School's out for the summer!

After traveling full-time in our motor home for nine years, we've settled into our home near our oldest son's family. We're glad to see our two grandchildren often during the school year. But when school's out for the summer, we get to see them even more!

Our son works full-time, and our daughter-in-law works half-time. So we were officially half-time care-givers when school was out. That included transporting Carter to swim team practice three mornings each week, and going to her swim meets.

Sometimes, we enjoyed a picnic in the park after swim practice.

Since she had more time on her hands, Carter practiced the piano more. Denisa is her piano teacher, and we put together a fun group of songs for her to play and sing for an appreciative audience at her first recital. Gram refitted a black cocktail dress into a recital dress, and we made an edible keyboard dessert. That's two-layers of brownies framing a keyboard made of white and dark chocolate kit-kat bars.

Everyday at Gram and Grandude's includes an ice cream break.

We also did field trips and hikes. We couldn't take any pictures, but we especially enjoyed the tour at the Amazon Fulfillment Center. They showed us how they handled all those arbitrary items that we bought one day and they delivered the next. Also, our favorite hiking spot is just a few miles from our house, and we always find wildlife. This was a box turtle that immediately closed his box when we arrived.

We also learned about the foamy liquid found on some of the plants along the trail. That foam is left from the spittle bug that lays her eggs in the middle of that spit.

We play lots of games, and this summer brought some new ones to our game shelf--like Googley Eyes, Go to the Head of the Class, Don't Wake Daddy, and Don't Step on the Poop. 

This summer we also built a ninja course in our basement for this five-year-old. Eli is a rock climber, and he can crank through a series of swinging hand-over-hand bars . . .

and maneuver across an 8-foot I-beam like a ninja.

Many days, we would bike the five miles on the lovely trail that connects our house to their house.

We also bought season passes to Worlds of Fun--the local Six Flags amusement park.

Carter loves a good scrambler ride . . .

while five-year-old Eli loves every ride--the faster the better. His 42-inch-height means that he can't go on the biggest roller coasters, so he has incentive to eat good and grow taller by next summer.

We spend some time in Snoopy Land, where the cartoon characters give out hugs.

Every trip we have a tradition that includes rides on the carousel.

When it gets too hot for rides, we head to the adjacent Oceans of Fun. The two children absolutely love the wave pool!

Those smiles make staying close to home for part of the summer so much fun! But we have a trip planned that will take us on the road again for the hottest months of July and August. We're anxious to tell you all about it. We'll be visiting more of these Six Flag parks on our trip. While Six Flags recently sold Kansas City's Worlds of Fun, our season pass was purchased before that transaction. So we can use our pass to visit all the Six Flags parks in the midwest. That will take us on an interesting route home from our planned tour of the five great lakes. So stay tuned as we load up the trailer and head out for the Five Great Lakes/Six Flags tour of 2026!

Wandering through our Summer Holidays

After our trip to Arkansas, we spent much of our summer just wandering through the summer holidays. That would start with Mother's Day weekend, where we also celebrated our granddaughter's eighth birthday. She likes to fish, and the little pond next to her other grandparents' lake house provided fish that literally jumped on the hook as soon as it landed in the water. The picture below is a bit of a trick shot, holding the camera close and making that four-inch fish look surprisingly bigger. 

Carter caught over 25 of those whoppers in one setting.

Even though they were tiny, they were beautiful in their own fishy kind of way.

While the smarter family members agreed that the water was still too cold in May, Eli talked his parents into tubing with him.

Mark can't say "no" to his grandson, so he got on the tube as well. That's three generations of handsome Engelmen on that tube.

Or maybe we should point out that's three generations of crazy guys, with five-year-old Eli even standing up on the tube zipping around the lake?!?

For some reason, we didn't take a picture of the mothers on Mother's Day. But this seems a good time to include pictures of our Mothers. We spent a lot of time this spring moving Denisa's 96-year-old Mother  into an independent-living apartment that is close to Denisa's two sisters.

Mark's 98-year-old Mother is lucky that she lives close to many of her family members. We snapped this picture of her and two of her granddaughters that live close by. Incidentally, those grandaughters (our nieces) in the picture below are also grandmothers.

