Following the Music Over Missouri’s Rivers and Through Its Woods: Boymom Adventures

The Martinez Family had had a looong, rough week. Personally, I’d barely seen my boys all week between two days at Branson for meetings and three long nights of senior awards, baccalaureate services, school board meetings, and graduation! So on Saturday morning, I woke them up and told them to get dressed because we were going to do something!!

I had no real plans, so like any good Lagom Adventurer, I checked out the Weekly Recommendations! I immediately was drawn to the Scottish Bicentennial Festival in Caledonia, MO. It advertised kilts and bagpipers and who can resist that! Honestly, I’ve always been fascinated with the bagpipes and the sound they make. Taking only a loaf of zucchini bread, my glass of homemade pineapple and ginger kombucha, and some bottles of water, we headed out!

We arrived for the parade at 9:00 a.m. and then started exploring the shops and booth in the historic village. Of course our favorite stop is the Mercantile. We loaded up bags of candy, picked up some peach butter, and headed out the door before we found more goodies.

Next I stopped at the Crabapple Cabin behind the mercantile and bought some strawberry jam before we headed over to the booths and the barn off of Main Street.

There were so many nice booths with crafts and antiques. I walked away with another “M” for my “M Wall.” It was created from pieces of old ceiling tins. The nice man who made it could even tell me where the different pieces came from: St. Louis, Van Buren, MO, and Cincinnati, OH.

In the barn, we were most fascinated by the little band playing. Featuring a clarinet and a trombone/trumpet player, we stopped and watched for a couple songs. Instruments have been a big topic of discussion in our house the last few weeks as August is trying to decide which instrument he wants to play. After deciding he wanted to try out the trombone, watching this young man play, I think sealed the deal!

We drove by Elephant Rocks State Park on the way to our next destination. The parking lot was packed. That’s another must see if you’ve never been.

Our next stop was the Mountain Music Festival in Ironton, MO. This festival features several bluegrass ensembles, more craft booths, and food!! We got there just in time as the next bluegrass group was warming up. We found a seat near the front in the lawn of the historic Iron County Courthouse.

I grew up on a lot of bluegrass music from the many trips to Branson and other local festivities with my family. I can’t think of too many occasions that I’ve taken my boys where they’ve been exposed to true bluegrass music. As soon as the band, particularly the fiddle, started the first notes of a very lively bluegrass tune, I looked over and saw the expressions on Tanner and August’s faces….their eyes got real big and huge smiles emerged!

After watching for awhile, it was time for food. We went with the bacon wrapped pork tenderloin drizzled in some kind of honey based glaze, smoked chicken, our favorite ribbon fries with cheese, and ice cream!!

After eating, we had to make a decision, head home or continue on. There was a band playing in Akers, MO, National Parks Radio, sponsored by the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. For many years I’ve fallen in love with, what I call modern folk bands, like Mumford and Sons. Since, I’ve been exploring more local bands with the same vibe. If you follow my social media page, you know one of my favorites is Clusterpluck. I’d seen National Park Radio on Facebook several times, but when I saw they were going to be fairly close to home, I knew I had to try to go.

I don’t think the boys were looking forward to the almost two hour drive, but they knew I wanted to go watch this band so bad, so they agreed.

It was a nice drive through Missouri. We crossed several of my favorite rivers to float on and we got deeper into the Ozarks towards Current River.

We got to Akers a little early so decided to do a little exploring. We did a short, one mile hike to Welch Spring, the 8th largest spring in Missouri. It pumps out 75 million gallons of water a day!!! We also saw a lot of floaters on this beautiful day as we walked along the Current River.

Another fun fact: there is a ferry at Akers that takes your vehicles across the Current River.

Back at the concert site, the National Parks Service had done a nice job of setting up booths to promote many adventures the area has to offer, paddling, trout fishing, hiking. I caught up with members of the Ozark Trail Association. I’ve got a new challenge I’m going to try (details later) and learned they are down to the last mile on connecting another section of the Ozark Trail. Woo! Hoo!

Finally, it was showtime!!

Despite a nice rainstorm, we were nice in cozy under a tent while they played from the cover a porch. National Park Radio was better than advertised! Their music really speaks to me. It’s beautiful and has a great message. The message that any hiker or outdoorsy person would love! The boys even sat and bobbed their head along.

At the end of the day, when I could tell they were tired, I told them it was time to go, and August states, “we can stay for a little longer if you want Mommy.” Despite how tired he was, he knew I wanted to watch them….

It was a beautiful day with just my boys and I. We had no service, so no social media, and miles of road that led us to many adventures today. Tanner has already made plans for us to go back to the Current River area to check out some places we didn’t have time to explore. Now that warms an adventurers heart! My hope is this story inspires you to adventure with your kids. There are times that I use it as a break, adult time, but what I have found is when my kids aren’t with me during many of these new discoveries, afterwards, I’m always trying to think of time that I can go back and discover it again with my boys.

What are some of your favorite local adventures with your kids?