usual in camp I packed along the cast iron cookware so I could try out a couple of new recipes. If you're going to spend time sitting around with a beer in your hand there's no better way to do it than with a good fire and a couple of dutch ovens full of goodness in my opinion.




We spent the first two nights being one of only two groups in the the entire campground which was just what we had hoped for. Friday night the crowds started showing up but even then it was a pretty peaceful evening , one of my pre-requisites was that we would NOT camp anywhere that was frequented by canoers. Some of my worst nights camping have been on rivers where I had to put up with obnoxious drunk canoers for a weekend. Mother Nature cooperated nicely and we had beautiful weather the entire time , mid 70's for highs and nighttime lows in the upper 40's...perfect!
I'm pretty sure the whole family had a good time and we all enjoyed a few days with nothing on the agenda to do except enjoy each others company.
That's about it , more words won't add much to what I've already said so I'll just shut up and let a few pictures do the rest of the explaining. Nothing too exciting , but I hope you enjoy anyway....