Today's Adventure

Today we went out for some adventure. Last night we decided to head out and take a look at this place near Van Buren called Big Springs. It sounded cool and we didn't have any plans.

Woke up, had some coffee, packed up and headed out. About 15 minutes into the 45 minute trip we noticed some really dark clouds. Oops. Forgot to check the weather before we left. Oh well, we can always just drive out and do some research to see if the place is worth returning to.

The weather gets worse. The ripples in the dark clouds were beautiful. I told Michael that often dangerous things were beautiful and that is something he should remember when he gets older and starts dealing with high school girls. Sarah laughed, but Michael didn't get it. He was fascinated with danger though as any good 4 year old would be. The rain grew heavier and visibility dimmed.

Then I saw what looked like a climbing cloud of smoke off to the side of the road. I thought that was strange because you know...it was raining and all. As we drove a little closer we noticed the column of darkness was rotating. Wait....rotating? Yup. A FREAKING TORNADO. IT was forming about 200 yards off the road. We decided to keep on trucking right past it. It looked like it formed for a few minutes and we passed. I don't think it lasted long and we didn't see any damage when we passed back through on the return trip.

Other than that we took a wrong turn that led us down a gorgeous dirt back road where the glades opening up in the green wooded hills were shrouded in steam from the rains. We grabbed a turtle from the side of the road just long enough to show it to the boys before returning it to its journey. There was a muskrat, some wild turkeys and some deer. Big spring is really nice. Enough water rises from the spring that it appears to boil from the ground. Crystal clear you could almost read a book through five feet of running water. The spring feeds a 20 foot wide and roughly 5 foot deep stream that runs into the Current river. WE wandered and hiked before heading home to dinner made by Sarah and then ice cream made by our new neighbor who is another travel nurse at the hospital. Overall a great adventure day. I told Sarah I almost told her I wish we had done this sooner. Only I realized we left pretty much as soon as we could.

Back to work tomorrow. Life is good.