Reunion With A Friend & Traveling Through The Midwest

(Whitehall Bay, Kansas) 54 degrees, cloudy and windy

John was looking forward to seeing a friend that he was stationed with Gunter Air Force Station in the 70's.  They had corresponded over the years but had only seen each other one time.  We traveled to Lebanon Missouri to meet up with Tim and his family. 

We stayed at the Bennett Spring State Park.  It is a very nice, well maintained  campground.  We saw lots of folks busy fishing for trout.  Our site had  full hook ups site that over looked the river ($26/night). 

Bennett Spring Campsite

John & Tim

Tim and his family arrived shortly later.  They brought us lots of treats (fresh ham, bacon, pork steaks, eggs, and deer meat).  We had such a nice visit.  We have since enjoyed several meals from all that they brought us.  It is the first time I've had fresh eggs. There was even a blue one. 

Sara #1 Girl Scout

Their daughter Sara is a very active teenager and especially enjoys Girl Scouts.  She had earned so many badges. This is a picture of just her "fun"     badges. 

It rained most of the time we were visiting.  Late in the evening we decided to move up to a "higher" campsite due to river starting to flood.  We are very respectful of the power of Mother Nature. 

We will definitely return here on our way back East.  It was fun to meet Tim and his family and we would love to spend more time at this park. 

Dogwoods in bloom

We decided to get off I-70 and traveled on a less hectic and more scenic freeway -US 400.  There are many Corps of Engineer Parks (COE) in Kansas and many of our friends had suggested that we try to include them as much as possible.  Fall River Lake is surrounded by four COE parks.  We decided to stay at Whitehall Bay. It overlooks the lake and has full hook up sites for $9/night with an Access Pass ($18 regular).  That's a great price!

This campground is certainly off the beaten path.  Most of the road was paved and even went right over the dam.  Here is John driving our rig over the dam.  That's a first!

Except for the camphost we were the only other campers.  Cool Beans! 

Whitehall Bay Campsite

We enjoyed our stay here and the peace and quiet.  Our previous neighbor left lots of firewood.  We certainly did not want that to go to waste.  We marinated and grilled the pork steaks given to us by Tim and had a nice evening watching the sunset. 

We checked out the other campgrounds but this one is certainly the best.  Almost all of the sites have view of the lake.  In the summer this can be a very busy place.  The camphost said the major holidays were already sold out. 

Wildflowers were plentiful. 

Prairie

We enjoyed this special place very much.  This was a perfect time of year to visit.

Mother Nature Was In Full Fury

(St. Louis, Missouri) 53 degrees, rain, hail, flooding, and yes tornado's

On Good Friday a huge tornado tore through St. Louis and touched down in four areas  Our weather radio was giving constant updates to a ever changing weather pattern.  The Air Force base where we are staying was not hit directly but there were thousand of homes that were destroyed and the St. Louis Airport had to closed due to severe damage to it's facilities. 

A bag was packed with  some essentials and we were listening closely to the weather report when security police knocked on our door and suggested evacuating to a stronger building.  They did not have to ask us twice.  We were grateful for the offer and special attention.  It was the worst tornado in this area for 40 years but amazingly there were  very few injuries. 

We had purchased a First Alert Radio when we first started full timing.  It can be programmed to your specific area and  county with a S.A.M.E -specific area message encoding (these codes are found on the Internet and are easy to enter into the radio). This radio  also allows you to select which warnings you want to hear. 

We  had read on other blogs how important it is to know what county you are camping in and where the nearest shelter is located.  We had a bag, computer, coat, and shoes right at the door.   The slides were pulled in and we were ready to leave at a moments notice.  Some things are out of your control...like Mother Nature but being prepared as much as possible helps give us a little peace of mind.  After a couple hours at the shelter we came back to the rig and tried to fall asleep. 