For the next summer holiday--Memorial Day--we took in some of the Kansas City area festivities. That would include riding the free downtown street cars. We like to park at the southern end of the line where the station was decorated with one of the Kansas City hearts that are scattered around the metro.

We exited the street car at the World War I Memorial station, where we joined thousands of our friends for the annual festivities that take place between the World War I Museum and Union Station.

We actually snagged a great uncrowded place in the shade with a good view for the U.S. Navy band performance, followed by a concert by the Kansas City Symphony. The very best seats on the closest lawn were reserved for military personnel.

Following the concert, the city treated us to a great fireworks display with Union Station in the foreground.

The street car ride afterwards was really crowded as thousands of people left that area at the same time.

Also on Memorial Day weekend, the Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, was hosting free admission and special events. Harry and Mark were hanging out together at the museum entrance.

Just like some other presidential libraries we have visited, this one included a recreation of the oval office as it looked during the Truman administration.

This presidential library and museum had recently reopened after a massive upgrade, and it was very well done. After two hours, we realized that we had only been through about a quarter of the exhibits. So we picked up the pace and read fewer details of the rest of the very interesting exhibits. Besides all the political turmoil and the background on the atomic bomb that ended World War II, we thought this car exhibit was interesting. The two new Chryslers that Harry and Bess bought in 1940 for a total of $2,703 were in mint condition.

After making the 30-mile trip to Independence, we decided to go for a hike as well. At the trailhead for the Lower Rock Ledge Loop, we saw a bag of free tick removal devices. Yikes! We also heard that Missouri gets the questionable title of being the state with the most ticks.

The wildflowers were still in bloom around the Little Blue River, and it was lovely in the shade. But on this 3.1-mile loop Mark did manage to pick up a tick hitchiker.

The only wildlife picture we have was of a very slow-moving snail making his way down the trail.

For the next summer holiday--Father's Day--we were blessed that both boys and families were with us for the weekend. The FIFA World Cup soccer games were also in town, with Kansas City hosting a game that day. The World War I Museum lawn was home to the FIFA Fan Fest, and we all had tickets to attend.

It was hot and crowded, and the lines were crazy long. Of course, this was a Saturday on a game day that hosted international soccer fans from all over the world. We didn't get into the line for most of the fan zone fun. There were literally hundreds of people in this shorter line that snaked back and forth just to get into the official FIFA store.

Our main reason to go into the store was the air-conditioning. We didn't buy the official soccer jerseys that were selling for $130 . . .

or the official soccer balls that were almost gone even though they were selling for $80.

A few weeks later it was the Fourth of July. We made a 1,000-mile circle drive to visit both of our Mothers. Then we stopped in Tulsa to spend time with our youngest son and his wife. They took us to an event at the Philbrook Mansion.

The Phillips family, who obviously had way too much money, built the mansion in 1926. Twenty years later, they donated the mansion and the beautiful gardens to be used as an art museum.

We wandered through the lovely gardens, and then ate dinner in the little cafe on the grounds.

While the mansion was filled with impressive pieces of art, the only picture we took was of this old leather suitcase. If you can read the fine print on the label, you will be surprised to see that it wasn't weathered leather at all. It was made of ceramic, and the four of us were amazed that the artist could reproduce such detail in that medium.

Ending with an old suitcase is appropriate, because we are packing even as this blog was typed. While we stayed around for many of the summer holidays we were anxious to be on the road again soon!

Heading home from the Ozarks

Both of us had sore backs. So even though it's hard to leave without hiking a couple of highly-rated trails, we made the decision to head towards home. We felt even better about that decision when we found out that the entire state of Arkansas was in a severe weather threat for the day. So we dumped our tanks at Centerpoint Horse Campground, and were on the road at 8:45 to try to beat the storms. Our plan was to drive as far as Springfield, Missouri, to spend another day and night. But we were surprised to see the Boondockers Welcome site we had selected in Springfield was already booked for a Tuesday night. That was unusual! So we tried another Boondockers Welcome option and it was also booked. What is going on in Springfield today? We arrived at Springfield at 10:50, and decided to just keep driving. As we drove through, we commented on the airport right by the highway and saw signs for the zoo on the other side. The weather was still good and it was still early. We kept our eyes on the weather maps to see if we could beat the storms that were promising to cross over the highway we were on. Could we beat the storms, or did we need to stop?

