Round Springs and Family Reunion

This will be my last vacation post and then it will be back to normal.

My mom used to tell me a story when I was little. There was a man who was driving his team of horses through the Ozark mountains. It was dark and shadowy along the road and something spooked the horses, causing them to run wildly down the road. Unable to regain control, the driver desperately jumped from the wagon just before it careened over a cliff and into a deep, round spring. The man returned to the scene the next morning and found no sign of his wagon or horses in the spring.  For days after he continued to return, but no fragment of wagon or hint of horse ever appeared. It wasn't until he came at night that he discovered his team - the ghostly image of them - perpetually repeating their desperate, deathly plunge. Today the spring is in a National park and the road is no longer open to traffic. However, if you should chose to jump the fence and venture to the moonlit spring, you too may be haunted by the lost wagon team.

That is legend. The truth is the Round Spring is a gorgeous spring that does in fact have a road running above it along the edge of a cliff. The spring is probably very deep, but scuba divers have never been able to find the bottom because the current is too strong.

One of my favorite things about visiting the spring is that you can usually see beaver and otters swimming in the spring and the stream that runs off it. No such luck this time, the unusual water activity we have had this year has caused the current to speed up and increased the amount of water flora.

The last part of my trip was my family reunion. Family reunions are high calorie fests - occasions for everyone to show off his/her best dish. And my family can cook for real!  Like Mom's barbecue pork...

First Cousin once removed chicken and dumplings...

Other FCOR's chess squares...

Second cousin's strawberry pie that would not focus for the life of me...

Aunt's trifle, cousin's pie, FCOR's cheese cake, Mom's lemon cake, and assorted others...

My hashbrown casserole...

And, finally, my plate...the last shot before my camera died. Salad, chicken and dumplings, lasagna, bbq pork, and hashbrown casserole.

And, yes, I did get some questions about why I was taking pictures of the food. I figured every family needs some crazies - I don't mind being the cousin who takes pictures of food :)