After four straight weeks of 6-day workweeks at my day job, I was due for an unplugged weekend. My boyfriend and I decided to escape into St. Joe State  Park in Park Hills, Missouri to pitch our tent and hide in the woods for a day or two.

St. Joe State Park is one of the only [...]]]>

After four straight weeks of 6-day workweeks at my day job, I was due for an unplugged weekend. My boyfriend and I decided to escape into St. Joe State  Park in Park Hills, Missouri to pitch our tent and hide in the woods for a day or two.

St. Joe State Park is one of the only parks in Missouri where ATVs are welcome (in approved areas only). My family had a three-wheeler when I was a kid, but my dad never wanted me to drive it. As a result, I’d never driven an ATV.

MilliGFunk on a Four Wheeler, photo Tony

My boyfriend’s experience with ATVs is quite the opposite. Half of his wardrobe bears Fox Racing logos, and he spent his teenage years racing four wheelers and dirt bikes. There is no shortage of stories of him flying high through the air on four wheelers, and I’ve still not managed to tally of the number of broken bones he’s accrued over the years.

Peaceful Campsite

I’ve always considered the sounds made by revving engines to be testosteronic and over-hyped, so waking up to the sound of boys revving their dirt bikes outside our tent was a new and not entirely welcomed experience for me.

Always willing to give something one try, I decided to give four-wheeling a chance. I killed the engine repeatedly, and probably didn’t exceed 25 miles per hour all day long. I didn’t die though, and truth be told, I had a pretty good time. Besides that, I look kind of bad ass driving this thing, don’t I?

Riding into the sunset, photo by Tony

The moral of the story is to get brave and try something new, even if it’s something you never before thought you’d enjoy. Getting our minds out of their regular ruts is refreshing, and removing ourselves from comfort zones keeps us viewing the world from new perspectives.

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St. Joe State Park also has a nice, asphalt bicycle trail, which I ride with some frequency and blogged about in 2009.

If small town life were like the Girl Scouts, this small town girl would be boasting a Jeepin’ badge after [...]]]> A small town man who drives a great big Jeep has recently made repeat appearances in the life of this small town girl, and there’s little that’s more authentically Small Town Missouri than off-roading in jacked-up trucks.

If small town life were like the Girl Scouts, this small town girl would be boasting a Jeepin’ badge after her adventures last weekend with said small town man in his big yellow Jeep.

4WD, photo by smalltowngirl

What started out as a scenic drive down county roads turned into a drive straight down this steep, snowy hill and onto an embankment in the middle of the lake, below.

The white that you see in the picture below is ice on the lake, not snow on the ground.

On the Lake, photo by smalltowngirl

The lake was only the beginning of the adventure. My pictures may not do justice to the jaunts we took into the woods, where small town man called “roads” things that looked to me like narrow walking paths.

Tree limbs scraped down the sides of the Jeep’s body and across its soft top as we eased our way through the trees.

"My iPhone says there's a road here", photo by smalltowngirl

As we tried to find our way out of the woods, the small town man used the GPS on his iPhone to lead the way while this small town girl used her small town country girl instinct.

“My iPhone says that Highway C is straight ahead,” said the small town man.

Moments later, the small town couple came to a locked gate and a “No Trespassing” sign, and this girl teased the small town man relentlessly as she munched the deer sausage and cheese her small town, deer-huntin’ dad had shared with them.

A Small Town Snack, photo by smalltowngirl

The grit and the bright lights of New York City are still in this small town girl’s heart, but days like this one are like an anthropological expedition into this small town girl’s roots in Small Town Missouri.

There’s a time for high heels and sushi, and there’s a time for deer sausage and Jeepin’. Thank goodness there have been enough days in this small town girl’s life to experience some of both.