Later we would read about the massive hail storm that hit the Springfield airport and zoo, and much of the north side of the city. It came without warning less than an hour after we drove through. The news was filled with pictures of baseball and softball-sized hailstones. One was a measured 4.75-inch hail stone, making it the largest ever recorded in Springfield County. 

Falling from the sky, those spiky chunks of ice can break out windows and total cars (and trailers). We saw pictures of broken windshields and leaking roofs, and were so glad that they weren't pictures of our vehicles. The hail killed an emu at the zoo and injured other animals. We narrowly missed it, and we were blessed that those camping spots in Springfield had been full!

A storm popped up to our west, and we kept driving to outrun it. While we drove in a little rain, we were finally glad to leave the severe weather behind us. We ended up driving 202 miles this day, and stayed at Farrington Park, a city campground in Windsor, Missouri. After a day of running from the weather it was nice to spend the night north of the worst of the storms.

We set the trailer up in its spot in time to stop in at Denisa's favorite Amish stores in this area. We love driving the gravel roads to find the local shops run by the local Amish residents.

We bought apple butter, thin Amish noodles, homemade cranberry almond bars, spices, dried mangos, and found an amazing amount of sugar-free supplies like monkfruit. We also bought plants at Wagler's nursery, where they start plants from seeds themselves. We narrowly missed the Tuesday auction where the Amish sell their plants and fruits and vegetable in bulk. Attending an Amish auction is on Denisa's bucket list one of these trips.

It was good that the last stop on this trip would include a full hook-up site so we could flush and empty our holding tanks. The next morning we headed towards home for the final two-hour drive. On this trip to the Ozarks, we've dusted off the trailer and flushed the antifreeze from its plumbing. Now we're ready to stay home for a little while and plan a longer summer trip.

What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?

Last night we drove to the put-in spot for a float down the Buffalo River. This was America's first National Scenic River, and kayaking it has long been on our bucket list. We're in the neighborhood, but we could think of reasons not to go through with it. One was the fact that the weather was unsettled, with chances of storms. Another was the fact that Mark's back had been bothering him. Another was the high price of getting a shuttle set up to make this 12-mile kayak trip. But we decided that it would be a shame to miss out on this bucket list item when we were camping only four miles away. Besides, when we checked the weather forecast this morning, it predicted the storms wouldn't arrive until evening. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?

We had two options for making this float trip. Option one was to rent a tandem kayak from Buffalo Outdoor Center for $100, and pay them $46 to shuttle our vehicle to the take-out spot. Option two was to use our own inflatable tandem kayak, but then they would charge us $81 for the very same shuttle. That's the most expensive shuttle service we have ever used for a kayak trip.

But we paid the $81 (plus tax) to have the staff from Buffalo Outdoor Center drive our pickup from the public put-in spot to the take-out spot in the national forest campground at Kyle's Landing. Besides, what could possibly go wrong?

We inflated our kayak, and loaded it down with picnic supplies and sun screen. We handed our pickup keys over to the driver at the put-in spot. We needed to carry the boat a ways to get to the best entry point, and Mark's back was already hurting. Then it happened. When Denisa bent down to pick up her end of the kayak, she pulled something in her back. Could Mark's back ache be contagious? Now we have two kayakers with bum backs! But we both managed to flop into the boat and started our journey down the Buffalo River going under the bridge at the town of Ponca, Arkansas.

What else could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River? Another reason we decided to take this trip was that the timing to float this river seems to be so tricky. In early spring the water is often too high to safely float the Buffalo. By the middle of summer, the water is often too low to float the river, and kayakers end up carrying their boat more than sitting in it. While the water flow this day was supposed to be adequate, we immediately found that we were getting hung up on the rocks over and over. In fact, we came to a dead stop that Mark had to push us through in the first half-mile. That's not good on a sore back! What else could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?

