A Little Story About Hanna and Remi

Here is a little bit about my oldest child and my youngest child.  The oldest is Hanna, who's many interests include snapping surprise selfies for my phone.  Here she is looking quite fetching while playing with the youngest, Remi the Hound Dog.

If you've been following along, you'll notice how big Hound Dog has gotten.  He's now eating out of the Big Dogs elevated bowls.  Rocky and Rex would be so proud!  He also snatches things from the kitchen counter.

One of Remi's many talents include sleeping and making funny noises.  At this particular moment, we can see just how long his crazy legs are.  

Another shot of ol' long legs.  Here, he has completely worn out Grandma...or...has she completely worn out the Hound Dog?  They are good buddies, those two.

Back to the selfie bandit.  Imagine my surprise when I saw this face in my photos.  Although I'm not sure if she's smiling or yelling for help.

And her parting shot.  Peace Out! Or she's telling me she's going to bring me TWO Hoeckele's Coffee Cakes next time??

Adventure Sunday - Castor River Shut-Ins

Continuing with Adventure Sunday, we traveled just a little south and west to a familiar area.  This time we chose the Amidon Memorial Conservation Area, specifically the Castor River Shut-Ins.  It takes a few turns off the beaten path and a bit of gravel roading.

It's a lot like Johnson's Shut-Ins, only the surrounding paths in the rocky hills are a bit more rugged.  We were greeted with a spectacular view only a couple hundred yards from the parking area.

The boulders are amazing, and the water has cut a ragged path through them. You can just jump down into the water and follow along, but there were a lot of people there and we are still in heavy-avoidance mode because of the plague.  So we took to the trails in the hills.

Some great views from the hills.  We walked about a quarter mile over boulders, rocks, roots, etc. until there were no more people around and started our descent down to the river.

So many cool sights to see.  The water was never more than waist high, and it was very cool and refreshing...good thing since it was over 90 degrees.

We had an awesome time slip-sliding over rocks and small boulders in the water as we walked down stream.  We finally go to a place where the water was calm. I had to get this shot of the beautiful Mrs K against the pretty summer sky.

Yes, I had on water shoes.  The same pair I've had since 2012 because, you know, water shoes.

After we started our trek upstream, we had to climb back out and into the hills.  Just looking at the path we had to take was pretty daunting.  But it was fun, sort of like climbing at Elephant Rocks.

One last view of the Shut-Ins. Beautiful place and we'd like to visit again in the cooler months, when the leaves are gone from the trees and we can see more of the rock formations.

Sunday Adventure - Mastodon State Park

Sunday was a really hot day.  We thought that we'd keep our adventures closer to home this time.  No disappointments though, as we chose Mastodon State Park.  The Limestone Hill Trail is crazy similar to a lot of the rocky hikes we've done lately.  We brought Remi along since it's a relatively short loop.

But it's a tough one. 255 feet of elevation in the 1.75 miles.  It's rocky, full of roots, and generally quite gnarly.  Just like we like it!

The roots from this massive broken tree are as big around as a volley ball.  Awesome stuff.

The farther you go in, the more rugged it gets.  Good thing Remi has all-wheel drive.  He motors along really well.  Until he wants to sniff something and then he's as stubborn as a mule.  We took frequent water breaks.

Rock shelves and small bluffs abound.  On a day with less heat and less foliage, it would be great to climb around a little more.

The beautiful Mrs K and Remi took a breather and posed for this awesome photo. He was hot and happy!  After this loop, we took a little dip in the main creek.  Remi is still a little tentative with water, but he waded in up to his shoulders so he's off to a good start.

He slept hard on the ride home, and came right upstairs to park himself under our bed.  He's a funny dog, and he makes lots of moaning and groaning noises...just for the heck of it.  Trust me, anyone that hears them laughs quite a bit.

After a little bit, this was all we could see of the little hound dog.  And we heard quite a bit of snoring.

Roofs - Bikes - Masks - and Selfies!

We've lived in our house since 2005.  It was brand new when we moved in, but you know how home ownership is.  Something always needs attending to.  I have paid companies to clean the gutters a few times, and I'm always disappointed...they rarely ever flow completely and they fill up with debris pretty quickly afterward.  So after 15 years, I threw my fear of heights to the wind and with the help of the beautiful Mrs K and Eli, cleaned the gutters on the backside of the house.  It's 25 feet high where I am standing in this photo.  Was it worth the cost savings?  Gutters are clean, that's all I will say.

