Kansas

 After another hotel breakfast, we loaded up and headed toward Lee's Summit and Oktoberfest.

We stopped in Osceola at the Cheese Factory and the Amish Country Store

After walking around Lee's Summit for a few minutes we ate lunch at TacoHolics.

I had the Cancun tacos

Jo Anne had Queso Pollo and corn

This pot of flowers was taller than me.

It took us only a short time to get all the Oktoberfest we wanted so off to Wichita, KS we went. We planned to spend the night in Wichita, go apple picking tomorrow, and then head home. We discovered that the apple orchard doesn't open until 10 am, which would make Jo Anne really late getting home tomorrow. She checked the website and it stays open on Friday evenings until 7 pm so we went straight to the orchard today.

our apples

They are small but very tasty. We picked Empire.

We are staying at the Country Inn and Suites, which happens to have a Costco right across the street. I filled up the car, so we can get an early start home tomorrow. 
This is the end of our Sister's Road Trip. It's been great being together even though most of our plans didn't go so well. One of the highlights, which wasn't in the original plan at all, was the apple picking today. Of course, the real highlight was Queen Esther. Truly remarkable.

"Finally, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you...The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all."                    2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Until next time...

Hiking Day

 We got up this morning, packed up our stuff, loaded the car and went to find breakfast somewhere other than the hotel. 

We found a place about 1/2 mile from the hotel that was on our way to Richland Creek Wilderness Area. More about that later.

Jo Anne's biscuit and gravy, bacon, and hashbrowns

We ordered from the a la carte menu so everything came on a separate plate. 

my bacon, scrambled ? egg, and fruit

Some photos of the drive. 

Forest road

We drove all over the world and back to get to the waterfalls today. The plan was to go to Richland Creek Wilderness Area and hike into a few of the waterfalls.

More than 30 waterfalls have been catalogued in the Richland Creek watershed. The tallest one is Terry Keefe Falls at about 78-feet high. Six Finger Falls is not high at all, but very impressive. I'm attaching some photos of the falls as shown in the brochure, and here is one of the reviews.

"I fell in love with this area! There was so much to see. I was in absolute awe of how amazing, peaceful and beautiful it is. From hidden creeks to endless waterfalls and never ending streams, you will not run out of things to see. Make sure you bring your camera to capture the moment. I would call it Sweet Serenity because that is the feeling it evokes. If you are an adventurer,/hiker, you will appreciate this wonder!"

Aren't they beautiful?

Well, first problem of the day, my car navigation system had us turn off the hwy at the Ozark National Forest. Unfortunately, the forest road was a one-lane dirt road. We followed the road for about 30 miles and it took an hour and a half. Three hours after leaving the restaurant, we finally found the Richland Creek Travel Center, which was located in the Community Center at Witts Springs. We could have gotten here without going through the forest. The center is un-manned but had one brochure with the waterfalls listed. The only information about getting to the falls was gps coordinates to each. I mapped several of the major ones and off we went. Here are some photos of the falls I took today.

hmmm, where's the water?

oh, there it is

and there is a little water at this falls which you can see if you zoom in 

Here's a video of it

no water here

hmmm, another dry river bed

As we were leaving the wilderness area, we stopped to talk to one of the men running the grader on the road. He said, "yep, the crick is dry, but a hurricane is coming. S'posed to rain all day tomorrow. How long y'all stayin'?"

We said, bout as long as it takes us to git out of here. ☺

It was now 3 p.m. and we were ready to get some lunch and head back to Branson. The drive through the wilderness area was scenic but my car was so dirty from the road that I couldn't see out the back windshield. Reminded me of Colleen's car when we went to see Ree Drummond's Lodge outside of Pawhuska.

We stopped at a roadside cafe and both had the special of the day, which was brisket sliders. Of course, mine was sans bread.

The buns were homemade and Jo Anne said they were delicious!

We are now back in Missouri.

We decided since we hadn't had any luck hiking or seeing waterfalls today, we would go to the falls in Branson that were about 5 min. from the hotel we checked out of 8 hours earlier. It was touted as a nice little hike of only about 2/3 mile in and then back out again.

this is not a good sign

where's the water?

here it is...this is looking very familiar

a little bit more water - getting our hopes up

interesting log

and look! an actual waterfall

Of course, it's supposed to look like this. But, the crick in Branson is apparently dry too. 😞

My review: This hike really peaked my interest in what a real waterfall might look like. About an hour into the drive on the road through the forest, I was pretty sure we were about halfway to somewhere, bringing new meaning to getting lost in nature. I chose the road less traveled and now I don’t know where I am. No worries about checking my iPhone since we haven’t had service for the last 45 minutes, but they say the greatest adventure is what lies ahead, so onward we forge! 

We left Branson about 5:30 and drove north to Bolivar, MO where we are staying in the Best Western tonight. Hours driven: 10 1/2, steps: maybe 10, waterfalls: 0.

I couldn't find any information about this "Freedom Tree" in Branson, but it's a pretty tree so I'll let that be the closing photo. 

Tomorrow we plan to drive up to Lee's Summit for the annual Oktoberfest. Hope tomorrow's plans work out better than today's.