After time with friends, we decided it was time to get some history lessons.  First up was a stop in Hannibal, MO to learn about the life of Mark Twain.  We stayed at Ray Behrens COE park on Mark Twain lake, just a bit SW of Hannibal.  While a nice park, relatively quiet and first come, first serve FHU sites, their ranger enforcement and cleanup left something to be desired.  Be forewarned, this is a shitty story...literally.  

We arrived early on a Monday, around noon, and snatched up one of the last 2FHU sites.  Our site was about 80ft long and paved.  We had lots of room for the truck and RV. 

We went to Hannibal for a day to explore the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum.  What a well done exhibit and museum!!  If you are ever near Hannibal you really need to stop by.  The self guided tour starts off in the visitors center and then moves into Mark Twain's boyhood home.  Each room in the house is behind glass and set in period style with Twain quotes and figures.  Not only was the inside information well done, outside was just as nice!  Beautiful grounds and gardens, cobblestone streets and interactive exhibits.  In fact, Rick had to get in on painting the fence!  

The museum was a couple blocks away and was just as nice.  Both locations really immerse you in the time and life of Mark Twain and the museum has numerous Twain artifacts as well as several of the Norman Rockwell paintings of Tom Sawyer and the gang.

We really enjoyed walking through the quaint downtown area and found these great little stamps on the sidewalk throughout, celebrating the towns anniversary.  Unfortunately, because of all the flooding with the MIssissippi River, we didn't get to see much of the riverfront because they had the flood walls closed to protect the downtown. 

We also had to check out the Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn statue downtown, again, beautifully landscaped.  The delicious smells got the best of us and we decided to have a late lunch at the Mark Twain Brewery.  The food was really good, especially the pub chips and beer cheese dip. A really cool place on the river.

On our last full day in MO, we explored Mark Twain Lake that we were staying on and the COE Visitor Center.  Wow, what a beautiful visitors center, complete with beautiful views of the lake, a very nice Veterans memorial and plenty of space to have a picnic and enjoy a nice walk through the woods.

With the flooding in the area, the dam on the lake was opened and you could really see the rushing water and just how full the lake was.

From Hannibal, we moved on down the road to Springfield, IL, where we stayed at the IL State Fairgrounds campground.  We stayed there one night last June as well on our way down to Branson.  This time we stayed 3 nights so we could explore more of Springfield and the Lincoln must see's.  At $20 military rate for FHU site, albeit a parking lot, it is a great deal and very convenient and safe.  

​On our first day we set out to explore the Lincoln National Heritage Area and the Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum.  The Heritage area encompasses a couple blocks near downtown and has a visitor center that really does a good job of laying out what Springfield looked like during Lincoln's day to help immerse you in the time period.  You can take a free tour of Lincoln's home with a park ranger.  Their knowledge is wide and deep and Caleb, our guide, really was passionate about the history of Lincoln's life.  It was fascinating to see the home and hear the stories behind it.  What was surreal was touching and seeing items that Lincoln used that were not reproductions or period pieces.  We really enjoyed walking around the area and seeing the other homes.

From the historic area we made a quick trek a couple blocks north to the Lincoln Library and Museum.  It is in the downtown area as well,  and there are several other places to visit in the surrounding area.  Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating and we ducked quickly inside the library to walk around and then over to the museum, which, in our humble opinion, is the crown jewel of the Lincoln experience in Springfield.  It is $15 for adults and $10 for military and worth every penny.  We were also fortunate enough to be there on a day that they put on a 2 man play of the weeks after the Ford Theatre shooting that was very good!
The museum is set to show his early life in one section as you walk through a cabin and then the other section is his presidential days as you walk through the White House.  We both agree that the most moving piece is as you walk into a room that is a replica of the Springfield capital with Lincoln lying in state.  Lights are dim, lilly arrangements are in place and you are walking past the casket.  It was very moving to say the least.  There is also a rotating section that is currently a wonderful gallery on WWII and finally a cool Holavision Theater that has holographic images talking about the history of life and times of Lincoln.  We were told that Disney specialists were brought in to help develop the museum and we could definitely see similarities and the level of detail.

