The delay in Florida gave us a choice to make. We could push through and make it to Wichita by Sunday night as originally planned, OR we could take our time and spend a night in the Ozark Mountains, getting us home Monday night instead. We figured missing another day of work & school would be worth a night in the mountains, so we looked online for somewhere along our route to spend Sunday night. I almost immediately found a cheap log cabin in the middle of the Aransas Ozarks, in a town called Jasper. We called up, thinking there was no way this amazing find would be available- but it was!
So Saturday we left Florida, drove through Alabama, Mississippi, and ended up in Memphis, TN, where we spent the night at Francis & Fred's house (my mom's cousins). We didn't have many adventures Saturday, but it was nice to have a home to stay in instead of a hotel. We got up early Sunday morning, drove for a while through Arkansas, and stopped outside of Little Rock, where we found a church to attend.
After that we had some more beautiful adventures!
We took scenic byway 7 into the mountains and stopped a lot to look around.
One of the routes Google told us to use was to go through this road...which was covered with swiftly rushing water. Jared scared the kids by telling them we were going to try to attempt it.
We spent much of the afternoon taking a 2 mile hike. 2 miles is a lot with 3 kids, a toddler, & a baby, but it was worth it.
After hiking a bit we came across this sign:
"WARNING HIGH CLIFF AREA
WATCH YOUR CHILDREN"
sweet.
Yes, Jared is holding the baby next to that cliff.
After our hike, we drove to Jasper, grabbed some food and headed to the cabin. Here it is!
It was huge with a big library/playroom for the kids!
And there was a little hot tub in the master bathroom
The master bedroom. Before I could walk into it, I had Seth stuff the Elkskin rug under the bed.
I couldn't do anything about these little friends, though.
We hung around the cabin until we had to check out at 10, then we drove around the Ozarks some more, and eventually had to get back to reality and head to Wichita. Here is what we saw on our way home!
We made it back Monday night around 11:30, exhausted, but completely blessed and blown away by the generosity & hospitality of everyone that helped us along our trip. We never imagined how wonderful and memorable this trip would be. We are so thankful to our families and to God for allowing it all to go smoothly & safely, and for giving us such a fun vacation.
And our Gank-a-van didn't break down once!! Praise God!!
