by Bill Whitney

Created on: March 05, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

A mountain vacation anywhere is wonderful and we have enjoyed the Rockies, the Smokies, the Poconos but our favorites are the Ozarks of Souther Missouri and Northern Arkansas. We love the country and we love the people and all the great things there are to do. It doesn't matter if you are six or ninety six, there is something for everybody.

There are five families of us that all meet down there somewhere every year or two and just have a blast. Two of the families live around Kansas City, one lives in Omaha, one lives south of St Louis and we live in Denver so it is not that far for any of us. Tow of the guys are old Navy buddies, one is a high school friend and the other couple were our neighbors in Gillette Wyoming. All of our children are grown and out on there own so we just get together and have a blast.

We usually get a couple of cabins down on the Buffalo National River in Arkansas and then we go different places from there. We usually spend one day up in Branson taking in the shows and shopping at the big outlet mall there. But most of the time we spend on the river either hiking or canoing or just floating the river and enjoying the scenery and the wildlife. None of us are drinkers to any degree so we just sit back and if it happens to rain or makes it where we can't be outside we play pinochle or some kind of bard games and enjoy catching up on the family goings on and the kids and the grandkids.

Last year we all went together and bought a small wild hog and spit roasted it over coals and boy was that ever good. All of us guys like to cook and so we let the gals have the week off and we are always cooking up something. We almost always have a fish fry sometime while we are there depending on our luck. At the lower end of the Buffalo National River where is merges with the White River is some of the best trout fishing in the whole United States and we almost always catch enough to have our fill of fresh rainbow and some good old hush puppies.

We almost always end up at Mountain Home and Lake Bull Shoals for a day where we rent a house boat and cruise the lake and fish for walleye and bass. The mountains are gorgeous and peaceful and we love the friendly people in the area. There are antique shops and there is a smoke house we always go to and get some hams and bacon for the year. Every road in the area has something neat to see around every corner. There are a lot of neat little towns that grew up along the various rivers and almost all of them have some kind of a local cafe that has great southern food and something that is their specialty. It is always a new adventure and we look forward to meeting our friends in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas again in May or June. The Ozarks are neat and our mountain vacation there is our favorite little vacation every year.

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