After the museums, we dodged the rain and thunderstorms to get back to the RV and hunker down for the night.  Unfortunately we only were able to do a drive by of the capital and other points of interest. 

The next day started with some rain, but mid morning it stopped so we decided to go out and see Lincoln's Tomb in the Oak Ridge Cemetery.  The cemetery itself is quite impressive and well kept.    The Lincoln Tomb area is very impressive with a beautiful caretakers home that looks like a castle.  

The tomb and monument is amazing!   There is a bust of Lincoln out front that is known for the good luck it gives when you rub it's nose.  When in Rome...

The tomb's exterior is granite and the obelisk stands 117 ft high.  Statues on each corner represents a branch of the military and are cast from metal of 65 cannons donated by the US government.  Very detailed statues!  During the day you can go into the tomb, which was quite impressive and chilling at the same time.  At every turn there are various statues of Lincoln at various times of his life and then you enter the tomb area, which everyone immediately goes silent out of respect.  Indeed a beautiful tribute and well designed.

With the weather still in our favor,  we headed over to the IL State Military Museum.  We were fortunately there on a weekend when veterans and reenactors were set up there showing their period pieces and military vehicles.  The museum itself was really nicely done and takes you through the military history of Illinois' military units through the years.   They even have the gun that Lincoln fired on the White House grounds and his target.

By this time we were getting super hungry and found a great little place near downtown.  Boone's Saloon was a great find and highly recommended.  Rick had the Mushroom Bourbon burger and I had the Bourbon Chicken Club wrap.  Oh man...both were amazing and we were stuffed!

From Springfield, we moved on to the greater Kankakee area for a quick visit with my brother and stayed at the Kankakee South KOA.  There is not alot of campground choices in the area, so this was about our only option for a spot on a Monday night and we had FHU to boot.  Just as we pulled in to our site, the sky let loose with a gully washer for about a half hour.  Not really knowing how the weather would be in the morning, we stayed hooked up to the truck as the site was pretty level.  That night we went out for a mexican dinner with my brother and retired early, since I was not feeling well.

The next morning we moved on closer to our destination of Elkhart, IN.  We stayed for a night at Potato Creek State Park.  We had stayed at the park back in 2014 for our annual family camp outing and really enjoyed ourselves so we came back.  The park encompasses a 6 square mile area (3,840 acres), and has a really nice lake for small boats or kayaks.  There are several trails, bike trails, camp store, cross country skiing, swimming and camping.  They have over 200 sites that are all pretty much 60 ft long, but some of the sites, based on angle and trees may not accommodate a big rig very well.  AGAIN, while we were there, it rained.  I swear it was following us.  Lots of large puddles and sites that were not habitable until the waters went down.  Luckily the site we picked did not have any standing water and we parked for the night.  Again, with the unstable weather, we decided not to unhook fo the night and hunkered down for the night.

Next up...Elkhart, IN and a big upgrade for our home!

Friends, Fun and Food...LOTS of Food!!!   That is how I would describe our latest adventure.

We continued on in our trek to meet up with friends and family.  We left KC on our way to Lake of the Ozarks to spend 12 days with Rick's buddies from the Army.  We were originally slated to meet up at the 11th ACR Blackhorse reunion in Las Vegas but an unexpected medical issue sidelined one of his friends, so we brought the reunion to him in MO.   That's just what troopers do.  We try to meet up every year at the Blackhorse reunions to reconnect.  Next year is in CO Springs, which we are looking forward to visiting again!

​We booked our stay at Lake of the Ozarks State Park, which is a really nice park with a marina and boat rentals.  The campground is well kept and the sites are really nice, except some are a bit unlevel.  A bit is being kind for our site!  Our poor Solitude had to kneel down and even with the front being on the ground, we were still a bit unlevel front to back but we made it work.  We had 50 amp hookup and a water spigot behind us, across the road.  Mid-week we combined hoses with our friends next door and were able to refill the fresh water tanks.  Thankfully we had our portable waste tote, affectionately called "Lucy Loo", to empty tanks.  As a full timer, we focus on things like this and fortunately, with having Lucy Loo, we have more flexibility in booking sites without full hookups for longer periods of time.  Should Lucy Loo ever take a crap, haha, see what I did there,  we have our eye on a fancy "Lula Loo" from Camco Rhino that has beefier wheels and has gotten great reviews.

