August 5th, Drive to Greer, MO

Saturday, August 5, 2006
Day 41
Drive to Greer, Missouri

We saw more Baptist Churches than people today. There was at least one Baptist Church every 5 miles for a while today. We were driving through tiny town after tiny town in rural Arkansas. There were other churches too, we are definitely in the “Bible Belt” I think!

We arrived at “Richard’s Canoe Rental” in Greer Missouri, this is rural southern Missouri, and boy do I mean R-U-R-A-L… We are kind of scared to actually stay here. We are NOT staying for two nights, that’s for sure! The place sounded GREAT on the internet. Looked beautiful from the pictures and the description. But, the website is VERY misleading! The place is a total dump. The hook-ups don’t work, I mean there is something wrong with the electricity. Thankfully we have a special device that we hook to the plug-in that will protect against surges and tells us if there is a problem. Well, there is a problem, so we are not using their electricity. There could be reversed polarity or voltage on the ground wire. Don’t really know, but don’t want to find out either. The water works. The bathrooms are a nightmare, the worst I’ve ever seen and I won’t go near it! The people are strange too. But, we are going to get up early and canoe the Eleven Point River for a couple of hours. Then we are out of here and on the way to St. Louis. Rod would have kept driving tonight, but 10 hours in the car would have been a bit much.

I’d like to hike the trail to Greer Spring, but don’t know if I’ll get the chance. It’s a 1-2 hour hike and it is getting late, and it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to do it tomorrow. Oh well.