Our new "home" - Ft Leonard Wood

8573 miles, 17 states, and 55 days later, we arrived at our new "home", Ft Leonard Wood, on Wednesday.  We've been spending the past few days exploring the area and learning our way around (with one more long - 90 miles each way - trip back to Springfield to pick up the car title). 

Ft Leonard Wood is the home to the "Manuever Support Center of Excellence" which means that all the military schooling for three Army branches comes through here - Military Police, Engineers, and Chemical.  So, just like Jen's last assignment at the Military Intelligence schoolhouse, this is also a school-based installation.  This is a much bigger post than Huachuca, however, both in volume of students (90,000 per year here) and in geographic size.  The surrounding town, however, is so tiny and bare it's almost funny... there's a reason the Army refers to this place as "Ft Lost in the Woods"  

We are settled in to the Town campground, which is about 5 miles to post.  No frills here, but we've got the basics (water and sewer) and the pups have the whole place to themselves. They've had a good time running like crazy around all the unoccupied campsites, as there is only one other RV here.  It's also situated along a small stream, so Sunday has been able to go swimming.  Happy pups. 

We spent the good part of Thursday looking at houses off post and we're just not even remotely impressed, so we escalated the fight to get housing on post. We had initially been told that since we didn't have kids, we'd be in a 2br/1ba, but after talking to some supervisors, they agreed to give us a regular 3br/2ba.  We looked at a few on Friday and picked one with a huge fenced yard for the pups (of course).  It's nothing fancy, but it's close to Jens office and the gym, and it's in a nice neighborhood.  We can move in on Oct 1st (even though we won't have our furniture for at least a few weeks)

Jen visited her new office on Thursday, and it seems like it's going to be a good environment.  It's a very busy office that does a lot of courts martials (criminal trials under the military judicial system), and it's been undermanned for the past year, so the work has been piling up.  Looks like she'll hit the ground running and not let up until it's time to move again.

Doug has decided he's taking up fishing as a new hobby - there are tons of creeks and rivers and lakes here.  Very few MTB trails, unfortunately, as everything seems to be centered around water activities (which makes sense considering the hot/humid weather that is common here.)

Yesterday, we took the pups to the nearby Mark Twain National Forest for a short hike. Didn't see a single human being, but we did see two snakes (one of which was a copperhead, which made Jen scream and run) and lots of squirrels. The trail we walked was supposedly open to MTBs as well, but most of it was unrideable in our opinion.  Lots more exploring to do.

As far as the brewery situation (all the important stuff, you know?) there aren't any right here, but we did find a cool little pub right down the street from our campground that has 66 beers on tap (66 because they are on Historic Route 66) with probably 60 of those being decent beers.  They have a punch card thing, where once you've bought every single one of the 66 beers on tap, you get your name on the wall, a t-shirt, and future discounts on beer. Doug has accepted the challenge, and is already 5 beers toward mission completion (they count my beers toward his total too, thankfully!).  So, all in all, I think we'll survive the next 18-24 months here.

Here's a few pictures from the last few days.  We probably won't be updating the blog as often, now that our mega-vacation is over, but we'll put pictures up when we get our house and explore new places here in the southern Midwest.

Day 54: New Car, New Pub, New Beer Store (23 Sep 14)

Jen spent the morning pampering herself at a salon, getting a serious haircut (3 months of weed growth... ugh!) and highlights.  You know you're in the Bible Belt when an otherwise normal Aveda salon is named "Salon Truth" and there are framed scripture passages all over the walls (but the stylists were all cackling about how shitfaced they all got last weekend, so I guess they're a looser kind of religious fanatic in these parts). Weird.  Jen also took advantage of a real shopping mall with a Macy's to stock up on skin stuff and cosmetics. Ha, you laugh, but have you seen where we've been living the past several years? Macy's is a treat!!

We also discovered a great British Gastropub, with lots and lots of local beers on tap and locally sourced food. We discovered two great new breweries via this place - one from St Louis and the other from right here in Springfield (they just don't have a tasting room... yet).  Our server was kind enough to tell us about a local beer/wine specialty store just up the street (after we had to explain to her what a growler was - apparently that concept is completely foreign around here).  Gotta hand it to her, though, she was right - it was one hell of a specialty store. Even had beers from Maine! Jen bought one of everything with pumpkin on the label (including a pumpkin-infused apple cider from Woodstock) and Doug got himself some IPAs. 

Then it was back to the Subaru dealer to pick up Jen's new car. She's in heaven.  Not sure how someone could get so excited about a station wagon, but she's acting like she just got a Mustang or something.  Of course, as soon as we got home, she opened the door to show Doug the inside and Finn jumped right in and got Paw prints everywhere.  Ah, what's a Subaru without paw prints anyway? 