We enjoyed alot of time relaxing and chatting at the campground...and lots of eating!!!  Everyone brought their A game for food!  Even the deer wanted to see what we were doing.

We took a day to rent a pontoon from one of the state park locations and get out on the lake.  It was a beautiful weekday, in which the lake was a bit quieter from the weekend warriors.  Little did we know that we were in for a show near the Ft Leonardwood Lake of the Ozarks Rec Area portion of the lake.  They were conducting Engineer Sapper Training , which is water insertion training to clear beach obstacles.  They jumped out of a Chinook into the water with a full pack and equipment and swim to shore undetected.  It was thrilling to see the Chinook fly low over the lake and hover soo low to the water.

We also took a day trip to Ha Ha Tonka State Park which is on the south side of the Lake.  This park has several hiking trails with many geologic features such as sinkholes, caves, natural bridge and historic castle remains!  This 60 room, european castle was built back in 1905 by a wealthy KC businessman,  Robert M. Snyder.  The building was halted a year later when Snyder dies in one of the first auto accidents in MO.  His son finished the castle in 1922 and was eventually leased as a hotel. In 1942, the castle caught fire by a spark from a chimney and the carriage house also caught fire that day.  In 1976 the water tower was set on fire by vandals.  

The stone work on the buildings was amazing as he brought masons from Europe to assist in construction.  Views from the castle on the rocky bluff, overlooking the lake were stunning.  It was really a neat place to visit!

We also took time for a nice dinner out at JB Hooks overlooking the lake.  We started early for happy hour out on the patio overlooking the lake but before too long we were back inside as the storms came over the lake.  Dinner was amazing and we all left stuffed and happy!  If you are ever in the Lake of the Ozarks area, this is a must stop!  They have a great bar atmosphere with live music.

On one of our final days, we took a drive to check out the Osceola Cheese Store to get some cheese.  Little did we know they had samples of every cheese, which was at least 40 different kinds!  They originally started out by making their cheeses on location but after they sold the cows, they gave their recipes to a dairy in WI to make their cheese for them. No wonder the cheese was soo good, it was made in WI!!!  Even though we tasted just about every cheese they had, and some wine, we did save room for lunch at the Dam Restaurant and Bar, in Warsaw, MO which was overlooking the Harry Truman Reservoir and next door to a swinging bridge.  After again eating some great food (see a trend here for alot of food focus), we decided to check out the bridge to walk off our lunch.  It was originally built in the early 1900's and rebuilt in 1924 by the same man after a tornado destroyed it.

One of our final nights, we had a wonderful italian dinner at Kirk and Betsy's house in nearby Jefferson City.  Prior to dinner we stopped by the MO capitol building to take in the MO museum inside.  Unfortunately the capitol was undergoing some extensive exterior renovations and was completely tarped.  The museum is free and was nicely done.  One side was MO natural resources and the other was MO history as well as the role MO played in the military engagements and wars throughout the years.  They even had a beautiful brass model of the USS MO and the actual bell from the ship.

Dinner was fantastic and again we all enjoyed each other's company and ate too much!  We also got pictures of the troopers with their sassy Cavalry stetsons.  Thank you Kirk & Betsy for a wonderful evening!!

Our 12 days with friends passed by all too quickly and we are already planning our get together next year in CO Springs and a meet up with Bill and Denise while we are in TX later this year.  Up next, making our way across the midwest to family and an upgrade on our rv.

We have been in total tourist mode for almost 2 months and now we are shifting gears into visiting friends and family.  It is great that our house has wheels because we can see folks we haven't seen in awhile!

We left Colorado and headed to a stop over in Ellis, KS, on our way to NE to visit a dear friend.  Lakeside Campground in Ellis was only meant to be a quick one night stop to rest and then back to the windshield for lots more driving.  Funny how when you like a place, in this lifestyle, you can change your plans and stay awhile.  We liked it soo much, we ended up staying 3 nights!  