So we stopped to remove the skeg on the bottom of our boat before it got ripped off by the rocks. We wouldn't have the stabilizing effects of the skeg for the rest of the trip. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?

We had gone through enough rapids within the first mile that we already had a couple inches of water in the kayak. That's when Mark noticed the bubbles. Somehow we had a little hole in the floor section of our inflatable boat. What?!? While we had delicious picnic supplies with us, we had no patch kit or air pump. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?

We found that if we held a finger over the hole, it would slow down the air leak. But its location made that almost impossible--especially when we needed both hands to row through the rapids. So Mark wedged a water bottle and a plastic trash bag against the hole and we hoped for the best as we floated beside the beautiful rock ledges of the Buffalo River Valley.

The river water was cold in April, and we had cloudy skies all day with impending storms. We certainly didn't want to dump over into this water. But we took on more water with every set of rapids we traversed. After we had paid for our vehicle shuttle, the cashier told us that there were over 80 sets of rapids within the twelve miles we would be floating. What?!? What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?  Lots!

We only have pictures of the placid sections of water between the rapids. That's because we had to concentrate on getting our skeg-less boat into the best position to ride through the rapids over and over. One couldn't be taking pictures while that was going on. It's not just riding through the strongest current, but we also had to avoid the shallowest water and the biggest rocks. As the water gets lower in the season, they quit putting in boats at the Ponca bridge. Then they opt for a shorter float trip that starts at Steele Creek Campground, a few miles down the river. That probably would have been a good choice to avoid some really shallow early sections today too.

In between the rapids and the shallow sections we did enjoy the beauty that puts this river on every kayaker's bucket list. While the storm was still pending, the winds whipped up to a 15-miles-per-hour-head-wind that we had to row against. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?

That's when Denisa looked down and saw that her trusty boat shoes had a blow out. While she loves her Keens and has several pairs, we've had to reglue the sole on each pair as they age. She probably should have checked these this morning because that bottom sole was really flopping off. That could make hiking a little tricky today.

We should just sit back and put up our feet (with Denisa's broken shoe), rest our sore backs, and enjoy the scenery as we floated down the Buffalo in our skeg-less boat that was leaking air.

We were about four miles down the river we caught sight of "the big bluff." This is the biggest rock wall along the Buffalo River, and we had to take a picture from quite some distance just to get the whole thing in the frame. You might notice that we had caught up with several boats. That's because this was an especially tricky part of the river and they were plotting their strategy and gathering their courage to go through the rapids ahead.

If we zoom in for a picture of that big rock wall, we can see the limestone ledges where we were hiking yesterday.

Remember  yesterday's blog when we were standing on those rock ledges and looking down at the Buffalo far below?

We had thought we were near the top of the rock wall at the time.

Now looking at the big bluff from the river, we see that the line of light-colored rock is about half-way down on that 550-foot-tall wall.

We made it through the tricky rapids and relished in making it this far unscathed. Maybe we should ask, "What could possibly go right on the Buffalo River?"

As we floated past the Big Bluff, we noticed a guy with lots of gear taking photos. We talked to him as we floated by, and he let us know that we were in some of the pictures he just took of the Big Bluff. He let us know to check his facebook page "Floating the Ozarks" to find our picture. So we include this rare picture of the two of us in our kayak from his posting. His faacebook description was, "Big Bluff defies scale in person and on video. There's nothing else like this one in the Ozarks. This nice couple was behind me for a bit and went by later on. I told them they'd be on my page so hope they see it!" We obviously did see it, as did the 4,000 other facebook followers that gave it a thumbs up, and made 119 comments on this particular picture.

We had a hike planned this day, and we were armed with good information on how to find the trail head. We were told to just watch for all the boats parked on the sand bar. But just to be sure, Mark had put a pin on the trail head on his phone.

The hike we wanted to take this day was to "Hemmed-in-Hollow." If we hiked it from any of the trailheads we could drive to, it would be a steep and long hike. But from an unmarked trailhead on the river, it is a mostly-level short hike. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?

