Missouri Vacation, 2016
Day 3
(created April 4, 2016, updated April 16, 2016)
Day 3: Round Spring, Laura Ingalls-Wilder House in Mansfield, Lambert’s for a throwed-roll dinner, and Springfield
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-Wild horses
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-Lambert’s Cafe, Ozark, MO (10 min south of Springfield)
Round Spring
We left and visited Round Spring - it's water was very blue and it was smaller than Greer but easier to get close to Round Springs, as it is right by the road and parking lot
See also
https://www.visitmo.com/round-spring-campground-national-park-service.aspx
&
https://www.nps.gov/ozar/planyourvisit/round-spring-and-round-spring-cave.htm
&
Wild horses
I read in MissouriLife magazine that some wild horses roam Shannon County, and Scott at Round Springs Retreat confirmed that is the case. As they are wild you cannot know if or when you may see them. We kept our expectations low... and had them exceeded!
We drove south to Eminence and back east a couple miles, to the Shawnee Creek National Park land.
We came to a fork in the road and Matt picked going left; at the end of several fields of cows and horses was an open field...
... and then we saw them - one of the packs of wild horses!
Matt and Abby both confirmed there were fourteen - 10 almost white and four brownish-grey.
They were amazing!
One seemed to notify the rest of them of our presence when we first arrived, but they did not run away.
We worked to move slowly and quietly so we would not scare them.
We captured many great photos of these great creatures.
It was fun and peaceful to see them.
Three of them also walked down the bank to drink from the Jacks Fork River - we looked and saw that we were right next to where the Shawnee Creek flows into the Jacks Fork
This was amazing!
We are glad Scott told us where to look for the horses!
See also:
“Eminence Mo Wild Horse Herds of Shannon County”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8I6Uxh7c1A&sns=em
A sign on an Eminence church... the words are oh, so true:
Laura Ingalls-Wilder Home (and Almonzo)
As we finished a late lunch, we realized we needed to get moving to get to Mansfield to see the Laura Ingalls-Wilder Home at Rocky Ridge Farm.
Thankfully Highway 60 is smoother and straighter than Hw 19... We made good time with Mom driving.
We arrived at Rocky Ridge earlier than planned but still with not much time.
We just made it to both the Rock House and original house tours.
I write only a bit, to not take away from what you learn on the tour... Almonzo and Laura lived in two houses on the property over the years. You can tour both... and learn some very interesting things about their lives, all they lived through (a book we read from the school library talked about them living from covered wagons through jet planes and almost to the manned space flight!).
There is a nice museum that just opened March 1. They have a short video about the family, much about pioneer life, AND Pa's Fiddle!!!
The gift shop has many nice things, including to no surprise - hard-cover and paperback sets of the books Laura wrote... all the books written there at Rocky Ridge.
The one lady who works there was from Eureka and has a friend in St. Claire of Assisi Church and she made sure that we saw the museum's movie and that the gift shop stayed open a bit longer for us
We left and headed to Springfield... To Lambert's, the home of throwed rolls... about 10 minutes south of Springfield on Hw. 65 (en route to Branson).
Links to the rest of this travel journal:
Ozark Fun - Day 1 Ozark Fun - Day 2 Ozark Fun - Day 4