A lot closer to my field of expertise: bikes.  Blurple needed cleaning after 80+ miles of riding in Bentonville, plus another 20 miles at Greensfelder this past Sunday.  Cleans up real nice, eh?

We have gone through hundreds of disposable masks at work since March, and a fair share of re-usable ones, too.  They all suck, let's just get that out here right now.  The safety crew at Trek corporate is always thinking of new ways to put smiles on our faces, though.  These awesome masks came today for the three of us full-timers at the shop.  We are, after all, World Champion Mask Wearers!

On the selfie front, I was feeling a bit buff after a workout so I took this.  I'm no Chris Evans but I do enjoy a good super hero flick.

I thought the Beautiful Mrs K was quite fetching the other night on our short trip to Aldi.  So we cued up in front of a tribute to the Frisco at the end of the parking lot for a selfie.  Romantic?  No.  Cute?  With a capital C!!

Weekend Adventure - Bentonville Arkansas

For the 4th of July weekend, we needed a getaway.  The stress of the plague has been really hard on all of us, so the beautiful Mrs K planned an awesome weekend for us in Bentonville.  We brought along Eli and his friend John, and a handful of bikes to enjoy it all.  First stop somewhere in southwest Missouri was...Kum & Go.  Hey, I didn't make up the name.  But it did become our go-to quick stop all weekend!

Upon arriving at our AirB&B, we realized just how great of a job Mrs K did for us.  Not only was the house gorgeous, but it was situated on a street at the top of the Red Barn Trail!  That meant that we could do all of our activities from the house via bike.  Spectacular situation!

Garage?  Why yes.  A big ol' garage with plenty of room for our bikes, along with a work stand.  And a TV, too.  Didn't use the TV.

A quick run to our go-to snack place and the first thing John got for himself was a commemorative t-shirt.  I ate the honey buns.

It poured rain half the night, so we were not too jazzed on what we would find on the trails.  A little soft, for sure.  But the Leopard Loop surprised us because the short downhill run was paved.  Yes, paved.  And it was killer fun.  John was the first and only casualty, sliding out on his first run down.  Mrs K patched him up and we rode for a while longer.

We were very pleased to find a bike wash at the top of the Leopard Loop.  It was the only time we'd need it, as the trails dried so crazy fast.  But we did put the bikes away for a while to wait for the drying to commence.

Now THIS is a July 4th lunch.  Check out those patriotic brownies.

Walmart Museum was closed in Downtown Bentonville, but it's such a quaint little town that we walked around a while.  It was pleasantly cool all weekend, quite a bit cooler than St. Louis from the reports that we heard.

You see the wildest works of art in Bentonville.

After sight seeing, I hit the Back 40 and the rest of the fam did some more riding, too.  The Back 40 was incredibly dry.  I was blown away by it.  We all met up back at the house, ate some dinner, and drove across town to watch the official fireworks display.  Here we are laying on a blanket with a really good view of the show.

Eli and John were going to watch it all from the back of the car, but...

....eventually they sat with us.  Great show, and a great finale.

Sunday was lake day.  We drove over to Beaver Lake and rented some paddle boards.  Now, most of you know that water is not my thing.  But I did have a good time, and only fell into the water on accident one time.  It was a pretty good yard sale, though.

Eli is like a fish.  He loves anything water related.  

The beautiful Mrs K wanted to show Hanna her paddle board planks.  I counted off a minute for her.  We stayed out on the lake just long enough to get pruned, but not so long as to be sunburned. After that, we rested a bit and hit the Slaughter Pen trails again.

I swore I was done riding but Monday morning I met up with my friend Steve.  He was my trail guide for Tunnel Vision, a 24-ish mile ribbon of single track that was a lot of fun.  The visual highlight came about 4 miles in, where this killer water fall was located.

Steve tricked me into posing for a photo just a few miles from the finish.  He knows I am not a fan, he gets the laugh on this one.  The trail was a blast, however, and I was so toasted when I finished.  But I did use a dropper post in earnest and I did hit more berms in one day that I have in any one month.  3000-ish feet of elevation, too. Bentonville trails never disappoint!

Meanwhile, I had the keys to the car.  The fam was locked out until I got back. They were troopers about it and didn't hate me.  I hosed off at the Red Barn bike wash and we drove home, only stopping at one more Kum & Go along the way.  John will miss that place.

And the topper of the weekend??  Getting back to this dude, who spent the entire time at Grandma's doggy spa.  We all swear he grew while we were gone.