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.