Flying by the Seat of Our Plans

Our friend, Micah, invited us to spend a few days fishing and floating the Eleven Point River in the Missouri Ozarks during spring break.  The original plan was to camp along the river, but overnight lows were forecasted to drop below freezing and rain was possible.  While we could camp in those conditions, we weren't after a "roughing it" experience.  I found very reasonably priced  cottages for rent in nearby Alton; these were really more "houses" than cottages, with up to 4 bedrooms.  Because it was low season, Brian rented us the largest cottage for our group of 4.  This proved to be a great setup; we used the cottage as base camp and did day floats on the river. There were so many hawks along the highway as we drove between Sikeston and Poplar Bluff!  Micah, Beth, and Beulah (Micah's wonder dog) toured through Mingo NWR.  Laura and I stopped along the way to photograph some snow geese that were in a canal and then on to Big Spring, MO....

  John and I recently talked about how we should take more short trips to explore our corner of the world.  I had read about the Alton and Grafton areas in a AAA magazine, where I saw a photo of a bald eagle perched on a ice floe and a headline claiming that this region was the eagle capital of the Midwest.  I decided this would be a good surprise trip for John.  I looked up accommodations online, and as soon as I saw the online photos of Tara Point Inn, I knew that was what would set this getaway apart.  There were no rooms at the inn, but a fancy cabin was available!  So on February 9-10th, we enjoyed the spacious cabin and breakfast by this window with a view of the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. View from our luxe cabin Here we are, outside the inn, enjoying the view.  As you can see, there was ice along the river shorelines.  The temperature was below freezing for the whole day, so we did much of our bird wat...