Hands in The Dirt......... and in the forest, and to the waterfalls.

Days 3 and 4 ....... the fun continues.

Friday night it rains.........  hard.  I wake multiple times through the night and listen to the glorious sound of rain pounding on the roof.

Saturday, after a nice breakfast we prepare to head out for the day.  As we are about to leave we see someone outside the cabin.  We realize he is delivering grill cleaner/scrapers to each of the cabins for the barbecue grills.  As one would expect, Jim and I go out to talk to him.  We find out he and his wife are the owners.  We talk to him for quite some time.  Amazing .  We find out how they purchased the property and their vision.  Amazingly we find out a friend of his (who happens to be in his truck waiting for him) is the owner of the cabin where we stayed the first time we camped in Southern Illinois.  The more we talk, the more interesting it becomes.  The last thing we find out is that after they purchased the property his wife suggested they get a Big Foot to put at the corner of the property at the intersection.  His response was "Oh Honey, that's just a crazy idea".   Then a couple minutes later he looked at her and said, "How big of one do you think we would need?" .
This is Sassy............. weighing in at 2600 pounds.

Once we head out from the cabin our fist stop is Burden Falls. Just as Jim said, the falls are flowing great!  We climb the rocks and admire the beautiful falls. This is one of the many great photos.  The two falls to the left apparently only flow during rain. Wet weather falls only.  I am honored to have seen them.


We did quite a bit of climbing over rocks, through water and at the edge of cliffs.  Jim pushed my comfort level and I am very glad he did!

Below are a few more of the photos we took..

Our next stop is Bell Smith Springs.  We are not terribly impressed but still a nice hike.

Finally, we make it to Jackson Fall.  WOW!  Stunning!  I will let the photos do the talking.  Again, Jim pushed my comfort level, but I survived!

As you can see, we are having a great time!

By the end of the day, we are exhausted.  And filthy.  We go back to the cabin to change clothes and find somewhere to eat.

We find a "restaurant" somewhat close. This is a story all by itself.  We follow Google Maps to the restaurant. The Trails End Restaurant at the Double M Campground.  It is is horse campground.  As we are getting close, there are a couple choices of which building the restaurant is in.  We pull in one are and ask a couple people that are standing there "Excuse me, is the restaurant in this building?".  They turn and look at us and tell us no but point us to where it is.  Very friendly.  Probably could tell we weren't from around there.  We find the restaurant and have wonderful dinner.  The locals were an interesting group though to say the least.  We sat outside next to a table of six.  Local people.  During the conversation we heard many things.  "That was the night I got in trouble with those women dancers" and "She told me she was taking karate.  I told her I used to know karate when I was younger.  Then - kapow!  She hit me in the nose".    We drank our tea and made our way out of there.

Sunday morning.  It's time to pack up.  We make the decision to head over to Little Grand Canyon on the way home.  I cook breakfast and we pack up and head out.  We have a beautiful drive.  ot much traffic.  Great skies.

Yet another stunning place.  We climbed rocks (Jim more so than me) and hiked quite a bit.  The views are wonderful and we have a great time.

 

After we hike, it's time to head toward home.  we stop at a winery on the way for a little rest.
Hickory Ridge Winery.  HIGHLY RECOMMEND!  We meet some really great people from all over the place.

And finally, our last stop to end a wonderful weekend.  Mase's Restaurant.  Super fantastic people and great food.  

Love this man and love this life!

Hands in The Dirt......... and in the forest, and up the mountains.

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS - HANDS IN THE DIRT

Our weekend away has been planned for weeks now and it has finally arrived.  It's Thursday and I take off early so we can get going and head to the woods! Jim picked the destination and we were lucky enough to find an available cabin to rent.

As we are packing the final items I realize how excited I am.  A weekend away in the woods with Jim.   Perfect.

Once we get out of the city traffic, the drive is beautiful.  We comment on the farms we see on the way, talking about what we like and don't like.  It's that wonderful time of year when everything is green and full of life.

We arrive early evening. As we pull in and see the cabin we immediately love it.  There are only four cabins here and it seems that only one other cabin is occupied at the moment.  As we are unpacking, the wife  comes out to say hi.  She and her husband are leaving in the morning.  We continue to unpack and think about dinner.  It feels so good here.  I lay some of the veggies and eggs out on the table and smile at our choices.
(Thanks to Farwig Farm for the eggs!)  Jim is off getting the grill ready to cook our dinner.  Meat and veggie skewers.

I decide to get a little more wood from the community wood pile for our fire pit before it gets too dark while Jim is finishing dinner.  The weather is cooling off just enough for it to be a perfect night for a fire.












We try to get the fire going well enough so we can go in to eat and come back out to a roaring fire FAIL!   After dinner we go back outside to no fire at all.  The ground is so wet and much of the wood is also wet.   Oh well.   Jim starts over on the fire and makes us a wonderful fire........  We spend the remainder of the evening in front of a fire with a million stars above us.  Although all four of the cabins are filled at this point, it feels like we are all alone.  

The morning comes bright and cheery!  It looks like the rain will begin around noon so we want to get up and going so we can do as much as possible before it starts.  First, coffee and breakfast!

We decide that Garden of the Gods will be our first stop.  Just a couple miles from the cabin.  We follow the directions to get there and find it with no problem whatsoever.  Once we arrive, we see that it's actually a very short hike (less than a mile).  Off we go!

I don't have words to describe how breathtaking the views are.  Jim enjoys bouncing around from rock to rock ........... I on the other hand, take very methodical steps and try to not go too close to the edges.  A fear of heights is not a good thing here, but I manage to get out toward the edge a couple times.

 We spend quite a bit of time taking in the views and bouncing around.  We finally make it back to the car.  Such a great experience!

I check out the weather situation and Jim checks out our next stop.  The weather is still holding off so Jim decides we will head to Stoneface next.  What is a Stoneface?  I'm not sure but I'm about to find out.  We are following the directions and end up on a gravel road.  The road keeps going...... and going......  Could there really be a tourist attraction out here?  I guess we'll see.

Our entire trip we have continued to see beautiful fields of yellow flowers and once again, we see them on this gravel road.  Here, we can actually stop and take a photo.  No worries about anyone coming up behind us.

We continue on.  After stopping to look at directions, turning around, reading a website, etc.  we finally find the trail to Stoneface. The hike immediately starts uphill.  Up we go.  It's a very narrow trail filled with poison ivy.  We are determined though.  We continue up..........

As soon as we see it, we understand........

 Interesting..............  Well worth the hike!

And still no rain..........  We decide we should have one last stop for the day.  Cave In Rock.  This is a cave on the Ohio River that has one heck of a history.

Below is the link if you're interested in pirates and thieves and river travelers!  

Cave-in-Rock History

Oh, and have I mentioned it has beautiful views!

 
We spend quite a bit of time here also.  Talk to people we ran into from Springfield, IL.  We stop at the park restaurant and have lunch overlooking the river.  Just a nice, nice day

We have done nothing but relax all evening.

One last photo from the day.  This was from one of the bluffs overlooking the Ohio River.  Jim took this photo and I absolutely love it.  Hope you enjoy also!