Camping in the (90 Degree Heat of) Shawnee National Forest

Thursday morning we said our goodbye to Lake Mattoon and Billy's family. It's always hard to leave, especially with picture perfect weather that morning! We were excited to get the next part of our trip underway, but were definitely tearing ourselves away from the lake.

Our next stop was the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois. It was exactly halfway between Nashville and Lake Mattoon, so we decided it would be a fun stopping point to check out. It was described as Southern Illinois "hidden gem" on TripAdvisor which turned out to be absolutely true.

I was shocked to see rolling hills and lush forests...certainly not what you think you will find in the Midwest! The drive out was very beautiful and went through some very scenic country. HUGE farms with fields of grain and corn that were gorgeous to look at. It's always nice to see that that kind of country still exists when you're used to the urban sprawl around DC. 

We set up camp at the Garden of the Gods, which is apparently a very well known park in Colorado as well. The entire area is created from an ancient sea, so the rock formations are really something to look at.

Another personal victory for me was learning how to set up the tent. Billy is a much more experienced camper, so during our first camping trip I left the set up to him. He was insistent that I learn how to do it on my own and as always was a great teacher. So I set up my first tent! I still left the fire to Billy this time though...

We braved the 90 degree heat to do some hiking through Garden of the Gods. Like I said, it was very impressive. The pictures don't really do it justice but we took a bunch anyways! Sadly, Hansel was left behind in the car accidentally (bad parenting on our part).

 

The hike was gorgeous, but at this point the high humidity and 90 plus degree heat was getting to us. We decided to drive a short way to Pounds Hollow Lake, which had another trail nearby we were planning on hiking. The lake has a beach where you can go swimming, so that was an obvious detour to cool off.

This area was no hidden gem. There were (understandably) a TON of people there. It was the perfect way to cool off..and get some spectacular people watching done. We felt 100% better after floating around for a while, so we set off to do another short hike at Rim Rock.

Please note that I did not pee my pants. I decided to keep my swimsuit on to try to stay cool. As the pictures progress, it looks like I increasingly lost control of my bladder, which I did not realize at the time.

This trail was even better than Garden of the Gods. It had a bunch of high bluffs and drop offs in very thick forests. The highlight, though, was the Ox-lot Cave you could walk down into.

We had worked up an appetite at this point and headed back to our campsite at Garden of the Gods, where I had possibly the most refreshing and satisfying beer ever. Billy says this is a common occurrence when you've just hiked your butt off all afternoon :)

We solicited a random fellow camper for this picture. Worth it.

After roasting up some turkey dogs and s'mores, we were ready to pass out. Mother Nature had other plans, since at 9:00 it still felt like 93 degrees outside. Billy was nice enough to throw out the disclaimer that if it got to the point I couldn't take it anymore, we could go find some random motel no matter what time it was. He's a saint.

But we stuck it out! We laid as far apart from each other as possible and sweat profusely, but it eventually cooled off and we made it through the night! Thank god for portable shower wipes the next morning.

We broke camp bright and early to get on the road to Nashville, where we had schedule a tour for 10:30 am. It was TOTALLY WORTH the 5:30 am wake up call! More details to follow on Nashville...

So despite the heat, Shawnee was amazing. It totally surpassed our expectations for hiking and scenery, plus I set up a tent!!

Lake Mattoon Wrap Up

Tonight is our last night at the lake and despite some rainy weather conditions, we had a blast! It rained more than we expected, but we still got a beautiful day yesterday that was perfect for lots of fun on the lake. After only three crash landings, I got back up on the skis and did a whole lap around the lake before feeling like my legs were going to fall off. The pictures do the last few days much more justice than any descriptions...so here we go!

Full disclaimer: none of these include Hansel. We're not sure how buoyant he is, so he stayed on dry land.

Billy's stepddad Dave showing the youngins how it's done!

Billy and I out on the sailboat! 

The five days of sailing class I took at Sandy Hill are really coming in handy here

The pictures of Billy and I sailing are misleading in that they make it appear that I'm in charge of things. While I would love to bask in the glory of being an expert sailor, it was really all Billy. He was a great teacher and I had a blast! Definitely a different experience than the little Sunfish I briefly learned how to sail at summer camp circa 2003.

These pictures were also taken before we nearly capsized. It was surprisingly not very scary, and also not Billy's fault. The wind kicked up at a very inconvenient time. We put on a good show for the neighbors! 

