Keeping with the spirit of being somewhat experimental, we are going to be taking a brief break from the normal American Dreaming post for the next few posts for my contribution to the blog.
I recently had the opportunity to take a family vacation that was interesting as it was essentially a very long road trip. We drove almost 3,000 miles in 8 days. We endeavored to drive from our home in upstate New York to our “adopted home” within the Ozark mountains in the southwest corner of the state of Missouri. We had purchased two open lots of land in a development in the town of Blue Eye, Missouri which bordered on the man made Table Rock Lake region of the Ozarks.
The reason we chose to drive was that we have a diabetic cat that we love dearly. The poor animal can’t be boarded because she also suffers greatly with some separation anxiety issues. During the last time we attempted to board the cat at the vet’s office that cares from her, we returned three days later to a very distraught animal. The cat actually lost her capability to purr due to the trauma that she suffered during this event.
We had rented a nice small SUV for the journey. We took off on a Friday night and drove 5 hours that night before selecting a hotel that was “pet friendly” and bedding down for the night.
During the second day of the vacation, we drove some 10 hours to arrive in Charleston, Illinois where we had a very nice reunion with our son and his girlfriend who are attending college in that mid-western township. It was great seeing them again. We had not had that opportunity since the holidays last year and we had a very nice meal with them that evening at a local Chinese restaurant.
The next day, we drove the remaining 6-7 hours to the location in Blue Eye where we had rented a log cabin. The cabin was tremendously well equipped with a built in external hot tub and a Jacuzzi bath indoors. In addition, the cabin was outfitted with three bedrooms, a full kitchen and a deck over looking the Ozarks with a gas grill and external table and chairs arrayed on the deck.
We had planned to make full use of the deck by having a steak dinner with all the trimmings once we got out there. My wife had made some pretty awesome steak marinade that was a clone of the Jack Daniels sauce that we had enjoyed at a local restaurant in our hometown. This provided for a great meal with our kids.
When we arrived and got situated, we also took advantage of the chance to show off the property. We drove the kids out to the lots and also met with some of our “neighbors” in the development. My wife had made the acquaintance of the couple that had built a house on the border of our property last year. I got the chance to meet these nice folks this time around. They made a point of showing us a lot of the fine accoutrements that they had included in the design of their new home. It provided several details that I made notes of to include if/when we get to talking with a builder about putting up a home on our lots in the future.
We had purchased the property originally as a speculative move to invest in some real estate in what we felt might be a growing opportunity in the interim years, it has become much more that to us. It has become a symbol of our dream for retirement. We had visited this area several times and with each subsequent visit, the desire to relocate to this area has only increased.
Next: Other activities during the Ozark visit…
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