Last Minute Trip

The Fiance and I have been talking about going kayaking for some time. We just never seem to make the plans and keep kind of busy. With what? I have no idea when I really sit down and think about bit...but we're some busy people.

Thursday, around 4 pm I called him to see if he could get away for a night. Since he said he could, I booked a cabin in Lesterville, Missouri at The Wilderness Lodge. I had no idea what the cabin was going to look like, but it seemed to be in a great location - and dinner and breakfast were included...quite the deal.

I have photos to post, but none of kayaking...I didn't want to flip and destroy my camera. As it turns out, I did not flip - but The Fiance did while trying to avoid some drunk canoers. It wasn't much of an emergency because we were in about 1 1/2 feet of water. It got deeper in parts, and we both came up with requirements for our next trip - he wants it to be longer, I want rapids.

The Cabin

From the outside. The cabin was partially built into the side of the hill. There are four cabins in that seemingly tiny building.

Our screened back porch. It was really nice when it was dark out (and it was really dark). They had candles in the cabin and we lit them back there and listened to the "night". Personally, if I were renting out a cabin I don't think I'd encourage candles - fires happen with less, especially in a small building entirely made of exposed wood.

The entry (to the right) and kitchen (sort of - a sink, refrigerator and coffee maker).

View from the back porch. The couch (with The Fiance napping), the beds, and the kitchen. The cabin could have slept 4 people.

View from the entry. You can see the windows by the back porch and fireplace (which I'm pretty sure would have asphyxiated us with smoke had we not put out the fire).

Weird cage-like thing on the playground.

The 5-mile stretch of river was supposed to take us 3-4 hours. Because we're absolute kayaking maniacs, we finished in two. We had several hours until dinner, so we did the only rational thing possible - we went to a Civil War Re-enactment in Pilot Knob. It was the most bizarre thing I think I'd ever seen (keep in mind, I've been to Burning Man...this was way stranger). I'll let the photos tell the story.

The Re-Enactment

Confederate soldiers hanging out proudly by their Confederate flag (which, strangely, still hangs outside houses in these parts).

A Yankee riding his fancy carriage around. In the world of Civil War Re-Enactments, you KNOW that carriage makes him one of the cool kids.

Union soldiers in formation. Too bad they had to have that cheesy flag string thing...kind of ruins the feeling of authenticity.

Union soldier camp. They seemed much more organized and uniform than the Confederates. I realize it may have been that way in real life, what with the South not really having money for the war and all, so that seemed very authentic to me.

Oh ho, a covered wagon.