Nature Unfurled

To see nature unfurl almost everything in its power at me while on vacation is amazing.  In the last week, while on vacation I think I ran into almost everything possible.  But no matter what mother nature tried to throw at me, I either dodged it or just plowed through it.

Snowstorms:
I managed to hit the backend of the big snowstorm that basically paralyzed some of the east coast while driving to Florida.  The only real snow I hit on the entire ride down was while driving through Tennessee, who happened to have more snow that we did in Milwaukee.  Even Atlanta, who saw a white Christmas for the first time in centuries, had as much snow as Milwaukee did.




View from rest area on I-24 in Tennessee


Bitter Cold Comes to Florida
Yes, I brought the cold with me to Florida.  When I arrived in FL it was in the low 30's at night.  By the time I got up in the morning Daytona Beach was tying it's record lows.  It was 27 degrees when I woke up and took the dogs for a walk in the morning.  Nothing like the feeling of being in the sunshine state with the bitter cold.  Funny thing was I received my eNewsletter from TripAdvisor.com while I was there with the subject line of Top 10 Warm Weather escapes and #8 on the list was Orlando, FL.  Ha ha, how wrong they were that day.  But of course, on the day I left, it would get back up to the 60's. 

Severe Storms and Tornados
So next stop on the trip was to the Ozarks of Arkansas.  My first night was to stay at the Redding Campground near Cass, Arkansas along the Mulberry River. 

Mulberry River from Redding Campground

What a gorgeous little campground, even in the dead of winter.   Surprisingly, I was not alone in the campground - one other couple had their tent set up as well.  I knew upon arrival that scattered storms were supposed to pop up over night.  But with no source to the outside world, I had no idea of the changes coming.  Thankfully the other couple had some source to the outside world.  At 9:30 that evening they stopped by me to let me know the scattered storm forecast turned into severe storms heading our way and that since we were in a flash flood zone at this campground they were bailing.  After a bit of debating, I as well, tore the tent and all back down and packed it in.  I figured if I did need to abandon the campground that with 2 dogs in tow, it would be hard to pack quickly and get in the car to head out on the evacuation route.

So back to Ozark, Arkansas we headed.  The storms came in and upon awaking the next morning, turned on the news to see tornados were touching down just northwest of where I was.  And as I went to check out of the hotel the storms hit Ozark.  Thankfully by this time it was just heavy rain and winds with no tornados. 

With all the heavy rains, I decided to take the dogs hiking in an elevated area that day instead of back down by the campground on the Ozark Trail.  We headed up to Mount Magazine State Park instead and dealt with the rain up there.  Even in the rain - this is a pretty park with the highest peak in the state of Arkansas.  Definitely would recommend it and would love to go back and see this in the fall.  I bet the view is amazing as the leaves change colors.

Jasmine and Wailea hiking the North Rim Trail

Unfortunately because of the tornados I did end up cutting this vacation short one day since I was going to head out to another state park just sw of Fayetteville, Arkansas - but that would have been just east of Cincinnati Arkansas, so probably saw a little of the destruction from the tornado. 

Overall even with all the crazy weather - I'd do the whole vacation over again.  Love the fact that we could hike in Mount Magazine State Park and never see another sole.  It was like the dogs and I had the park to ourselves.  That was awesome. 

So go ahead nature unfurl your crazy weather on me.  I will take it and one up you by ignoring the weather and enjoying nature in every shape and format you can throw at me.  Yes, I may be crazy - but why not.  I will only live once and want to enjoy every minute of being outside that I can.