On the road again!! We left Thursday, June 17th and overnighted at our kid's house in Keller near Ft. Worth. Getting through Oklahoma as quickly as we could, we headed thru Arkansas heading for Branson. Our route took us thru the Univ. of Ark. campus in Fayetteville. Nearly deserted early on Saturday morning, it looked like a beautiful campus. Here's Razorback Stadium. Next stop was Branson, MO. We stayed at a really neat campground on the west side called Shennanigan's. On of the hosts was a PPL customer and he was thrilled to get a catalog and some instruction on how to find parts on the website. Campsites were carved in the hillsides among the trees. In Branson we saw a show called Pierce Arrow which was 4 guys and one girl singers plus 4 in the band and of course a comedian. Good show. Below is something that wasn't there last year. (that's King Kong, FYI) Leaving Branson we lunched with friends in Springfield, and then went up the road to Meramec State Park (not to be confused with Meramec Caverns, just up the road. Being a weekday, there were few people there. It's right on the Meramec river, but only a couple of access points. Campground was spacious and shady. The River - People made good use of the gravel bars here. There is a very nice cave right at the campground with a 90 minute guided tour. Due to a slight misstep while 'duck-walking' thru a very low part of the cavern, the shirt I was carrying got stained with blood and bat guano, so we did the old 'wash clothes in the ice chest' trick and it worked. Got to get on those bat guano stains right away! We couldn't get wifi or cell phone service at the campground, so went up to the store/grill to do computer work. Next stop, St. Louis. We stayed at the Casino Queen RV campground right across the river from the famed Gateway Arch. What a view from our window. St. Louis was considered the 'gateway to the west'. It was from here that Lewis and Clark began their trek across the uncharted west to find a water route to the Pacific. Visiting the arch has to be the highlight of St. Louis. We had taken the tram ride to the top before in past lives, so we didn't do it this time, but there is an excellent museum under the base as well as two fabulous films, one about the construction of the arch and the other in a 'mini Imax' form about Lewis and Clark's exploration. Really, really interesting. The arch is 630 feet high. Mary Lou had seen something on TV about a famous ice cream place and naturally wanted to go there. We struck out after dark for the 8 miles into the depths of St. Louis neighborhoods. Being lost for awhile due to construction and detours, we finally found the place about 9:30pm. What a surprise!! There must have been at lease a hundred people there, milling around and buying/eating the frozen custard treats. Some were sitting on the ground in the parking lot, in their cars and even across the street. We talked to some natives who said it was like this every night, and even worse after ball games. Amazing. Good but not Blue Bell. St. Louis is a nice place to visit (and I actually lived here almost 40 years ago), but we were ready to get out of the big city. Oh, we did stop in the Casino as we were leaving. ML put a dollar in the penny slot machine and cashed out $6, so that made her day. This report is coming to you from the shores of Mark Twain Lake near Hannibal, Mo. That's where the Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn stories came from.
Stay tuned.
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Who We Are
Chuck and Mary Lou have been traveling in their RV since 2002 and have lately been taking longer, extended trips. This is our way to share our experiences. Trip Reports
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