Nathanael Greene Memorial Park

Based on a recommendation from two trike riders we spotted yesterday, we decided to try riding inside Springfield itself. We drove to Nathanael Green Memorial Park and tootled through it on lovely paved, treed paths. While there we meandered past the Hosta Garden, Blue Star Memorial Garden, English Garden, Japanese Garden, and Dwarf Conifer Garden.

The trails had a very interesting plant specimen along the trail’s edge.

These are grown on a tree called Osage Orange, also known as Horse Apple, Hedge Apple, or Monkey Ball. The ball is as large as a softball, and the inside is quite fibrous. Named by Merriwether Lewis, and first discovered by the Osage people. Interestingly, it actually is a distant relative to the actual orange. Paula used an iPhone app called “Picture This, Botanist in Your Pocket” to identify it. Pretty strange...

Next we continued onto the S. Creek Greenway Trail. Once we arrived abruptly at its end, we crossed Battlefield Road to ride on the Wilson’s Creek Greenway Trail. It too was relatively short, but since we had had luck not getting rained on, we decide to try to get service for the van. Unfortunately, with it being a day after a holiday, the wait was too long, so we’ll try that tomorrow.

It turns out that Springfield, MO is headquarters for Bass Pro Shops. Normal Bass Pro Shops are huge, but this one was  nothing short of gargantuan. It included multiple huge aquariums, an alligator pond and three museums. Great spot for a cold and gloomy afternoon.

We were also able to get our woodworking and metalworking hardware fix in at a store called Gorilla Woodworking and Metalworking Equipment. The largest collection of lathes, table saws, router bits,  bandsaws and a LOT of grizzly bear statues.

We got back to our campground before too much rain. We were able to get dinner prepared, but now it’s raining pretty constantly, so I suspect we’re in for the night. Oh and we had a bit of hail too. The joys of camping. We really like our van.  :-)

Cute campground. Here are a couple pictures...