Adventure North

Spring Break 2022! I haven't gone anywhere for spring break since maybe 2005, when I last participated in one of the Upper Midwest's most prodigious institutions for learning. (an English major I was not) When Jr. North had a gap in his April school schedule, so we packed up the Vista Cruiser and headed south in search of spring. The snow followed us to about mid Iowa. We did find it eventually, in Bentonville Arkansas. The 10 - 12 hour drive to Bentonville, Arkansas was broken up with hotel stops in KC on the way down and Des Moines on the way back up. Thankfully, a hotel with a pool is all we need for a successful and entertaining layover.  Stop #1, skateboarding in Des Moines. That night we stayed in Independence, Missouri near the Bass Pro Shop. It's a destination shopping area but we were there for its proximity to the freeway and the indoor/ outdoor pool. Jr and I swam outside in the cold sunshine and we took an after dinner walk around the "lake," watching ...

In the arid plains between the mountains is a stream that connects two reservoirs. A dream stream, The Dream Stream. We hired a guide from the Tumbling Trout in Lake George to take us there and show us the ropes. It was my first time fishing in the mountain west and I learned a ton from Tad. In September, the hopper-dropper was the hot rig. Or so we were told. The Dream Stream is by no means a secret. A hot-air balloon drifts across the landscape. I love visiting new biomes so removed from my Upper Midwest experience. We saw prong horned sheep and mule deer everywhere. It was amazing how flat and open is could be in the middle of a mountain range.  These bison got out of their pasture and were being chased by a cowboy in a Jeep. They're a lot closer to us than they look. He did get them rounded up and back with the herd in short order. The Dream Stream is really just an engineered stretch of river that starts at the Spinney Mountain Reservoir. Every bend of the stream is filled wit...