Speaking of neighbors, we have the best ones at the lake. Everyone here is either family or have been friends so long they're practically family. Dave's cousin's kids and grandkids have the house right across from us and they are a blast--The Gheres. They have two boys and two girls, all under 13 and all always in motion! They are very rough and tumble kids in the best way. I don't think I've ever seen them watch TV or with an i-anything, they're all always up for anything and very active and outdoorsy. The Ghere clan is great!

Now on to today's pictures. Billy and I skiied together and then Ryan (father of Ghere kids) put on a great show for us barefoot skiing, which I didn't even know was possible. 

The biggest success of the day (in my opinion) was that I got up on the skis on my first try, which is why my hair is actually dry in all the pictures except the last one. Victory!

After lots of coaxing, I finally let go with one hand long enough to grab onto Billy

Billy drops a ski!

Back in the boat

Nope, no skis. Incredible.

Not too shabby, eh? Another great visit to the lake in the books! For anyone wanting an update on our calendar, we'll be leaving for Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois tomorrow morning, where we'll be camping. Friday we head to Nashville. Sunday we go to Mammoth Cave (KY) and Lexington! After that, our route depends on the weather. Camping in Shenandoah while it rains for two days straight sounds a little less than ideal!

Slight Change of Plans...St. Louis Day Trip!

After a Sunday full of less than ideal lake weather, we decided to head to St. Louis early for a day trip. It's just under two hours from Lake Mattoon and had a much better forecast for Tuesday so off we went!

Our first stop was the St. Louis Arch. At Billy's stepdad's recommendation, we stopped at Laclede's Landing first to get a bite to eat. It's a really fun area right by the river that still has cobblestone streets. It was packed with lots of bars and restaurants and we could easily see how it could get rowdy at night there! We were one of the few people out for lunch already (it was only 11 am at this point but naturally I was starving) and we stopped at Hannegan's. For my mom's benefit, I will tell you that they have excellent pulled pork and will post a picture of our food. My mom loves barbeque so of course I thought of her as soon as we ordered!

Jack Daniel's sauce and Old Bay on the fries...HEAVEN

We thought we were really smart and thinking ahead by buying our tickets online for the Arch in advance....until we saw the line just to get into the Visitor's Center. It involves going through airport level security (minus the body scan) and we ended up being stuck in line for almost an hour. Needless to say, the Arch involved a LOT of waiting. Fortunately some of it was in the shade, and then the air-conditioning (yes, more lines were involved once we got in). We also met a super nice couple from Nashville, so we chatted with them about places to go. And the husband was in the Army Reserve, so of course we recommended Military Traveler!

They gave us our number, we must be about to board the tram!

Nope, still waiting. Just in a new place. At least we got to learn some St. Louis history?

We quickly figured out why the man in front of us in the first line said we would "get a kick out of" the tram. 

The world's smallest door. Just the white part opened!

Smushed in the tram!

The tram arrived and we piled in with a really nice family from Georgia. Each tram is this itty bitty orb shaped car with five little seats squished together and a very low ceiling (see Billy's head). I wanted to take a picture of the whole thing from the outside, but everyone was so desperate to get in at this point I was worried I'd be trampled if I paused for a photo op! I can't say I blame them.

Four minutes later, we were at the top! Much smaller than I was expecting, but lots of VERY cool views of the Mississippi and the city.

Back on the ground!

Our next stop was the Budweiser brewery tour, which was just a short drive away. We drove right by the river most of the way, which was beautiful. Even if the water was brown. 

We got to see the Clydesdales (!!!!) and several parts of the factory, including the aging barrels, the various steps of the fermenting process and the bottling/canning lines.

Yes this is the barn!

A great bonus at the end was our free beers! And for those wondering, don't worry, Hansel didn't miss any of the St. Louis action!

We enjoyed the tour just as much as Hansel. I enjoy drinking beer, but I'm not a beer enthusiast by any means and I still really enjoyed learning more about how the brewery works. It's just the right amount of beer education without going so in-depth that you lose interest. It's free...and you get to see the Clydesdales! What's not to like? Answer: nothing. 

I highly recommend the tour for anyone in St. Louis! A lot of people brought kids, which I thought was a little odd!

On top of an already great day, we returned to Lake Mattoon to wonderful SUNNY weather! Yay!!

After a great end to our time in Indy, a wet welcome to Lake Mattoon

We ended our Indy visit with a bang! Billy and I went to the Dave Matthews Band concert last night with a bunch of Billy's friends from high school. It's an annual tradition for them to all go so we were really happy our trip to Indy coincided with Dave's, especially since Billy's friend Matt was in town from Chicago as well.