This delightful little park has 17 W/E pull thru sites which is run by the cute little city of Ellis.  It is a first come, first serve system with a payment box at the entrance.  There is a dump station, bathhouse, aside a beautiful little river AND has free WIFI!!!  Holy Cow!!!  All for $20 a night and let me tell you, they are popular!  Soo much that they have plans to expand and offer a couple more sites.   They have a storm shelter at the church next door and a really nice police officer that comes through often and he alerts you to severe weather.  True to Kansas, we had 3 tornado sirens in less than 3 hours!

We had a great time exploring this little town and nearby Hays, KS.  We finally saw Avengers End Game for a sweet price of $3.69 each.  Yup, that's their price!  We went to the Ellis Railroad Museum.  Ellis was a big stop on the railroad back in the day because it was halfway between Denver and Kansas City and had a water supply for the steam engine.

We also visited the boyhood home of Walter Chrysler.  They had a nice little museum that walks through his life and also the Chrysler Corporation.  Did you know they produce tanks??  Yup  They also were heavily involved with NASA back in the day.

Since we decided to stay in Ellis for 3 nights, we had a longer than usual drive to my dear friend, Lauralie and family's home in Eagle, NE but we enjoyed driving the back roads of KS and NE, even if my navigating led us onto a dirt road!  We spent one night at Firefly Meadows, which is a campground and motel/cabin that is getting a second life.  The owner is really dedicated to making it a great campground and the bathrooms are beautiful with rain shower heads to make for a luxurious experience.  It is right off of I80 in Central NE.

We finally arrived to me friends home and after not seeing each other for about 10 years, we picked right up where we left off without a beat!  It was great to just relax, chat and laugh!  We also loved earning our keep!  Rick stained some rocking chairs,  worked on the pool and I cooked dinner.  It was  nice to hang out at their beautiful house but it did take a moment to realize I didn't need to look for the foot pedal to flush the toilet!  They took us to a delicious greek restaurant in Lincoln called the Parthenon, where we all fully enjoyed our food and the AMAZING desserts! 

​​Rick and Dave took a day to go visit the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum.  Both being military veterans, they had a great time exploring all the aircrafts and missiles displays.  The Strategic Air Command was integral part of the US strategic deterrence in the Cold War.  They have the world's largest collection of aircrafts and artifacts from the Cold War.

While the guys went to the museum, the girls spent some precious time at the pool.  Floating, reading, relaxing, with an emphasis on relaxing.  Our 4 days went by way too fast and we bid farewell and see you next time.  Thanks Lauralie, Dave and Grace (of course Seamus and Buddy too) for the hospitality!

Our next destination was a 2 night stop at Lake Paradise Resort.  You know how sometimes you get that great campground and then others just don't quite live up to expectations???  This one was the "other".  I am sure that in its heyday it was an amazing place.  But now it looks like the resort from Dirty Dancing, left to age for numerous years.  It is HUGE!  There are almost 300 FHU sites and probably half are overgrown.  It used to be a private resort with a huge 500,000 gallon pool that sits in a lake and a restaurant.  Really cool in the day, but empty.  Now there are maybe 50ish sites occupied by full time residents and seasonal folks.  One plus it has is the peaceful countryside it sits in.  No freeway noise here!  It has been through several owners and hopefully one day the right owner will bring it back to its heyday.

​We chose this Passport America campground because it was half off with the program and because it was close to another friend I wanted to see.  Paula is a gem of an employee turned friend I met while working at United Healthcare and expanding my markets into KS and NE.  She was such a trooper to take on these markets with me!  It was challenging, but we had a good time and lots of laughs and adventures!  We met Paula and her husband for dinner and were sooo busy catching up and eating some great BBQ at Jack Stack in Lee's Summit, MO that we forgot to take pictures of us or the food!!  Oh well, next time we visit!

We are now off to spend almost two weeks in Lake of the Ozarks with Rick's buddies from the Army, who he served with in the 11th ACR in Germany guarding the East/West border...Guardians of the Frontier of Freedom.