Tomorrow, off to our new home at Ft Leonard Wood (a/k/a Fort Lost in the Woods)

Day 53: Cars and beer (22 Sep 14)

Drove into Springfield today to buy Jen a new Lesbaru... uh, I mean Subaru.  She's been without her own car since February, so it was time.  Dreading a day at a car dealership, we soothed ourselves with breakfast at Cracker Barrel (if only they served mimosas.....) before heading into the 8th level of hell. Overall, it wasn't a bad experience.  Jen knew exactly the car she wanted, and our bank negotiates a deal ahead of time with the dealer, so there was no haggling.  Even so, it took 3 hours of talking to car salesmen, bank people, and insurance people to make it happen. We pick it up tomorrow (which will undoubtedly entail talking to more car salesmen)

After that harrowing experience, we were very thirsty, so we made our way to Springfield Brewing, one of 3 breweries in town (but the only one open on a Monday).  Beer was good, not great, and food was edible.  3 out of 5 stars.

Rest of the afternoon was stupid stuff like laundry and playing endless games of fetch with the pups.

Day 52: Missouri (21 Sep 14)

Drove over 300 miles today from Hot Springs, Arkansas to Springfield, Missouri. Passed no fewer than 100 mega-churches with ginormous crosses reaching high over the highway.... eerie. Welcome to the Bible Belt, hope we don't shake the place up too much.

Campground here is nice, with big huge grass fields to play ball with the pups. We'll be here a few days, getting done all the things that one needs to do in a big city before venturing out to the middle of bumfuck USA.

Day 51: MTB Arkansas II (20 Sep 14)

Battled 89% humidity to get another piece of Arkansas singletrack today. We did a 12-mile section of a 37-mile epic trail here in the Ouachita National Park.  Trail was very different than yesterday's trail, not as fast and swoopy, and no lake breeze to cool things down. By the end we were beat!

While Doug prepped for the long drive tomorrow, Jen met up with one of her roommates from her "learn how to play army" school at Ft Benning back in 2010.

Tomorrow, back to Missouri.

Day 50: MTB Arkansas (19 Sep 14)

Rode 14 miles of the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail today - it was awesome!  The trail network was extensive, well-maintained and just plain fun. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a cool crisp fall day. It was in the 80s with 80% humidity.  Blech. But at least there was a little breeze coming off the lake. BTW - according to the local we talked to on the trail, Ouachita is pronounced "WERSH-uh-ta".  Yeah, we never would have guessed that either.

Tomorrow, another Arkansas MTB trail to check out.

Day 49: Arkansas (18 Sep 14)

Got up at 0045 and pulled out of the campground by 0115 this morning to do the drive through Memphis in the middle of the night to avoid all the traffic. Even at that hour, I-40 was filled with tractor trailers, but at least there weren't millions of cars darting in and out and cutting us off. Once we got safely across the Mississippi River, it was time for breakfast!  Doug happily devoured his Belgian waffle, eggs, sausage, and bacon at a truck-stop Dennys.

A few hours later, we were pulling into the campground in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the childhood home of Bill & Hillary Clinton (or so says the sign entering town).  It's surprisingly pretty here, although we could do without the 80% humidity.  While Doug recovered from the long painful drive, Jen brought the pups to Hot Springs National Park and hiked the trails there with them. Pretty views, well-maintained trails, and total solitude. 

After the hike and showers (and rib bones for the pups) we headed into town to find the local brewery. Superior Brewing is located in an old bathhouse that had been vacant for 35 years before they took it over a few years ago (the town of Hot Springs is known for their, well, hot springs... and the main street is lined with bathhouses and spas) . Unfortunately they don't have the licenses to brew their own beer, but they had a good selection of brews on tap from around the Midwest. They also had decent real food and yummy gelato.

Eventful day. Tomorrow: mtn biking Arkansas. 

Day 48: Middle Tennessee (17 Sep 14)

Drove to a stopping point 40 miles West of Nashville today. As you can see from the picture, Finn is still very stressed in the truck - it's just so hard to let it all hang out and relax.  On another odd note, Jen took the pups on a walk down an old deserted road near the campground today, and Sunday rolled in dead alligator.  Yes, alligator.  In the middle of Tennessee.  We just don't want to know....

Tomorrow:  Arkansas.  Last time we went to Arkansas, it rained the whole time and an entire boy scout troop camped next to us.  So this time, we're just hoping for no dead alligators. 

Day 47: MTB Tennessee (16 Sep 14)

Drove up to the Big Fork National Recreation Area to ride today. It rained all night last night, and was raining on and off this morning too, so the trails were slick and slimy. Pretty area, filled with thick hardwood trees, and all in the shade. It would be a great place to ride on a dry, sunny fall day.  The whole trail is over 30 miles, but we bailed after only 14.
Then, on the way home, we found a BBQ shack that came highly recommended from the Internet... It was literally a one-room shack on the side of the road, with a crusty old Tennessee dude serving up pork and brisket.  It was OK (but not as good as the Moat!)