I had never been to a Dave concert before and was fairly neutral on them in general, but Billy and I had a great time! The band is so talented and we were with a great group so it would be pretty much impossible to not enjoy ourselves.

Hansel tailgating with us!

Dave!

The entire group! Unfortunately blurry.

We also had a great Thursday night spending time with Billy's dad and sister and a smaller group of the same friends we went to Dave with. Billy and I went to the pool with his dad and Mia and one of her friends. It's always fun watching Billy with Mia.

After we got home, I took Mia out to ice cream to spend some time just the two of us. She's used to having Billy all to herself and I wanted to have some girl time so she can get to know me a little better. She just turned twelve, which can be a hard age, so I was a little worried about whether she'd want to actually hang out with me. I was more nervous asking her to ice cream than I was on my first date with Billy! She said yes (phew!) and we had a great time. She was actually very chatty which I was happy about--I wasn't sure how cool she would think it would be to hang out with me! I had a lot of fun getting to know her and just hanging out the two of us, even if it was only for an hour or less. 

Thursday night, Billy and I went out to dinner with three of Billy's friends to Bella Vita on the Geist Reservoir. The food was amazing and being right on the water gave us some gorgeous views. The restaurant was really pretty and also had a fun outdoor bar area with a live band. It's been great to get to spend so much time with Billy's friends--we always have a lot of fun when we're together!

Hansel and the Indy skyline

Indy was good to us again this summer and it's always hard to leave, but we are excited to get out to the lake today. Unfortunately, our good weather streak ended and we were met with a big storm in Illinois.

Rain, rain, go away!

Hopefully tomorrow the sun will be back out and we can go out on the lake for some waterskiing! I learned how to last year and am hoping that it's similar to riding a bike in that I won't have completely forgotten how to get up on the skis. Really I'm just aiming for less wipe outs than our first visit...Billy already has enough bloopers from last summer! 

Greetings from Indianapolis!

We're on our last two days in Indy and we've been having a blast, as always. As a lifelong East Coast girl, I (like many others in DC) used to wonder why anyone would ever want to go to the Midwest (cue Jason Aldean's "Fly Over States"). This is my fourth time coming to Indy and I love coming out here every time we go.

We've had picture perfect weather this time, but my absolute favorite part about coming here is how nice everyone is. The first time I came here, Billy and I had only been dating a few months and I was a little nervous about meeting everyone. Everyone welcomed me in with open arms and acted like they'd already known me for years. And everyone in Indiana is like that! It's fantastic. And a welcome change from the DC area. I love DC, but let's be honest, it's not the friendliest of cities. I remember when I first met Billy, I thought it was extremely odd that he would greet every stranger on the street. Then I came to Indy and realized that's just what everyone does! It's awesome.

Anyways, our first night in Indy we got in very late (almost midnight) so we just went straight to sleep. Billy's dad was nice enough to pick us up from the airport that late...thank you Mr. Griffin!

Tuesday, Billy had some work on Military Traveler to do and I promptly got completely enthralled with "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes suspense/murder novels, which now that I write that out makes me seem a little deranged. I've probably watched too many episodes of Law and Order! That night, we went to the Fishers Town Center for an outdoor concert. It was just a cover band that usually does weddings, but the weather was absolutely perfect and we had lots of fun playing cards and hanging out with Billy's dad, stepmom, and younger sister, Mia.

Hansel came too (check Billy's shoulder)!

Billy and Mia

The entire Griffin fam!

Wednesday, Billy and I set off on our own to see the Indianapolis Zoo. This was, of course, my idea since it involved several hours of looking at animals. The Indy Zoo is much smaller than the National Zoo, but it's really nice and very interactive! We got to pet sharks, feed a giraffe, were only inches from a tiger (behind glass, see picture below) and saw a ton of very cool animals. The Indy Zoo is building an "O-Line" like the one in DC that the (soon to arrive) orangutans can climb around on. It's much longer than the National Zoo one, so it will be exciting to see (when I inevitably convince Billy to go back next year!). 

 

Billy, Hansel, and the flamingos

Wednesday night, Mia was at a friend's house, so we had a "grown ups" dinner with Billy's dad and stepmom. Billy made his famous asparagus and his dad pulled out the corn hole boards. Yummy food and great company! I got to hear some hilarious stories about road trips from Billy's childhood, including the time he was approached by a police officer at age 10 in a Vegas casino, which his dad (jokingly) refers to as his biggest failure as a parent.