​We are also celebrating a year on the road!  WOW!!!!  Time has flown!

kWe were excited to get to Colorado Springs and set up camp at Mountaindale Cabins and RV Resort so we could catch up with friends, Tom & Melanie Golden of Tom Golden Travel.  We met Tom & Melanie at the Grand Design National Rally last August in Elkhart, IN and immediately hit it off.  I am sure the "little beers" had something to do with it!  We then met back up with them later in the month for dinner and to help them celebrate their anniversary in Southern IN.  We also met up again in Houston, TX in January for dinner.  It amazing how paths cross with fellow travelers!  BTW...if you ever need someone to help you plan a vacation, especially a cruise here or abroad, Tom is your man!  Unlike some travel agents, Tom and Melanie actually actively cruise, are knowledgeable about the various tour companies and can help you determine which one is best for you, your likes and your budget.  A European River Cruise may just be in our future!  

After successfully dodging some nasty thunderstorms in southern Colorado, we arrived at Mountaindale and were escorted to our beautiful FHU, pull thru site in the back side of the park next to the rather large "hill/mountain".  The spot was beautiful and quiet, however, because we had the hill between us and the Colorado Springs cell towers, we had very hit or miss cell service, even with our cell booster.  It was a good thing the park had good wifi so we could have online access.  Because of the hilly area, several of the sites, like ours are terraced with a natural boulder look.  A nicely kept park and they were continually doing some sort of landscaping or maintenance.  In fact, when they moved a camper in the spot behind us, they came back with a bobcat and graded the site and road gravel.  ​

​The first night we arrived, the Colorado Springs area had a freak late May snow storm and some areas north and west of the city got as much as 16 inches of snow overnight.  We were lucky to only get a dusting but we took a drive into the city the next day to take in the beauty of the snow.  We went for a drive thru North Cheyenne Canon Park to see the Helen Hunt Falls.  

We also made a stop at Fort Carson to visit their free 4th Infantry Division Museum at the visitor center.  It was very well done and was interesting to talk with the soldiers there about the history of their unit.

We spent quality time with Tom and Melanie as they were kind enough to offer their RV as the landing spot for us to watch the Milwaukee Bucks play in the NBA playoffs a couple nights, but alas, it was not in the cards for them to be in the championship game.

We also took a day and ventured down to Canon City to the Royal Gorge Bridge.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature made sure that we knew she was in charge and the day was windy and cold with spotty, light rain and temps in the 40's.  However, we soldiered through and had a good time exploring the gorge.  We were fortunate to get a gondola ride up and over the gorge before the windy conditions shut down the gondola.  Our ticket also got us into the movie about the history of the gorge which was soo interesting and the big fire of 2013 where most all of the buildings and gondolas were destroyed, but the bridge was saved.  Interestingly, they left some of the scorched trees in place near the bridge as a spooky reminder of the devastation and yet beauty left by the fire.  

Unfortunately the campground was booked for Memorial Day weekend and we had to say goodbye to Tom and Melanie and head northeast of Colorado Springs to Elizabeth, CO and an interesting little city park where most of the residents were there permanently.  Our site was fine for a couple days but I would not pay $35 for that again.  They did not have fire pits or sewer hook up, there is enough road noise to make it too loud to sit outside and enjoy yourselves and our neighbor looked to be a hoarder.  I will spare you pictures of their delightful homestead.  But, like I said, it was fine for a couple nights.

While in Elizabeth, we visited Castlewood Canyon State Park for a wonderful day out hiking.  The weather was beautiful and we got soo caught up in the hike that we forgot to take pictures!  Here are a couple pictures of the rocky canyon and the original Lucas family homestead.

Our last Colorado stop was the National Museum of WW II Aviation.  We really did not know what to expect and thought it would be just a small museum with a couple of planes to walk thru and check out but it was soo much more!  If you ever go, do take the docent led tours.  The tour is 2 hours long and they have a wealth of information and demonstrations.   It is absolutely worth the $12admission and $10 for military.  They are undergoing a large expansion so that they can display even more planes, which they have stored in other areas.  They also have air shows every other year and there is one this fall.  Most of the planes there have a storied past and have been lovingly restored.  They even have simulators and other military vehicles, which Rick could not resist sitting in.   We had a great time listening to the history of the war from the docent and how these planes played a crucial part in it.

We enjoyed our time in Colorado and look forward to exploring more of the western half of the state in the future, with perhaps, better weather!  On to Kansas and Nebraska!