Missouri, St. Louis - Sunday, May 7, 2017 - Casino Queen RV Park

We left Memphis early Friday morning.  It was a nice day to travel except for the wind.  We were getting just 5 miles per gallon because of all the wind resistance.  When we were hauling the motorcycle on the lift we would get 8 mpg or a little over.  Since we have started pulling the Jeep a little over 7 mpg is the best we can do.

Had a little slow down coming into St. Louis.  We want to get into the campground early this afternoon because we plan on getting to the 69^th Annual St. Louis Square & Round Dance Jamboree later on this evening.

It’s a good thing we waited until Friday to travel.  Our route was flooded shut on Thursday, all was good on Friday.  We did see some major flooding around Cape Girardeau, MO when we came through there, but all in all we didn’t see as much flooding as we expected.  The Mississippi River is definitely up.

I know we aren’t all the way back in Indiana yet, but I’ll go out on a limb and say our trip back this year has been pretty good.  We’ve been lucky to get into good campgrounds and avoid the really bad weather.  We haven’t had any major coach problems.  We are going to have to look for a trim piece around one of our headlights, the wind blew one off on Friday.  We heard a noise when it came off, I thought it was inside the coach and got up to see what had shifted – everything looked secure.  Greg thought the sound came from a passing tractor trailer.  When we stopped at a rest area for lunch we saw what the problem was.  We also got a ding in our windshield, a truck passing in the opposite direction threw a rock.  I could see it coming and just prayed it would only ding and not shatter.

The campground where we stay when we are in the St. Louis area is at the Casino Queen Casino which is actually in East St. Louis, IL.  If trains bother you it might not be the campground for you since one runs right next to the campground.  It does run rather late, but we stay up until midnight usually so it doesn’t create any problem for us.  Also, if you plan on staying here, don’t rely on your GPS to get you all the way here.  It will get you off the interstate correctly, but from that point on be sure to watch for the casino signs.  It is correct until it tells you to make a left turn on Continental Grain Road.  There is a right turn at a stop light to get you on the road where you can turn on Continental Grain Road that the GPS misses.  There is a casino sign for the right turn so watch for it.

We got to the Jamboree on Friday night in time to dance from 7:30 to 10:30 pm.  We went back on Saturday right after lunch to take advantage of some workshops.  We took a break to watch a workshop for round dancers.  The crowd was a little sparse here.  This room was filled with square dancers from 7:30 to 10:30 on Saturday evening.  What a great time.  They had dance halls for beginner dancers, plus dancers and advanced dancers.  We are plus dancers, which is where most people are.  The callers on Saturday were speedy callers so you really had to be paying attention.

Today we are resting, doing some laundry and watching the NASCAR race – go Dale, Jr.!!

We are leaving here Monday morning heading to Indiana.  We’ll be spending at least our first two weeks in Indiana at Timberline Campground just outside of Chesterfield.

Illinois, East St. Louis - Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - Casino Queen RV Park

We saw a few more of these beautiful Kansas sunsets than we had planned.

We got all packed up and ready to leave last Friday morning.  The last thing to do was let the air system raise us up so we weren’t sitting right on our tires so we could move – didn’t happen.  One of the air bags had a leak.  A service call from a company David uses for his farm equipment and trucks confirmed we needed an air bag replaced.  Naturally, the closest air bag that would work was in Chicago – it would be Monday afternoon before it would be into Pratt, KS.  We unpacked and settled in for a few more days.  The air bag arrived promptly and installation was quick so we were on our way Monday afternoon.  Really enjoyed our stay.

Our windshield was a little streaked and bug splattered but the trip through the Ozark Mountains was still beautiful.

We spent Tuesday evening in Branson at the Musicland Kampground.

This is a really hilly, wooded campground.  Thankfully, the guy who guided us to our site had done this a lot he was able to guide Greg while he was blindside backing into the site.

We just barely fit, the bike is hanging over into the trees.  Luckily, we didn’t plan on unloading the bike for just a one night stay.

The campground is located just behind the Titanic Museum.  We didn’t tour the museum, entrance fee was $25 each.  It might very well have been worth it but I wasn’t willing to take a chance.

I was, however, willing to take a tour of Stone Hill Winery which included a free wine tasting.  We spent our money more wisely on wine.

I was amazed that a tourist town such as Branson had such poor sidewalks

Or, no sidewalks at all.  It is definitely not a walking friendly town.  Before we left Kansas we had worked up to 3.25 miles a day, but there are a lot of steep inclines here that we aren't used to.

From the winery we walked for a while.  Paschettis Restaurant looks pretty interesting from the outside.

The Hollywood Wax Museum also looks interesting.

King Kong close up.  The sun wasn’t really in the right position to get a good shot of him.

In the evening we walked to the Clay Cooper Theater to see the Haygoods.

The Haygoods is a family of six very talented siblings who sing and play all kinds of instruments.  We highly recommend this show if you are in the area.

Tonight we will be looking at the arch from our site at the Casino Queen RV Park.

We are getting closer to Indiana by the day.  We will be at the Caboose Campground in Rensselaer, IN on Friday.