Destination the Ozarks

Today held a trove of adventures. It was a day that has long been awaited by Ragan, to her it seemed like a lifetime but in reality it was less than a month. The weather was supposed to be a sunny and bright fall day, a perfect day to set a course to the middle of Missouri to the Ozarks, so said NOAA but someone missed reporting the thick, heavy, gloomy clouds that hugged the ground the entire day. Ragan rose at 7am ready to go.... note this is the equivalent of dawn to her.  The rest of us were not as eager to rise and shine. It took about 30 minutes to get the blood flowing then it was peddle to the medal because we were running behind. Destination: the Ozarks. A sweet little 7 week old lemon colored female Bassett Hound puppy was waiting for Ragan.

In true Rein family fashion we loaded the van seeking adventure along the way.......minus Elizabeth and Derek, sadly both had to work; oh well, the show MUST go on!

First thing that caught our eye was a gas stop in Missouri....holy cow gas was only $3.39! Here in Kansas we have been paying $3.49 plus. I later saw gas down the road for $3.28! Seeing gas cheaper always makes me reminisce of the days you could pay a buck twenty for high test gasoline....today if I filled my van with high test it would probably don a pink tutu and dance down the road like Fred Astaire.  Moral of the story is to always try to buy gas in Missouri.

Almost there...said a few hundred times later I scared myself white...well whiter. This was just too funny not to share!....as I was trying to meter my camera I took a pic of a hill with fall color foliage....I glanced at the pic I had taken on my mini screen and it was too dark but I saw a man in my picture! There was no man on the side of the road that I saw nor a car NOTHING! What was even spookier was the man looked like he was dressed like my granddaddy. I double checked the screen to make sure da brain was not malfunctioning, cause that happens you know, and yup, sure enough, THERE STOOD A STRANGE DUDE IN MY IMAGE! Whoa I had PROOF I thought, a real ghost!  So I said "there is a man in my picture! My family looked at me and said "yeah, he was standing on the edge of the road back there." What!?????!

Who stands in the middle of no where Missouri on the edge of the highway?
I still think it was a ghost!

After 3 hours of driving we reached puppy destination! In no time Ragan was swimming in puppy kisses and cute Basset Hound wrinkles. The desire to take home every puppy was hard to resist but resist we did! Only 1 pup made it to the van! Ragan loaded her new baby in the car and proceeded to be stingy with the cuddles.

"Exhibit A your honor" thought Briley.....MOooMmmm!

The highlight of the trip was when we stopped to eat picnic style from the van at a gas station. Who should walk out of the filling station but......Santa Claus! He had the fullest whitest beard we had ever seen. He was in a caravan of RVs! Vacation was treating Santa WEEELLLLL! Of course we did what we do...... ran across the parking lot dodging cars yelling "EXCUSE ME SIR" with Ragan, carrying along her new pup, and Briley in tow we caught up to him. I said "excuse me sir but you look like Santa Claus. We are on an adventure and wanted to know if it would be alright with you if we could please get a picture!" He turned to his wife and excitedly said "I have a photo op", he bent down hugged the girls and smiled so bright...Who needs the sun...gloomy day be gone smiled Saint Nick!

Did I mention that he had a really nice fluffy beard and he really was Santa Claus?

Picnic

Okay..... guilty.....
we were stalking Santa in the parking lot first.

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What's for supper?

Side note: we are originally from Tennessee so we have supper as opposed to Midwest dinner.

Supper tonight was supposed to be lamb with king's meat but my roast was too small so I pulled another from the freezer. We will just have lamb tomorrow night.

Menu was changed to twice baked potatoes. I am posting Greg Patent's video from youtube. My only change is we add a smidgen of bacon. The potatoes are more than enough and it makes a fantastic one dish supper. I love Greg's energy and enthusiasm for food that is why he is a must share. :)

For dessert, cookie cake. I have never made chocolate chip cookie cake before last week. We have always left that to Great American Cookie but the closest is in North KC (which isn't that close). So I made 2 cakes for Ragan's birthday the other day in case I ruined one. I cheated and did not make my own chocolate chip cookie dough because I have yet to find a recipe that tastes as good as Pillsbury. But I did learn something that I think saved me and the cake that I wanted to share.....a technique I stumbled across by complete accident looking for dog biscuit recipes.  Using the flour to keep dough from sticking to every thing always seems to spoil the taste. Instead rolling the dough between 2 sheets of freezer paper saves the day! It was AMAZING and less mess than I ever have imagined! I am posting the video that I found with the technique and a pic of one of Ragan's cakes.

Ragan's Birthday cake made by mom, decorated by mom and dad (mermaid).
Daddy is pretty cool like that. :)

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It has been a long, but enjoyable day. I hear my pillow calling my name. Oh, new puppy does not have a name yet but I'm sure the right one will come along soon. :)

Until next time. Cheers!