back on track

A few photos of our van jam, then of Laura and I enjoying her deck, and of course our van loaded up for a float trip!

Hello all! After a nice winter in St. Louis playing lots of tunes and working at a coffee shop I'm back in travel mode. This time Matt and I are on four wheels in our new van--an 82 Volkswagen Vanagon and it's a diesel. Our dream van. We also have our bikes and backpacks for a plethora of travel options. Today we upped the ante and went by water (just a day trip), a great canoe trip on the James River in Stone County, MO. Lovely! The highlights were a grouping of 20 heron nests (way up in sweetgum trees) with mating pairs hanging around, and the thunderstorm that made us paddle like mad to beat the rain (we did not stay dry).

Our first stop this trip was at my folk's house where we finally settled in to traveling and put some stuff in storage, and had a too short visit with them. Then it was 2 nights in Columbia, MO with our friend Laura where we had our first van jam and did some much needed van organizing. It is not the camper model with stove fridge etc. but the basic passenger van with the middle seat removed. Very roomy! Yesterday we arrived at our friend's house here (Kim and Jim in Galena, MO) and we always have the best time! Unfortunately they are in KC, MO tonight at a gig, but we had fun anyway with the above mentioned float trip and a successful hunt for morel mushrooms! We scored a grand total of 4 and they tasted great in a cream sauce with pasta.

Tomorrow we are headed out to Fayetteville, AR to scope out the town. Loosely the purpose of this trip is to scout out a new place to live because St. Louis is just not cutting it for us. Also we are going to hike the Ozark Highlands trail in Arkansas which runs east to west 150 miles. It will take us about 2 weeks. Look forward to updates as our current adventure unfolds!