I am at a time in my life where celebrating Halloween means going out to the bars and dressing up as a slutty _____. This is not my thing. So although I love doing Halloween stuff with my students, and I'm sure I will love doing Halloween with my own kids someday, I chose not to celebrate Halloween this year. Instead, Whitney and I went on a hiking adventure out by the Mississippi River.

Our plan was to go to lunch at a place called Poopy's in Savanna (because Poopy's? Seriously?), and then go hiking at Mississippi Palisades State Park. But there were some fun detours on the way.

We saw a sign for a covered bridge, and I said, "Should I turn?" and Whitney said, "Do you even have to ask?" This is just one reason why I love her.


As we drove through the cute covered bridge, I just couldn't help but wonder, "Why? What's the point?" But it was still nice.

Our next detour occurred when we saw a sign for a windmill. I thought we'd see a cute little windmill, take a picture, and be on our way. Oh no.... it was so much more.

We walked into the windmill and stumbled upon a free tour! So random and hilarious. I almost started laughing in the lady's face. It was just so funny to me that we followed a sign and ended up listening to a lecture on how the windmills in Holland were used to communicate during WWII. It was actually a functional windmill that made flour and had been brought over from the Netherlands. Once again, I couldn't help but wonder, why? How did this town decide to raise all that money to bring in a windmill? But it was interesting. And surprisingly crowded.

Here is Whitney pretending to rotate the windmill:


Here is a man actually making flour (sorry it's so blurry):


After our fortuitous little stop at the windmill, we stopped by a park with old-school playground equipment.

We felt kinda dirty riding those horses and alligator.




Finally, we headed for our first planned stop: Poopy's. They are a motorcycle place, tattoo parlor, restaurant, and they even had haunted woods for Halloween. Notice all the trucks in the parking lot.


The menu was ridiculous.


But the restaurant actually wasn't that bad. (Notice all the camo at the bar.)


After lunch we went hiking. It was beautiful, and I actually remembered my parents taking us there when we were little.





We drove home via Route 20, which is scenic and gorgeous. On the way back, we stopped at Culver's for custard, which was just the perfect way to end the day.

*Many of these photos are courtesy of Whitney, who is a much better photographer than me. :)