The next day we decided to go to the St. Louis Art Museum.  It seemed like a good choice on such  a rainy day and the admission was free.  The museum is located in Forest Park and is a very lovely area.  There  We have not gone to a museum in a long time but plan to visit more in the future.  It really was fun. 

Forest Park

St.Louis Art Museum

St. Louis

The museum was built in 1904 and was one of the buildings during the Worlds Fair.  There is a large expansion underway.  Here are a few examples of the art work and sculptures on display 

In the afternoon we went to the Gateway to the West.  This very famous arch is a National Park and a well photographed landmark.  John went to the very top and took these amazing photographs (click play to watch video).  I decided to enjoy it from street level.  The cost is $10 to take the five passenger elevator to the top.  ($3.00 discount with a National Park Pass).  There is also a  museum that commemorates Lewis and Clark and the building of the arch. 

Happy Easter to you and yours!  

Missing Those Palm Trees and Tradewinds

(Scott AFB, Illinois) 63 degrees, rainy and chilly

We have traveled over 1500 miles from Key West.  What a difference a few miles can make.  Gone are the shorts and flip flops.  Now it is jeans, sneakers, rain coat, and umbrella.  The weather radio got fired up yesterday too. Right now there are hail, high winds,  heavy rains, and flood warnings. Sheesh! 

It seemed like a good morning just to stay put and bake some cinnamon rolls in the oven.  With a few cups of and a serenade from this little bird our new weather pattern did not seem as bad. 

Spotted Towhee

This is our first sighting of a Spotted Towhee. We ended up having to cover the mirrors. He was working himself into a frenzy fighting his reflection. 

We are camping at Scotts Air Force Base in Illinois.  It is very close to St. Louis.  We stopped here for a few days and had dinner with some dear friends who used to live in Indianapolis.  Chet and Chris moved to St. Louis a few years ago and it was so good to see them.  Chris and I used to work together at St. Vincent Carmel. 

We ate at a fantastic Italian restaurant called Favazza's in St. Louis.  Our meal was delicious and it was so nice to catch up with each other's lives and adventures. 

The famcamp at the base is very nice.  There is water and electric and the sites are good size and shaded.  Only downside was we are not able to get a signal with our satellite 



Scott AFB Famcamp



Jimmy is a little sad about his new surroundings.  The weather is not going to be very good and this will prevent much exploring over the next few days.  

Earlier in the week we stayed at two KOA campgrounds.  One was in Forsyth Georgia.  It certainly was not a very level campground (check out our picnic table) but it worked as a good over night stop  One nice perk was warm chocolate chip cookies delivered to our door by one of the workampers.  Yummy!

KOA Forsyth Georgia

Small catch and release fishing pond

Last night we stayed at the Kentucky Lakes/Prizer Point KOA in Cadiz, Kentucky.  This huge campground is not far from the interstate but seemed very much off the beaten path. Most of the sites overlook the  Intercoastal Waterway  How can that be...you ask?  Amazingly this waterway will eventually lead to the Mississippi River.

It is a very pretty setting with lots to offer especially during the summer time.  There are a wide variety of boats to rent (house, pontoon, paddle) and over 150 cabins. Their season is just about to start and we loved seeing the dogwood in bloom streaking across the forest like white lightening. Everything just looks so green and fresh. 

Office and boat center

Kentucky Lake/Prizer Point KOA

We have seen a lot over the past week and plan to take a few days off before heading further west.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Easter!

We Have Left Florida & Are Heading West to Colorado

(Fortsyth, Georgia) 87 degrees, hot and hazy

We left Florida a few days ago and are on our way to our workamping job in Colorado at KOA Cripple Creek.  We are excited about this opportunity but will really miss Florida.  We have had such a wonderful time and Key West was certainly the highlight  Here are a few  pictures of some of the popular sites. 

Camping at the Navy base was perfect.  It is located so close to Key West and one day we enjoyed watching a parachute drop right outside our rig.



