Kat's Birthday - Lewis and Clark State Park

After returning from our quick trip to Lake of the Ozarks State Park, we had three short days to unpack, do laundry and repack food and clothing for a trip in the other direction to Lewis and Clark State Park.  Just a little more than an hour from our house, and with five nights/4 days planned, we consider this our "vacation" for the year.  It was a much more relaxed and relaxing trip for us than the previous weekend.

Lewis and Clark SP had suffered severe flooding a couple of years ago, so this was the first season it was re-opened for camping.  We arrived in the late afternoon on Wednesday evening and set up camp on a nice level spot this time.

Thursday was not only Independence Day, but also Kat's birthday.  We ran into town (Atchison, KS) to get a few things we forgot to bring with us, then came back to camp for fun day and evening to celebrate her birthday.  My daughter and son-in-law also joined us.

On Friday morning, Kat and Shane did a little (unsuccessful) fishing, then we drove to nearby St. Joseph, MO, to spend an afternoon at the Pony Express Museum and the Patee House Museum.  The Patee House in particular was filled with many interesting displays.  We returned well into the evening to relax at camp.

On Saturday, we drove to the northern parts of Kansas City to let Kat go with her mom (my daughter) for the rest of her birthday weekend.  Shane and I made our way back to camp to the rest of the day, evening and next morning there.

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Parked at Lewis and Clark State Park
near Rushville, MO
July 3-7, 2013

Camping for a Family Picnic - Lake of the Ozarks State Park

It's been a couple of months since I updated either of my blogs, so I thought I'd write a couple of quik back-dated posts to get this one caught up. - Annie, August 25, 2013.

On June 28, we made a quick camping trip to Lake of the Ozarks State Park.  This park is just far enough away from us that I would rather have made the trip on a three-day weekend, but because we were going for an extended-family picnic, we did it on a regular weekend.

This park is very large.  Once inside the park entrance, we drove a full five miles before we reached the campground.  It's a beautiful park, and we'd like to return sometime to enjoy it more.

The only drawback to our visit was that our site was very un-level.  We made it work, but the tail end of the RV was in the air and a little wobbly, which gave me a little bit of motion sickness.  I just tried to avoid being inside as much as I could.

Our family picnic was not here, but at Ha Ha Tonka State Park, about 25 miles away.  Ha Ha Tonka has no campground, but it has some very pretty and interesting ruins of a castle-like mansion, as well as hiking trails, a naturally-formed bridge, swimming, etc. 

Both parks are located on the Lake of the Ozarks, which is a resort area with lots of restaurants, boutique shops and amusements.  We enjoyed time at an arcade (or as Kat calls it, a "kids' casino"), and played a round of mini-golf.

As happens most times we camp, it rained.   After we finished our game of golf, we barely made it into the truck before the downpour.  It rained throughout the evening, but that didn't keep us from enjoying our evening by the fire...intermittently.

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Parked at Lake of the Ozarks State Park
near Osage Beach, MO
June 28-30, 2013

Road Trippin' Without the RV

Some of you may remember that Joplin, MO, was hit by a devastating tornado in May of 2011.  While many businesses have already been rebuilt, some of the larger structures are still under construction.  The new Mercy Hospital is one of those, and is where Shane has been working off and on this year.

Last week, Kat and I decided to join him in Joplin for a few days.  He rode down with his boss in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, with us following later in the day.  Joplin is about 120 miles or so from our home, but we somehow managed to make that drive in a mere six hours.  ;)

After a couple of necessary stops in town, we headed south on I-49 along the western edge of Missouri.  We made several stops, including one at Rich Hill, where we scoped out (scooped out?) the Big Mouth Coal Shovel.  It's not really a shovel, but a bucket, with a capacity of 30 tons, that was used back in the mining days of this part of the state.

After lunch, we visited the Harry S. Truman Birthplace State Historic Site in Lamar, which we both found interesting.  I learned that the home had also been owned by the family of Wyatt Earp.

In Carthage, we traveled along a stretch of Route 66 near Kellogg Lake and along Spring River.  Great scenery through here; I should have taken more photos.

Finally we caught up with Shane and enjoyed dinner (a provided amenity for guests at the extended stay hotel) and swam afterward in the hotel pool.

The next day we stayed mostly at the hotel, but did venture out for lunch with my friend Melinda.  I was happy to finally meet her; we've been cyber pen-pals for ten years, but the timing had just not been right for us to meet before now.

On Wednesday, Kat and I ventured into Northeast Oklahoma to check out the Grand Lake of the Cherokees, and do a little geocaching at Bernice State Park.
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While we were driving, I happened upon this stretch of the Ribbon Road.  To my understanding, this 9-foot wide stretch of pavement between Miami, OK, and Afton, OK, actually predates Route 66, but later became part of it.  If anyone knows better information than this, please feel free to add it in the comments.

We returned to Joplin an hour or so before Shane got off work, and found a few gems while we were waiting:  A park near Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center with public access to Shoal Creek, a waterfall of sorts on the same fast-moving creek (history unknown to me, but it looks as if there may once have been a mill, dam, or other structure there) with more public access to the creek, and upstream, a beautiful campground and RV park right on the creek were we hope to stay later this summer if Shane works in Joplin again.

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Staying at Homewood Suites
Joplin, MO
June 11-13, 2013

An All-Time Favorite - Wallace State Park

We spent Labor Day Weekend at Wallace State Park, which is one of our all-time favorite parks and one we stay at at least once each season.

The remnants of Hurricane Isaac brought much needed rain to us on Friday, so we left home under wet conditions and arrived at camp the same.  

Many of the Missouri State Parks have wi-fi now, but not yet at Wallace, so my computer usage was limited to a few games and the books I have downloaded to it.  Fortunately, we have games, books, a television, VCR and DVD players and other things to keep us occupied when we can't be outside.  Shane even thought to bring the campfire! 

On DVD, that is.

Saturday was equally rainy, so we went to town for something to do, and because I'd somehow forgot to bring coffee and we needed to buy some.  We spent a couple of hours looking in two thrift shops, and an antique mall, with a quick visit to the grocery store for coffee and a stop at Dairy Queen for a treat.  The rain finally tapered off by Saturday evening, and the burn ban that had been in place most of the summer was lifted, so we enjoyed a real campfire.

Sunday morning looked much brighter.  The sun was out and the day warmed quickly.  It was never warm enough to swim, in my opinion, but we did go fishing for a couple of hours. 

As usual, Kat was the only one of us who had any luck. 

After fishing, we went for a short hike on one of the many trails.  It doesn't feel like autumn, but the summer-long drought has made everything look fall-like.

Then we came back to camp to play washers and cook a nice steak supper and enjoyed it at the picnic table instead of inside the camper.

We had a nice surprise Sunday night around 8:30, when the large group parked across from us gathered with three or four guitars, a mandolin and a stand-up bass.  We stayed on our side of the road, but we enjoyed listening to them play all kinds of music, from Steve Earle to Green Day to Merle Haggard to bluegrass standards to gospel.  They were good, and we really enjoyed the free concert.  It was, without doubt, a unique twist to this trip.

Parked at Wallace State Park
Cameron, MO
August 31 - September 3, 2012