On this questionable weather day in the middle of the week, there were no line of boats parked to alert us to the hidden trailhead. A particularly rigorous set of rapids kept us from checking the GPS for the dropped pin. We missed the trailhead! By the time we realized it, we were 400 feet past the trailhead and on the wrong side of the river! The current was obviously too fast to just turn the boat around and go back. Our well-planned stop was in jeopardy because we would have to get across those rapids to get to the trail head on the other side of the river.

It wasn't pretty and we both got wet, but we made it across the chilly water. The uneven rocky river bottom necessitated us linking arms in hopes that one of us could keep the other up when we stumbled in the current. The water was only up to our thighs, but it was running quickly in its attempt to knock us over. We finally found the hidden trail head on the other side of the river, and you can barely see Denisa's green blouse through the heavily wooded section in the picture below.

Denisa was particularly graceful on this one-mile hike as she had to high step because of her flopping shoe sole. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River? She tripped more than once under these conditions, but we finally made it to our hiking destination--Hemmed in Hollow. Touted as the tallest waterfall in Arkansas, we were lucky to have water coming over the falls because it is often a dry fall.

That whisper of water coming over the top ledge would bend and move on its way down from the 209-foot drop. This is the tallest waterfall between the Rockies and the Appalachian Mountains, and we had it totally to ourselves.

The shallow pools of water at the bottom were alive with tiny dots with tails.

It looked like there had been a population explosion of the frogs of Hemmed in Hollow.

If you stood below the waterfall you were guaranteed to get wet as the wind blew the water in every direction.

We sure wish we would have brought a snack on this hike, as this would have been a lovely place for our picnic. But we were so flustered about floating past the trailhead that we didn't think to bring our food. But now we took a little time to think how blessed we were to be wandering His wonders.

We walked the mile back to the river, already dreading the trip back over the Buffalo River with Denisa's floppy shoe. We managed to find a shallow section to get us halfway across, and the picture showed the rocks that made stumbling across so tricky.

That hike was about 8.4 miles down the river from our put-in spot, so that means we had survived about 60 of rapids so far. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River? We were now in a rhythm on how to handle the rapids. Mark had politely asked Denisa not to paddle any more. When she saw a big rock to avoid on her right, her instinct was to paddle on the right to get away from it. But without the skeg, that movement caused the back end of the kayak to turn sharply right, therefore whacking Mark and the back side of the boat on that large rock we wanted to avoid.

As we floated away from the tall rock ledges we saw more wildlife.

These pointy nose turtles live in the river and often come out to sun bathe on the rocks. What could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River?

Snakes also live in the river, and this guy was swimming entirely too close to our boat.

Since we had already missed our only planned stop, Denisa was watching the GPS carefully for our take-out spot. That would be terribly wrong if we missed that too.

We took one last selfie to prove that we had made it through the adversities that the Buffalo River had thrown at us today. But as you can see from the the blue skies peeking out from the clouds, we made the trip without storms on this questionable weather day.

We would be lying if we said we weren't a little relieved to see the sign for Kyles Landing that heralded the end of our twelve-mile float on the Buffalo River. Both of our backs were hurting as we carried our boat up the hill to where our pickup was parked. A man that works for a local float company watched us unload, and commented that it was a good sign that we were still smiling and talking to each other. He explained that he has seen many couples that weren't speaking to each other after disagreeing on the best way to get a tandem boat through the 80 rapids of the Buffalo. 

The leak on the floor of the boat was slowed by the pressure from the water bottle that Mark wedged against it. The side chambers of the boat are independent, so we were always able to stay afloat. We had to empty the water out of the boat multiple times`after going through rapids, and the bottom of our boat scraped on the rocks too many times to count. We made the 12-mile kayak route plus the 2-mile hike, so we felt successful. But we can smile now because we know some of the things that could possibly go wrong on the Buffalo River, and we were a little relieved to check it off our bucket list.

P.S. As we drove back to the town of Ponca, we came to appreciate the high price of moving our vehicle to Kyle's Landing. It was a 15-mile drive, but because of the winding rough roads it took thirty minutes to drive it each way. Maybe $81 was not such a bad price after all.