Our cute neighbor

Bahia Honda State Park

When Debbie was here we also took a day trip to Bahia Honda State Park. It is about an hour from Key West and the beaches were spectacular.  There is a campground  that is very popular with sites right on the water.  Reservations go very quickly 11 months in advance! You can rent kayaks or go snorkeling by boat out to a reef.  The 8:30 snorkel trip is free.

Here is a video of our last sunset in Key West. We also got to watch a Navy helicopter participate in an exercise.  He was dropping divers into the water and then pulling them back up.  Very cool!

As you can imagine, we were very reluctant to leave, but our workamping job starts May 15th and  it was time to go.  We decided to take our time and average about 4 hours a day on the road.  KOA provided us with five free stay certificates.  This is a nice perk with KOA when you are traveling between jobs. 

Our first stop with the Miami Everglades Campground.  It is a very pretty campground and the facility was well maintained and spotless.  Rate was $41/night (Good Sam's rate) It is nice to see grass again.  There were lots of workampers and they were very friendly and welcoming. 

Miami Everglades Campsite

Our welcoming gator



The  next night we stayed at the KOA in Daytona Beacb.  It is a nice campground in a good location.  Sites are rather close together with very little shade except for the tent sites.  The rates are about $45 per night.  Expect to pay around $100 a night during race time.  It has a nice pool and camp store. 

KOA Daytona Beach

Office, pook, and camp store

We stopped here to see our Eustis NOMADS friends Fran and Randy  It was so good to see them.  They will soon be leaving for Africa for a mission trip and bird safari. Fran is making 350 bead bracelets to give to the village where they will be working.  She is amazing!

Example of the bracelet Fran is making as a gifl

We went out to dinner at Boondocks (great restaurant, see Daytona previous post) and afterwards took us to their beautiful condominium.  They have a spectacular view of the intracoastal water way and area.  On Sunday we went to church with them and saw a lovely Palm Sunday program.  It was a great visit and we are planning to get together in White Sands New Mexico this fall.  An Alaska adventure might be in our future too. 

Randy and Fran

We have a long journey ahead of us.  It seemed like a good idea to have some maintenance  done on our diesel engine.   In Ocala we had an appointment to have the hydraulic oil changed and some service on the A/C.  They have a nice campground for their customers with 50 amp service and water.  In the morning they quickly checked us in and had us back on the road by 1 pm.  The service was top notch and we were very impressed. 

Cummins Ocala Florida

Cummins complimentary campground

We are now in Georgia and were invited to stay with  our blogging friends Al and Karen (Florida-Georgia, Camping, Kayaking, and Exploring).  We saw them earlier this year at Lazy Days and have followed their blog for a long time.  They have a lovely home for sale in Cairo Georgia that is under contract right now.  Hopefully it will close soon.  They plan to full time and are so excited.  They are so busy right now selling most of their belongings and deciding what to store.  We sure remember what that was like and tried to let them know their efforts will  all be worth it soon. 

They graciously found a little time to see us and invited us to stay for the night.  There home is in the country and is a lovely, peaceful oasis.  Jimmy had a great time running all around checking out everything. 

Our "campsite"

View from their porch

They took us to Thomasville, a lovely and very popular city.  They told us their our many plantations in this area and at one time was the vacation home for the Vanderbelts and other wealthy people before Florida became so popular. 

For breakfast today Karen suggested that I try a grits cup for breakfast.  That was a yummy combination of grits, bacon, cheese and eggs.  I liked it.  Afterwards,we went to a pretty park that was in full bloom.  The rose festival is this weekend.  I found it so amazing to see all the roses in bloom in April.  

 

We then went to see a huge live oak tree that is over 330 years old.  It was a sight to behold and is well loved and cared for by this town.  It was impossible to take a good photograph of it.  It was huge!

Al and Karen

We wish them all the best and hope to see them on the road soon.  Thank you for the warm hospitality. 

We are slowly making our way towards Colorado.  Check back to see more of our travels.  Thanks for stopping by today.